JOTA – Syndication Server

Opportunities knocking for Ilott in IndyCar, WEC

Another stirring drive at the Indianapolis 500 has only helped Callum Ilott’s stock value rise in the NTT IndyCar Series. Starting 15th for the Arrow McLaren team, Ilott was the first car to visit pit lane – during the parade laps – to deal with a …

Another stirring drive at the Indianapolis 500 has only helped Callum Ilott’s stock value rise in the NTT IndyCar Series.

Starting 15th for the Arrow McLaren team, Ilott was the first car to visit pit lane — during the parade laps — to deal with a failed weight jacker, and after starting from the back of the 33-car field, he spent the race going backwards and forwards on the way to finishing 11th, one spot better than in 2023 when he went from 27th to 12th for Juncos Hollinger Racing.

With an interesting free agent pool that includes 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi plus race winners Christian Lundgaard and Rinus VeeKay, Ilott is drawing plenty of attention from IndyCar teams, and in a new twist, opportunities of equal or greater size are emerging for him in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Entering the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ilott and his teammates at the privateer Hertz Team JOTA program are holding a prime second place in the WEC’s Hypercar championship after securing a second to open the season and a win at the most recent round with their hybrid Porsche 963.

As a result, the lifelong open-wheeler has become the big new name in international endurance racing and is being courted by major factories to join their Hypercar programs, and has IndyCar teams inquiring about his availability.

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It comes in stark contrast to where he sat nearly 10 months ago when his relationship with the Juncos Hollinger team was at an all-time low. After a season filled with disagreements with the outfit over its handling of social media attacks fired at Ilott by some of his teammate’s fans, he split with the team — despite have one more year on his contract — as the situation became untenable for the Briton.

“I think things are not just looking up career-wise, but also mentally,” Ilott told RACER. “You have to hit some lows to feel good about the position you’re in, and JOTA helped me out of that situation at the end of last year and I knew I could do a good job in that position. We’re currently P2 in the championship as a privateer team and I’m thoroughly impressed with the team. They’re thoroughly impressed with me, I hope. And that has re-ignited the competition side that maybe I’ve missed after being a reserve driver in Formula 1, and then again fighting for top 10s the last couple of years in IndyCar has helped massively.”

Ilott helped make JOTA’s privateer Porsche 963 a Hypercar winner at Spa, although his WEC success limited his IndyCar availability this season. Motorsport Images

With his WEC schedule presenting a handful of conflicts with the remaining IndyCar races, Arrow McLaren chose to sign 2023 Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire to complete the calendar in the No. 6 Chevy. But with Meyer Shank Racing’s recent call to park Tom Blomqvist in the No. 66 Chevy, there’s a possibility of seeing Ilott in action at some of the road and street course events left to run.

And then there’s 2025 where his services could be called upon by a few IndyCar teams who’ve inquired about a certain front-running veteran to improve their results. On the other end of the scale, Ilott, the former Ferrari Driver Academy member, will need to weigh the offers and stability presented with factory Hypercar seats in the WEC.

“Getting these opportunities in IndyCar this year was unexpected and I never know what might happen later on in the season,” he said. “It was a privilege and a bonus to race with Arrow McLaren. I think being in a good headspace and without any pressure, maybe that helped with the results. Getting integrated in a last-minute scenario was not too easy, but they were happy with the job I did and it was solid and I built a good relationship with them. Everything positive on that side and it’s nice to be back in that trusted place to do a good job. Both in Europe and the U.S.

“It’s just nice to be getting these opportunities and to be on people’s minds because I think 2022 was strong for that (with Juncos Hollinger) and 2023 seemed to slowly slip away as the year went on. But we’re back where we belong and I feel our future is in a good place.”

Hypercar era’s first privateer win a long time coming, but oh so sweet

Yes, there was luck involved. Yes, it took a red flag and an extended race. Yes, it took an off day for Toyota and a very significant misfortune for Ferrari. But for Hertz Team JOTA, which became the first British team to win a WEC race overall and the first privateer to win in the Hypercar era Saturday in Spa, it felt like this result had been coming for a while.

The signs were there for all to see in Qatar back in March, when the No. 12 crew finished second to the same Penske Porsche that finished runner-up at Spa. Prior to that, it finished fourth in Bahrain last November and it turned heads at Le Mans on the biggest stage, leading the centenary running despite having only taken delivery of its first 963 for a handful of weeks before the race.

