For Mopar fans that remember the original Oreca Dodge Viper GTS-R and its 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins in 1998, 1999, 2000, the past Saturday marks the long-awaited return of factory backed racing with the all-new 2013 Viper GTS-R.
SRT Motorsport's Team Viper fielded a pair of Viper GTS-R racing cars for its racing debut at the sixth round of the American Le Mans Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course of Lexington, Ohio.
A combination between competition and R&D, Team Viper managed to have both cars complete the race. What's more, the No. 91 Forza Motorsports Viper GTS-R driven by Kuno Wittmer and Dominik Farnbacher had just managed to finish tenth. while the No. 93 Pennzoil Ultra Viper GTS-R driven by Marc Goossens and Tommy Kendall finished 12th.
According to SRT Motorsports Road Racing Manager Gary Johnson, "Our first goal was to get through the race without any major problems. We accomplished that. In fact, we were making progress throughout the race. The cars were getting better. Today's race gives us an opportunity to know where the issuers are and where we need to focus."
Wittmer was also pleased with the performance of the GTS-R. "We learned so much today as far as driver comfort, car handling, chassis, and motor, everything in the package. This was a great test. We have to keep working at it but a top 10 is not a bad start."
Despite a positive race weekend, the Viper GTS-R racing cars still a long road ahead of them if it aims to challenge the likes of the Corvettes, Porsches, BMWs, and Ferraris for the GT Class championship.
Bill Riley of Riley Technologies, builder of the Viper GTS-R race cars, reflects on the work ahead, "It wasn't pretty but both cars finished. We've got a lot to build on. We're about two seconds off where we need to be and that showed in the race. Now we need to build on that and go from there. We were consistent but there are things we have to work on. There are gains to make with the car. We'll keep chipping away on it. I think we'll get about half of the gap taken care of pretty quickly."
After a respectable finish, it's exciting to see the SRT Motorsports team so motivated on putting on a better show.
Expect Team Viper compete in a "limited schedule" for the remainder of the year, allowing the team to focus its efforts on further developing the vehicle and cranking up its performance.
Finally, check out the post-race reactions from SRT Brand President and CEO Ralph Gilles and Viper GTS-R driver Kuno Wittmer after the team's impressive showing at Mid-Ohio:
