Cadillac is quitting Pirelli World Challenge to focus on their IMSA Prototype, reports Daily Sportscar. Cadillac’s factory squad has been one of PWC’s most recognizable flagship efforts, participating in 332 races, winning 33 races, 25 pole positions, seven manufacturer’s championships and five driver’s titles since 2004.
Cadillac Global Director for Product Strategy Rich Brekus explained to Daily Sportscar that the marque will focus on its IMSA DPi program instead but may consider a return to PWC in the future:
In 2018, we will take a pause in Pirelli World Challenge as we focus completely on our effort in prototype sportscar racing. However, we maintain a regular and open communication with Greg Gill, the World Challenge CEO, and hope to one day return to the Series in some form.
The Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R is so far ahead in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship that it’s on course to win the championship this year there before the season-ending Petit Le Mans race even starts.
But that’s not to say that Cadillac’s PWC effort has been a slouch this year. Cadillac drivers Michael Cooper and Jordan Taylor won the first-ever SprintX championship title. Cooper also won both races at Pirelli World Challenge’s season-ender weekend at Sonoma Raceway.
However, the ATS and CTS are slated to be dropped from Cadillac’s line-up in 2019 and replaced with one model called the CT5. Cadillac is sadly moving to more crossovers in their lineup, and racing their cool performance cars didn’t exactly translate into more sales.
It’s definitely the end of an area—a spectacularly cool era that brought us race cars based on both the CTS-V and ATS-V. For that, I’ve got to feel a little bit sad. Cadillac’s road cars are so much cooler in race trim and watching drivers like Johnny O’Connell and Ricky Taylor flog the snot out of them will never, ever get old.
Sadly, there are no plans to offer the ATS-V.R cars to customer teams, either, according to Sportscar365. If you missed seeing it in action this year, sorry! You missed it, period.