Dyson Racing, reigning American Le Mans Series (ALMS) LMP1 champion team, will take possession of the first production Caterham SP/300.R over a year after it was revealed in partnership with Lola Racing.

Final assembly of the SP/300.R will take place at Dyson Racing’s facility in New York, where they are also the official U.S. distributor for Caterham Cars. The first production model will be used as the company’s demonstration cars with several more production models heading to America in a few weeks.

Dyson Racing played a pivotal role in developing the SP/300.R race car, sending former Le Mans 24 hour winner Guy Smith and its technical director, Peter Weston, out to Caterham’s test sessions during product development. The goal of the Caterham race car is to mirror the technology and appearance of the Lola Le Mans prototype, but in a more affordable fashionable.

“Like many of our customers, we can’t wait to get our hands on the SP/300.R. As in the UK, the popularity of track day driving is rocketing and the new vehicle is ideal for anybody who wants a reliable and cost-effective vehicle with very serious but accessible performance,” said Chris Dyson, Dyson Racing Team Vice President and Sporting Director.

Check out two videos on the Caterham SP/300.R after the break.

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The all-new 2013 SRT Viper is without a doubt the star of this year’s New York Auto Show. Boasting big numbers, the Viper’s enormous 8.4-liter V10 engine produces 640-hp. Plus, SRT has announced a factory-backed return of the Viper to the American Le Mans Series and international endurance racing.

But here comes the most important bit of information of all – show your support for the Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer and the very first Viper can be yours. The official charity of the American Le Mans Series, the Austin Hatcher Foundation For Pediatric Cancer’s mission is to aid cancer children and their families during the treatment and to provide continuing support throughout survivorship, all services are at no cost to families, and are funded solely buy donation.

The auction for the first 2013 SRT Viper will hold at Barrett-Jackson of Orange County, from June 22-24. Serial #01 vehicles have displayed a historic trend of reaching massive figures by auction end, so it will be exciting to see how much the new Viper can raise for the Austin Hatcher organization.

Co-founder of Austin Hatcher Foundation Dr. Jim Osborn said, “We are very excited that the first production Viper be auctioned at Barrett- Jackson Orange County to benefit the many families faced with pediatric cancer. We just can’t thank Mr. Gilles and his team enough.”

GALLERY: 2013 SRT Viper

Audi‘s LMP team is coming back to the United States, debuting the R18 TDI in American soil for the first time and challenging for victory at the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta.

Earlier this year, the Audi R18 TDI already won at the 24 hours of Le Mans in dramatic style, so the team looks forward to ending the racing season in dominant form. Driving the R18 will be Rinaldo “Dindo” Capello, the winningest racing driving at Road Atlanta, along with the duo that earned many podiums for Audi, Timo Berhand and Marcel Fässler.

During last year’s race at Road Atlanta, Capello had to make an unscheduled pitstop when an insert in his helmet came unfastened and dangled over his eyes, obstructing his view. Were it not for that wardrobe malfunction that cost Capello the race, Audi would have won at Road Atlanta for the tenth time.

If you won’t be able to travel, catch the race on Eurosport or ESPN. Qualifying begins Friday, September 30th and the race will start on 11:30am on Saturday, October 1.

GALLERY: Audi R18

Porsche‘s updated GT3 R Hybrid made its North American debut this weekend at the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca and the folks at Porsche couldn’t be happier. Well, that’s not exactly true. They’d be a lot happier if the car had been racing for points.

Driven by Porsche works drivers Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz the hybrid not only posted the fastest lap time of all the GT competitors, but it completed the 6 hour endurance race with just three pit stops, compared to five for its rivals. And to make the victory even more impressive, because the car wasn’t competing for points it wasn’t eligible to qualify and so it started at the back of the grid.

“The start phase was huge fun, because it was relatively easy to overtake the slower competitors,” said Romain Dumas. “But it’s even more fun because we can apply superior tactics thanks to the lower fuel consumption. We are much more flexible and we made the most of this today.”

