AUSTIN, Texas — Cadillac Hertz Team Jota powered the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R to a dramatic second-place finish at the 2026 Lone Star Le Mans, capturing a long-awaited home-soil podium in Round 5 of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Circuit of the Americas.

Driven by the formidable trio of Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais, and Jack Aitken, the V-8-powered Hypercar finished just 4.471 seconds behind the winning #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P after six relentless hours of heat, strategy shifts, and late-race attrition on the 20-turn Texas road course.

Rollercoaster Battle at COTA

Starting from the second row after missed pole position by mere thousandths of a second in qualifying, Cadillac established itself as a constant threat early. The race quickly transformed into a strategic game of chess as varying pit-stop windows, yellow-flag periods, and virtual safety cars shuffled the Hypercar pack continuously across the top 10.

Toyota Racing appeared set to sweep the victory late in the fifth hour, holding a comfortable lead. However, mechanical heartbreak struck the leader with just 11 minutes remaining, triggering a late sprint for the finish line.

Jack Aitken took the wheel for the final stint, holding off a charging Alpine A424 to lock in second place.

"It was a race full of ups and downs... We were constantly fluctuating between the lead and the lower positions in the top 10, so it was hard to predict where we’d end up," said Aitken post-race. "But we fought our way through and secured a fantastic podium finish on home soil."

Lone Star Le Mans – Top Hypercar Finishers

Position	Car #	Team	Drivers	Gap / Laps
1st	#50	Ferrari AF Corse	Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen	167 Laps
2nd	#38	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais	+4.471s
3rd	#35	Alpine Endurance Team	António Félix da Costa, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi	+6.116s
4th	#007	Aston Martin THOR Team	Tom Gamble, Harry Tincknell	+9.045s
5th	#36	Alpine Endurance Team	Jules Gounon, Frédéric Makowiecki, Victor Martins	+10.885s

Momentum Heading into Fuji

The runner-up finish marks Cadillac's strongest performance of the WEC season. Complementing the podium effort, the sister #12 Cadillac entry also gathered valuable championship points, crossing the finish line inside the top 10.

With the American round concluded, Cadillac Racing heads into the final stretch of the world championship calendar with renewed momentum as the series travels to Japan for the 6 Hours of Fuji.