When it comes to the technology of racing and building a winner on the racetrack, Cadillac DPi-V.R program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser has developed a rather straightforward recipe for success.

“We have a very simple formula,” Wontrop Klauser says. “We give our customers the best possible race car; we find teams that are willing to work as hard as possible and execute the best hat they can; and they get great divers.

“When you put those three things together, you have a winning formula that’s hard to compete with.”

The plan is working.

Cadillac -- the defending Prototype manufacturers’ champion in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series -- is once again leading the pack in a stacked DPi class thanks to season-opening wins at Sebring and Daytona. The top two teams tied atop the standings -- Wayne Taylor Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing -- are fielding Cadillacs.

Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Eric Curran put Cadillac on top of the victory stand at Sebring. Motorsport Images-LAT

It’s good to be wearing the Cadillac logos these days, and for the 32-year-old Wontrop Klauser, it’s a dream come true. She’s come a long way from being that little kid helping (or was it getting in the way?) Dad wash the family car while growing up in Baltimore.

“I knew that these jobs existed at GM, and once in a while they become available,” Wontrop Klauser told a group of Detroit Cass Technical High School students while on a promotional stop this week for the upcoming 30th Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. “Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time. With a little bit of background, and a little bit of luck, it all works out.”

Hard work and a love of cars hasn’t hurt, either. Wontrop Klauser, who owns a mechanical engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's from the University of Michigan, is a product of Formula SAE and has been with General Motors for the past decade. She still volunteers and does what she can to promote the Formula SAE collegiate design series that has given so many racers and engineers their start.

“I joined GM after graduating, went into the regular production engineering stuff,” Wontrop Klauser says. “I got to work on the Corvette, and I worked on a couple Cadillacs. I did the shocks on the CT6; I did the sway bar and rear springs on the Cadillac XTS. And I did some noise and vibration work on the Cruze.

“Then the opportunity to be the racing program manager came up. That’s a job that GM promotes from within. I applied, got to talk about what it was like to be a Formula SAE student, then what it was like to come back as a volunteer and help run the dynamic events. And with that background, they decided to give me a chance.”

That chance started with the factory Cadillac ATS program in 2016 -- that became the current DPi program.

“The ATS was a manufacturer-backed program, so GM completely owned the budget and we had Pratt & Miller contracted out to race the car for us," Wontrop Klauser says. "I checked every penny that was spent and was always making sure that the team was moving forward in the way we wanted. With the DPi, we have customers. They buy their cars, own their budgets and they own how they race the cars.

"So I went from being an overseeing role to a supportive role. My job is to make sure that our teams have the best possible race cars. So when they mix that with great execution and phenomenal drivers, they can go out and win races.”

The 2018 WeatherTech Night of Champions was a celebration for No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi drivers Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr, along with Cadillac Racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser and TPNAEC's Sonny Whelan. Motorsport Images-LAT

Being one of a growing number of women in key racing roles in today’s paddock, Wontrop Klauser knows there are a few more eyes on her. And in an industry that lives and dies by the numbers of fans following the sport, that’s not a bad thing.

“It challenges you to always stay on your toes and make sure that you think before you speak,” Wontrop Klauser says of being part of the current and growing wave of women in the sport. “Whatever you say, you want to make sure that it’s right. I like that, because I’m the type that I will often just say the first thing that comes to mind. But when you’re constantly being watched and recorded, you never know when someone is going to quote you. It’s good to stop and think for a minute, and that’s definitely helped me. If you say the wrong thing, you don’t want someone to come away thinking, ‘Oh, she has no idea what she’s talking about.’

“I think a lot has changed in this arena. There are more female race car drivers that are coming up and looking pretty good, and hopefully they’ll get into the prototypes. There’s also a lot of female engineers that are coming up through the ranks. I feel like every year that I walk through the paddock, I see more women that are involved.”

And seeing more people getting involved is always the goal in motorsports, right?

“Racing is like any sport based on fan involvement,” Wontrop Klauser says. “If we don’t have fans, we don’t have a sport. We can go out and drive around in circles and spend money, but if no one is watching, we’re not going to get our sponsors. We’re not going to get any of that.

“It is so critical for all of us to incite the passion in everybody around this sport. And my background with SAE showed me how important role models and having programs like STEM education are for getting young people excited about everything technical. I believe in sharing with the next generation through programs like Formula SAE. We’re not going to exist as a sport if we don’t have a pipeline bringing people in.”

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io