Championship-winning Juncos Racing has expanded into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for 2019.

Livery rendering courtesy Aldo Falla

Ricardo Juncos’ (photo above courtesy of INDYCAR) team joins IMSA’s DPi class with a Cadillac DPi-V.R for a full-season effort. It will wear the same No. 32 as its current entry in IndyCar. The team will receive its car in November and begin private testing in December. IMSA’s official preseason test is the Roar Before the Rolex 24 in January 2019.

Overall, Juncos’ pedigree includes 58 wins and nine championships over the course of the past 10 years. Those have come primary in the Mazda Road to Indy, the three-tiered ladder series to IndyCar.

After JDC-Miller Motorsports, Juncos Racing is the second new Cadillac customer team to join the DPi class in 2019. Cadillac fields entries for Action Express Racing (via the Mustang Sampling Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing banners), Wayne Taylor Racing (as Konica Minolta Racing) and Spirit of Daytona Racing this year.

Juncos, who opened a 41,000-square foot headquarters in Speedway, Ind., a couple years ago, feels the time is right to move into IMSA. He visited Road America for the series’ most recent race two weeks ago, and attended IMSA’s “State of the Series” announcement.

“This happened so fast, but this is something I’ve been dreaming about for a long time,” Juncos said. “I know how good this series is. Starting with the 24-hour race (at Daytona)… we’ll learn and we’ll succeed.”

Drivers will be announced at a later date, but Juncos expects endurance race veterans to be a part of his lineup.

Juncos is also excited to work with Michelin for the first time, as IMSA’s new Official Tire in 2019.

“It’s good for us. It’ll happen… that it kind of levels everyone again,” Juncos said. “Everything has aligned at the same time.

“With all the ingredients with IMSA, the new (NBC) TV package, the 50th anniversary for IMSA, and Michelin tires as well – it’s all positive things. It’s a little bit of benefit, because everyone (in DPi) starts new with the Michelins.”

IMSA President/COO Scott Atherton and Cadillac Racing marketing manager Matt Russell have also welcomed Juncos on-board to IMSA.

“These announcements never get old. We are thrilled to be welcoming Juncos Racing, Ricardo and his team as a whole into the IMSA fold,” Atherton said.

“They join an elite collection of teams that have both top tier programs within IMSA WTSC and IndyCar. They are oftentimes the teams to beat. We expect Juncos will continue that tradition.”

“We’re genuinely looking forward to them joining at Daytona,” Russell added. “In short, for Cadillac everything we do is about finding growth. We’re counting on growth to continue in DPi.”