TEAM

Action Express Racing will look to continue a record of success that stretches back to the origins of the team as it takes on the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-LMDh will be shared by 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champion Pipo Derani (BRA) and ultra talented Alexander Sims (UK) for the full season. Jack Aitken (UK) will serve as the Endurance Ace and will join Pipo and Alexander for Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta.

The team has an unrivaled record in IMSA competition, claiming the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Team and Driver championships, as well as securing the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 North American Endurance Championships titles.

Action Express Racing worked to find the top of the podium under the guidance of Gary Nelson, well known for his time spent in NASCAR as a championship winning crew chief and later the director of the NASCAR Monster Energy Series (then Winston Cup). Nelson also managed the development of the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, NC.

Having launched with a winning run in the 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona with a leased Riley chassis, the organization then grew to develop and manufacture the Coyote Chassis for the Daytona Prototype regulations. Carrying the Chevrolet bowtie, the chassis became a winner in its debut 2012 season. Action Express Racing continued to develop as a team, with highlight moments including a dramatic 1-2 team finish at the Detroit Grand Prix in 2012.

As the sports car racing world merged into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Action Express Racing arrived in the new landscape extraordinarily well prepared.

The team won the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona with João Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, and Sebastien Bourdais. Victories at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Road America set the stage for a run to the 2014 IMSA Driver and Team championships as well as the first-ever Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup as the No. 5 entry completed every mile of competition.

The 2015 IMSA WeatherTech Championship saw the team return to a full-time two-car program in the top Prototype class as Mustang Sampling joined the organization as the title sponsor for the No. 5 Chevrolet Corvette DP with drivers Barbosa and Fittipaldi, while the No. 31 entry proudly carried the iconic colors of Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP for teammates Eric Curran and Dane Cameron.

The team delivered two equal cars capable of competing for the title. Barbosa, Fittipaldi and Bourdais claimed victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, snapping a 50-year drought for Chevrolet in the oldest endurance race in North America. Cameron and Curran broke through for victory in Detroit, and struck again with a win at Road America. The team scored encore IMSA Driver, Team, and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup titles for the No. 5 entry as the No. 31 Whelen Engineering machine came home third in the IMSA championship.

2016 saw the No. 31 Whelen Engineering entry come to the fore, as the Curran/Cameron combination claimed the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech Driver and Team Championships, while the No. 5 Mustang Sampling campaign delivered another North American Endurance title.

2017 marked the debut of the all-new Cadillac DPi-V.R, and Barbosa introduced the machine with authority, claiming pole position at Daytona on the way to a hard-fought second place finish with his co-drivers Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque. Both the Mustang Sampling and Whelen Engineering entries again demonstrated themselves as winners in 2017, with the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac closing out the year with an incredible fourth consecutive Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup title.