Ricky Taylor will slot into the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R for next week’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas, replacing Alex Lynn as the regular driver continues recovering from surgery. Taylor, fresh off an IMSA victory, joins Norman Nato and Will Stevens for the sixth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship.
It is a calculated substitution, not a panicked one. Lynn’s return is expected for Barcelona later in the season, and Taylor is anything but an unknown quantity in this car. He knows the Cadillac V-Series.R from his IMSA duties and worked alongside the JOTA squad at Le Mans earlier this year as a teammate entry.
Nato was blunt about the fit: “He knows the car very well, is fresh from winning in IMSA, so I have no doubt he will be a great addition.
The timing matters. JOTA finally cracked the podium in São Paulo, the No. 12 finishing third and the No. 38 right behind in fourth. That P3/P4 sweep was the team’s strongest combined result of 2026, and they head to Austin with real momentum for the first time this season.
COTA presents a distinct kind of torture. The 20-turn, 3.4-mile layout features rapid corner sequences that hammer tires relentlessly. Chief Engineer Jeromy Moore described the core problem plainly: the short straights between corners never let tire temperatures cool down, and when ambient heat in central Texas piles on top of that, the rubber starts sliding, generating even more heat.
It is a vicious cycle that rewards teams with the best tire management, not just the fastest raw pace.
Last year’s race was soaked by rain, which muddied the competitive picture. Dry or wet, Earl Bamber says the Cadillac showed strong pace in both conditions. Bamber will share the No. 38 with Jack Aitken, who has never raced at COTA, and Sebastien Bourdais, who knows the track intimately from his years in American single-seater racing.
Bourdais offered the most candid preview of the weekend. COTA’s notorious bumps shift from year to year as the surface settles unevenly over its clay-heavy soil. Teams cannot fully prepare until they feel the track under their wheels on Friday.
Weather is the other wildcard. Austin in early September can deliver triple-digit heat or sudden, violent thunderstorms with little notice.
For Cadillac, this is a home race on two levels. The brand carries the weight of GM’s motorsport identity in WEC, and it now also fields a Formula 1 team, raising the corporate stakes around every result. A podium in Brazil was a relief. A repeat on American soil, in front of Cadillac’s own fans, would be something more than that.
Taylor’s insertion into the lineup gives the No. 12 crew a driver who can adapt quickly. He has raced alongside Stevens multiple times in IMSA and knows the rhythms of endurance stints in this chassis. “I’ll be doing my best to help contribute to another good result,” Taylor said, keeping expectations measured.
The six-hour race rolls off at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, September 6th, after qualifying and Hyperpole on Saturday. Two free practice sessions on Friday will be the first chance for Aitken and Taylor to calibrate themselves to the track and the Texas heat.
JOTA has shown pace all season but has struggled to convert speed into silverware until São Paulo. The question now is whether that Brazilian breakthrough was a one-off or the start of a second-half push that could reshape the manufacturer standings. Austin will start to answer that.
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