The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Six Hours of Fuji on September 15th, 2024, initially seemed poised for a Cadillac Racing victory with Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn leading the charge. The No. 2 V-Series.R earned the pole position and led the field to green with sights on the checkered flag. However, what started as a promising race took a turn for the worse as the six-hour sprint wore on.
Before the wreck that ultimately took the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R out of contention for good, Bamber showed the way for the first hour and nine minutes. He then pitted and swapped the controls to Lynn. The Cadillac Racing team took just two fresh tires during their initial stop and headed back out with hopes of holding off the race cars that had four fresh tires. Despite only having two new slicks, Lynn managed to hold onto second place during his stint before returning to Pit Road to hand the No. 2 V-Series.R off to Bamber.
The first disaster struck just 20 minutes after Bamber took control of the No. 2 V-Series.R. While racing with the No. 15 BMW, Bamber made contact and blew out the right front tire. Bamber wrestled the ailing race car back to the pits to take on new tires, surrendering valuable track position, but the team worked quickly and kept the No. 2 V-Series.R on the lead lap.
However, after being turned back out, Bamber got loose and lost the back end of the Cadillac Racing machine after slipping into the marbles with just a half hour left on the clock. He failed to gather the No. 2 V-Series.R back up as it went around and headed straight for the tire barrier, piling into the wall and sustaining critical nose damage. Bamber pitted with body panels flying, and after the damage was assessed, the No. 2 V-Series.R was deemed too wounded to continue.
Bamber and Lynn were credited with a 32nd-place finish overall and 15th in the Hypercar division, a gutting finish for the pole-winning V-Series.R
Joe+B.
Too bad.