I am so proud of my friends at Action Express Racing/Whelen Engineering Racing, for winning not just another championship title, but the inaugural Grand Touring Prototype title in the modern era! We won a single race, the 12 Hours of Sebring, back in March. However, it was consistency and always being at the front, in spite of overcoming adversity and obstacles at times, that got us here once again. This is the second championship AXR has won since I have known the team and the team principal, Bob Johnson. What a testimony as well, to our new car, the Cadillac V Series R LMDh for getting us here. The Daytona Prototype International Cadillac DPi-V.R was a wonderful, successful platform.
The new LMDh/GTP Cadillac with its reimagined and reworked 5.5 liter naturally aspirated V8 engine, and the new spec hybrid unit for energy recovery and regeneration worked extremely well. This is a spec unit all GTP teams from every manufacturer use, but it seemed to hang in there for us especially on launches out of the pit box where you hear the hybrid electric motor spool up and then... like a thunderstorm, or a mighty lion, the Cadillac V8 fires up and roars to life. Our drivers, too, Pipo Derani (in his fourth season with Action Express), Alexander Sims, and endurance driver, Jack Aitken, all pulled through for us. Some of Jack Aitken's drives in the enduros this year, particularly Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Petit Le Mans, were absolutely mega.
We had consistent finishes throughout the sprint races this year, too, and that is what kept our team in the championship fight against our rivals, another Cadillac, two Porsche's, two Acura's, and two BMW's. The competition is going to grow by leaps and bounds next year and we are ready for them. We also accomplished a tenth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year in our first appearance. We have an invitation, from our championship, to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. Whether the team takes it up, remains to be seen, as there is an IMSA race next year scheduled right before Le Mans, in June.
Do we send a second Whelen Cadillac to Le Mans like we did this year? Do we just focus on IMSA for 2024? That all remains to be seen. Our team is solid, and we have the momentum, with this championship going into next year. Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken have both been confirmed as our regular season drivers for 2024 with an endurance driver yet to be determined. I believe our 2023 regular driver, Alexander Sims, will be swapped back over to the Corvette Racing program, which, after its factory involvement has ended, they are going to focus on customer cars globally for next year. That is neither here nor there and I only reference it, as they will be mentioned in numerous race reports.
There are bound to be customer Corvette's in IMSA, SRO, and FIA World Endurance, among other championships. As for Action Express and Cadillac, our future is a bright one! This championship means so much! We have shown American ingenuity can compete with the best that the world has to offer and at the same time, top it. Just as much as it did in 2021 and Action Express has won many of them. A fantastic accomplishment and a testament to our success as a team, an organization, and the leadership of the people within our team who I have mentioned countless times. Congratulations, everyone! You deserve it.
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