Sam Hignett and David Clarke’s longstanding team may look like a factory and operate like one, but this is a fully private operation, powered by commercial nous and a band of highly skilled engineers and drivers.

One year on from its debut with the car at the 2023 6 Hours of Spa, in which it spent the weekend “with stacks of boxes of parts from Porsche in the back of the garage” and fought its way through the race having had zero prior testing time, Hignett feels the long nights and early starts were worth it en route to Saturday’s milestone result.

A fairytale day for JOTA brought with it only a single blip — the loss of the sister No. 38. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images

“It’s been great,” he told RACER amid the post-race celebrations for the team on pit lane. “We were here last year having only had the car for seven days. We had no spares and making bits up during that race. So to come here a year later with two cars is special, and it could have been even more unbelievable if the No. 38 hadn’t been wiped out. They had pace today.”

For Will Stevens and Callum Ilott, who shared the No. 12 as a pair while Norman Nato was on Formula E duty, the second half of the race was a nerve-wracking experience.

At first, the team felt it had played a perfect hand, pitting the No. 12 just as the red flag came out for the heavy incident for the Cadillac and No. 31 BMW on the Kemmel Straight. But as the clock continued to wind down with the race under red flag conditions, diving in began to look like a colossal error. The car was down to 10th on the timing screens at that point and looked set to secure half a point as the race hadn’t quite reached 75 percent distance (enough for full points to be awarded).

That was until race control decided to extend the race by the length of the red flag just minutes before the race clock hit 0:00. It was a move that has since been heavily criticized by Ferrari, which sat 1-2 at the time of Earl Bamber’s shunt, having battled through the field from 10th and 19th on the grid with its factory 499Ps.

The record crowd of fans trackside didn’t complain, though — there was in fact an audible cheer from the stands when it became clear the race would restart after the lengthy barrier repairs that lasted almost two hours.

Timed to perfection. JOTA’s decision to pit when they did, just before the race stoppage, set them up for Stuttgart’s epic duel in the Ardennes. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images

It set up a sprint finish, in which the No. 12 JOTA Porsche and No. 6 championship-leading Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 prospered purely because they had pitted just before the race was neutralized. Almost the entire Hypercar field was forced to pit when the cars got moving again, vaulting the two Porsches up the order, creating a two-way duel for the win.

“Yeah, there was an element of luck in this one,” Stevens admitted after the race. “But I’m a firm believer that you create your own luck in this game, and we executed perfectly all day long.”

While he was watching it unfold, Ilott was installed and tasked with holding back Kevin Estre in the factory car behind for the final 90 minutes. He did so in fine style, crossing the line almost unchallenged after a metronomic run to the checkered flag.

“To get the win is incredible. The pit stops were amazing and we managed to jump the No. 6 in that pit stop before the red flag. Once we were in clear air the pace was amazing lap after lap,” Ilott, who dedicated the race win to Anthoine Hubert, said after the race. “Trying to manage the gap wasn’t easy but I knew where I had the advantage with tires and traffic and managed to pull away.”

The 2024 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps will live long in the memory. It joins a collection of spectacular WEC races at the fabled Belgian circuit dating back to the championship’s inaugural season in 2012. It wasn’t without its dramas, it wasn’t without its heartbreak and scary moments, but it was a thriller that produced one of the most unlikely results.

Will Stevens summed it up perfectly: “This proves what we’ve always said — we’re not just here to take part. It shows how much we’ve grown up and learned. No team deserves it more than ours and I am proud to deliver this result. It’s a special weekend.”

With a result this significant, it’s always tempting to write entirely in superlatives. It feels justified today. With each passing race, the 2024 WEC season feels like it will live up to pre-season expectations and be looked back on as one for the ages.

As for JOTA’s performance today, perhaps the most exciting aspect is that it feels like the best is yet to come for this team in Hypercar competition… Watch this space.

JOTA gains first privateer Hypercar victory in tumultuous Spa 6 Hours

Hertz Team JOTA scored a historic maiden overall WEC victory in the 2024 running of the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Saturday, battling through a race that was red-flagged and extended after a major incident on the Kemmel Straight involving …

The red flag occurred four hours and 13 minutes in when Earl Bamber — driving the No. 2 Cadillac in a fight with the No. 99 Proton Porsche for third overall — hit the concrete wall on driver’s right hard after swiping the front of Sean Gelael’s No. 31 WRT BMW. The contact occurred as he moved across the track to get alongside the Porsche. This resulted in Bamber getting air while spinning after hitting the wall head-on.

