The Latest Breaking News from Louis Deletraz

Life for many is considerably different since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in 2020. That certainly applies to Louis Deletraz, whose career has gone from strength to strength since that much-disrupted season when his sportscar journey truly began.

Deletraz will pair up with team returnee Jordan Taylor next season, as WTR with Andretti scales up to two Acura ARX-06 LMDh cars in IMSA's GTP class, after racing alongside Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor at the four IMSA endurance rounds this year.

Acura’s Louis Deletraz led the 54-car field to the green around the undulating 2.54-mile road course in Georgia but Sebastien Bourdais took little time in taking the lead, sweeping his Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac around the Wayne Taylor Racing ARX-06 outside at Turn 1 and quickly pulling clear.

Deletraz will leave the World Endurance Championship after next month's Bahrain finale to race in IMSA’s top GTP class in 2024, joining two-time Daytona 24 Hours winner Jordan Taylor in Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s second Acura ARX-06.

After Mazda followed Nissan through the exit door at the end of 2021, last season's DPi class was contested exclusively between Cadillac and Acura teams, but the move to all new LMDh cars running spec hybrid systems for 2023 has attracted Porsche and BMW to join the renamed GTP division.

The #41 WRT ORECA-Gibson 07 shared by Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Rui Andrade dropped from second to sixth early on after Andrade was hit by the #23 United Autosports entry of Josh Pierson, an offence for which Pierson was slapped with a 10-second time penalty.

The #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez took the chequered flag 39 seconds clear of the sister #8 car shared by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi, as the Japanese manufacturer celebrated its ninth WEC win at Fuji in 10 attempts.

Last week, it was announced that Taylor will return to the team run by his father Wayne at the wheel of a second Acura ARX-06 LMDh in the IMSA SportsCar Championship next year, partnering up with Louis Deletraz.

It marks a homecoming for Jordan Taylor, who left his father Wayne's team to drive for Corvette Racing in the GT classes since 2020. In that time, he has won two GTLM championships and a class victory at the 2021 Daytona 24 Hours.