Tunbridge Wells-based JOTA, now Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA for the 2025 season, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The team, one of the world’s most successful sportscar racing teams of the modern era was co-founded by Sam Hignett and David Clarke and, from humble beginnings in a Tunbridge Wells garage, has gone on to become one of the powerhouses of factory-backed Hypercar competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The team, then named JOTA Sport, won the LMP2 class at the 2014 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and went on to finish on the class podium at the world’s greatest endurance race in six of the following nine years including a 1 – 2 finish in the LMP2 class in 2017 and a 1st and 3rd-place finish in 2022. In 2017, memorably the team led the French classic when Thomas Laurent in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing, as the team were then named, passed the #2 Porsche to take the overall lead, the first time that an LPM2 entry had led at Le Mans. The team’s #38 and #12 entries went on to finish 2nd and 3rd overall, an astonishing achievement from a team that had finished 7th in class with its single entry just four years previously.
Jackie Chan DC Racing celebrating at 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans (Photo: FIA WEC)
Sam Hignett and David Clarke’s team moved up to the Hypercar class in the FIA WEC for the 2023 season with the Porsche 963 and drivers Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye drove the Hertz-liveried #38 car to 9th place in the Drivers Championship. After a season which saw the trio missing the first two rounds due to delayed delivery of the car, Da Costa, Stevens and Ye went on to secure the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams with a best finish over the five races they competed in of 4th in Bahrain.
For the 2024 season, the team returned to the FIA WEC with a two-car Hypercar entry, combining young drivers with experienced older hands. Callum Ilott and Will Stevens joined Norman Nato in the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 while ex-F1 World Champion Jenson Button joined FIA WEC, ELMS and ALMS LMP2 champion Phil Hanson and young Danish protégé Oliver Rasmussen on the sister #38 car. Ilott and Stevens went on to finish 7th in the Drivers Championship after a win at Spa-Francorchamps while #38 car trio finished 19th in the standings.
2024 also saw one of the greatest comebacks in the history of endurance racing when the team rebuilt the #12 car after an off-track incident during practice. Hertz Team JOTA obtained a spare chassis and rebuilt the car in 48 hours, shaking down the freshly fettled #12 Porsche 963 on the Le Mans airport runway the evening before race day.
For 2025, Hertz Team JOTA has been given the opportunity to run the two Cadillac V-Series Rs in what promises to be a spectacular year for Sam Hignett and David Clarke’s squad.
#38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R at the Official Prologue in Qatar (Photo: FIA WEC)
“It’s amazing that 25 years have passed since those very first races with a mighty Honda Integra and the chaos of the Renault Clio V6 series,” said Sam Hignett. “There are too many highlights to mention – Championship wins in the Asian Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series and WEC alongside an unforgettable 13 podiums at Le Mans.
“It’s been a breath-taking journey so far and the latest chapter as Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA is our crowning achievement to date. We are equally as proud of JOTA Advanced Engineering and JOTA Composites whose engineering and manufacturing capabilities go from strength to strength. Alongside our unwaveringly supportive partners Knighthead Capital, we are beyond excited to see what the future holds for JOTA.”
For co-founder David Clarke, team spirit is the foundation of success, both on and off the track.
“We’re incredibly proud to celebrate our 25th anniversary,” said David Clarke. “This milestone is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the JOTA family over the years. Just because our racing efforts give us the most visibility doesn’t mean that the composites and engineering arms of our group aren’t equally important and celebrated in their own right.
“Within the business we live by the mantra of “the JOTA way”. This saying encapsulates a very special team spirit, one of the striving to do our best, of passion in everything we do and of our tenacity to punch far beyond our weight. Our partnership with Cadillac Racing embodies this spirit and represents an exciting new phase and we look forward to pushing the limits of endurance racing together and writing the next chapter in JOTA’s rich history.”
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA will be in action for the opening round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, the Qatar 1812km, on February 28.