Thankfully Cadillac and BMW quickly confirmed that Bamber and Gelael were OK after the violent incident, which also sent the BMW into the barriers on driver’s left.

“Great that Caddy built strong chassis, so it’s nice to walk away from that one,” Bamber said after the incident. “It’s a real shame for the result because I think we were on to something real good today. I think we had good strategy, good speed, so again we showed like in Qatar that if we have things go the right way we can definitely challenge for podiums in this championship. It’s good to realize that. Imola was just a bump on the radar performance-wise. Now we look forward to Le Mans.”

After nearly two hours of cleanup work and barrier repairs, the record crowd of more than 88,000 fans trackside was treated to more than an hour of intense racing. The safety car set up a thrilling sprint finish, in which Hertz Team JOTA stole the show a year on from its Hypercar debut at the same circuit.

The race simply fell into the hands of the British team’s No. 12 Porsche — and the No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 — as both pitted just before the red flag, giving the two a sizable lead when the race resumed — the rest of the field stopped either for emergency service under safety car and then again under green, or for fuel shortly after the race restarted.

As the red flag came out, Ferrari looked in control, with the No. 51 having risen to the lead in the fourth hour and the No. 50 second after a fight from the back of the grid. Like most of the field, they needed to pit both cars, which meant the chances of a 1-2 finish evaporated.

In the run to the flag, with the rest of the pack a minute behind, it became a duel between Callum Ilott and Kevin Estre. Estre was unable to catch Ilott and pass, despite the fact that the factory car had a full set of fresh tires for the final stint, while JOTA opted to change just the left side Michelins on its contender to gain track position. The No. 6 drivers still lead the championship standings heading into Le Mans, though, with a third consecutive top-three finish.

Ilott eventually crossed the line 12.3s in front, scoring JOTA its first WEC overall win, the first privateer win of the Hypercar era and the first privateer FIA WEC overall win since Rebellion’s LMP1 victory at CoTA in 2020.

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“It’s great. It’s a year since we got the car and the team just do a fantastic job all the time. We got lucky, but you make your own luck. It’s a shame Norman [Nato, occupied with Formula E this weekend] isn’t here with us, but I couldn’t be happier,” said Will Stevens.

“We just executed at the end; everyone did an amazing job. What a day!” Ilott added.

Ferrari’s No. 50 499P — disqualified after qualifying — took the final spot on the podium after a strong recovery drive from the back of the field by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.

The sister car would come home fourth in yet another WEC race in which the Ferrari 499Ps had the pace and consistency to win but failed to do so.

Proton Competition’s No. 99 Porsche completed the top five after an astonishing performance from the German team.

The car held the lead at the halfway mark after Julien Andlauer stormed to the front in the opening stint. After Neel Jani handed over the driver’s seat, Andlauer added to his mesmeric effort by making a series of daring moves up the inside at Eau Rouge/Raidillon on an Alpine and both Toyotas to haul the car back into contention. Leaving the final result to one side, in many ways Proton was the more impressive privateer Porsche team at Spa.

The two Toyotas ended up a disappointing sixth and seventh, with the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari eighth.

Porsche wound up with double-success at Spa, with the Manthey Porsche LMGT3 team taking class honors as well. Motorsport Images

In LMGT3, a last-lap move at Les Combes decided the order of a 1-2 for Manthey and Porsche, when Richard Lietz dived up the inside of Klaus Bachler to score the EMA 911 its first win of the season. It also secured a double win for the German marque on the day.

That pass relegated championship leader Pure Rxcing and its new car to second place. It was nevertheless a remarkable performance from Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Bachler after starting 10th following the team’s incident in qualifying that forced its crew to build up a new chassis overnight.

Heroic work was done after a dramatic moment that saw Iron Lynx’s Lamborghini take a splash of fuel at the start of the final lap from the lead, dropping the car to third.

“I had no information from the team; I thought maybe [the others] were struggling with tires,” race-winner Lietz said.

“It was only when I passed him (Klaus Bachler) that I was told that he was low on energy. I think our friends from the Italian side, the Lambos, they also had an issue with energy at the end, so I think the race restarted at the correct time for us. Some fuel saving some tyre management and at the end, some luck.”

Off the podium, the No. 85 Iron Dames Lamborghini, which started from pole and built a comfortable lead early on, took fourth. The team lost crucial seconds to a delay at its final stop and contact with the No. 7 Toyota at La Source.

Like Iron Lynx’s Huracan, United Autosports’ No. 92 McLaren GT3 EVO came achingly close to claiming its first win of the season. James Cottingham, Nicolas Costa and Gregoire Saucy were in the fight throughout after Cottingham’s strong start, often locked in a battle with the Iron Dames Lamborghini for the lead.

The way its strategy panned out, the red flag restart shuffled the pack significantly and forced the McLaren to pit for a splash with 10 minutes to go, dropping the car to fifth.

The red-flag incident wasn’t the only significant crash in the race, as the action was interrupted earlier on by a lengthy safety car in the second hour for barrier repairs after a three-car accident at Bruxelles.

Rene Rast in the No. 20 WRT BMW M Hybrid tagged Phil Hanson in the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche, sending Hanson into Ahmad Al Harthy in the No. 46 WRT BMW, who was a passenger as the M4 was sent veering off the road and into the barriers.

The hit for Al Harthy was hard, the car retiring on the spot with heavy front-end damage. Hanson, meanwhile, after ending up backing into the tires, briefly got the car fired but was unable to get back into the race. The contact occurred because Hanson was lifting and coasting into the braking zone down the hill while overtaking the No. 46 BMW. Again, thankfully both drivers were OK.

Vincent Vosse, team principal of WRT, said he believed it was a racing incident, with “the cars in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In general, the attrition rate was unusually high at Spa. Eight cars retired — the ones damaged in the two crashes, plus four others: the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren, gearbox oil leak; the pole-sitting No. 5 Penske Porsche, crashed out at Blanchimont while running third; the Lamborghini SC63, suspension failure; and the No. 81 TF Sport Corvette, withdrawn with a gearbox issue.

RESULTS

Button goes full-time in WEC Hypercar with JOTA Porsche

Jenson Button is set to join Hertz Team JOTA for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season in the team’s No. 38 Porsche 963 LMDh prototype in the Hypercar class. This move will see Button going full-time to the FIA WEC with the British team, …

Jenson Button is set to join Hertz Team JOTA for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season in the team’s No. 38 Porsche 963 LMDh prototype in the Hypercar class.

This move will see Button going full-time to the FIA WEC with the British team, after the 2009 Formula 1 world champion’s one-off appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours this year as part of the NASCAR Garage 56 effort. It also adds to his recent Porsche LMDh drive with JDC-Miller at Petit Le Mans back in October.

Next season, Button will share the privately run No. 38 Porsche with Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen. He is the final JOTA driver to be revealed ahead of the season opener in March at Qatar after the team confirmed that Hanson, Rasmussen, Norman Nato, Callum Ilott and Will Stevens will all form part of its expanded two-car Hypercar effort.

As part of the drive, Button will head to Le Mans for his third start. Prior to running at La Sarthe in the Hendrick Motorsports-prepped Camaro ZL1 back in June, Button competed with SMP Racing in LMP1 back in 2018.

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Button has been increasingly focused on sports cars since his Le Mans run with the NASCAR Garage 56 team. Motorsport Images

“I’m thrilled to be racing with Hertz Team JOTA in the 2024 World Endurance Championship alongside my teammates Oliver Rasmussen and Phil Hanson,” said Button. “Both already have a lot of experience in endurance racing and that is key. Endurance racing is about teamwork and there is no better team than Hertz Team JOTA to be taking on the big manufacturers in Hypercars. I’m already looking forward to the first race in Qatar but also know there’s a lot of work to be done so that we arrive prepared.”

Before the WEC season gets underway, Button will also compete at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January as a one-off appearance. In what will be his Rolex 24 debut, he will drive in WTR Andretti’s No. 40 Acura ARX-06 alongside Jordan Taylor, Louis Delétraz and Colton Herta.

“It’s an honor to have Jenson Button — a hugely successful driver across many racing disciplines — competing full-time in the WEC next year,” said Frédéric Lequien, FIA WEC CEO. “With nine manufacturers in the Hypercar category next year, including star names such as Jenson confirmed on the grid, everything is now in place for the WEC to have its most spectacular season yet.”