“We had the least pit stops of all the teams and showed clearly what the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid can do,” said Lietz. “We didn’t experience one technical problem and left all the other GT vehicles behind us. Our expectations have been far exceeded.”

And with that excellent news, there was added celebration as it was also a Porsche that managed to take the first place spot in the race, with Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finishing just ahead of one of the BMWs to lock down the team’s third victory this season.

The GT3 R Hybrid mates a 470-hp naturally aspirated six-cylinder boxer engine powering the rear wheels with an additional 200-hp of electric boost available on demand to the front wheels thanks to Porsche’s innovative flywheel hybrid technology.

GALLERY: Porsche GT3 R Hybrid at Laguna Seca

Porsche is about to unleash a very different type of hybrid on the residents of California, announcing plans to have the GT3 R Hybrid race car take part in the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca on September 17th.

The race car won’t be eligible to race for points, as the ALMS governing body does not yet allow hybrids, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be competing and looking for a win. Porsche works pilots, Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz, who have both raced the car, will be sharing duties behind the wheel.

Version 2.0 of the hybrid racer, the GT3 R Hybrid uses a modified version of the original’s powertrain, making 470-hp from a naturally aspirated six-cylinder boxer engine, with an additional 200-hp of electric boost available on demand. It also weights over 100 lbs less than the original thanks to a focus on weight savings for the electric components.

So far the GT3 R Hybrid has competed in two races this year, finishing a disappointing 28th at the Nurburgring 24 Hour Race as a result of rule changes for hybrid cars as well as contact with another vehicle. The hybrid racer did start off the year strong, however, taking the podium at the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship in Germany.

GALLERY: Porsche GT3 R Hybrid

Auto racing and environmental consciousness normally do not mix, however, the American LeMans Series has been working on changing that, and hopes to improve on its already green track record.

This is the only race series around the world in which four different types of fuels are being used, namely E10, E85, diesel and isobutanol. Also, apart from the result of championship points given to teams and drivers respective of their finish in the race, ALMS also awards a championship within a championship to the greenest team on the grid.

Now the series is looking to go greener still by hoping to soon introduce natural gas powered race cars. In an interview with Fox Car Report, ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton said he wants to “demonstrate the competitiveness of natural gas, and the ease and convenience of refueling, because right now that’s seen as one of the impediments. If you can take away some of what the consumer would describe as downside issues, and demonstrate its competitiveness and the fact that you don’t have to sacrifice anything, I think it would go a long way toward mainstream acceptance of natural gas as a fuel for any type of vehicle.”

When asked about electric race cars, Atherton said this technology might play in this series in the future, but not at the moment, saying electric drivetrains cannot handle the stress of such a race series, however he is looking at other electric race series to bring in as part of their support festivities. Nissan has already hinted at an all electric series using spec versions of the NISMO Leaf RC race car.

“The partnership between ALMS and SCCA is a very natural one,” said Scott Atherton the president and CEO of ALMS. “The majority of ALMS fans are auto enthusiasts, many of them wondering how they can become more involved in motorsports at a grassroots level; the SCCA is the ideal place to start that journey. Similarly, we believe SCCA members have a deep appreciation for our sport and hope all of them will take full advantage of the fan-centered opportunities the ALMS offers.”

The next race in the 2011 American Le Mans season will be on the weekend of July 8-9 at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. And in the grand tradition of motorsports being sponsored by vaguely irresponsible-seeming manufacturers of hard liquor, the top sponsor this year is Tequila Patrón.

[Source: American Le Mans]

It may be one of America’s most storied races, but the car sitting on the pole for tomorrow’s 59th running of the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring isn’t even from a manufacturer that sells cars here.

Topping the Audis in qualifying was Anthony Davidson in the Peugeot 908 with a 1:46.571 lap time. Davidson will race with Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene in tomorrow’s endurance classic, defending last year’s title. Peugeots also took third and fifth place in qualifying, divided by two Audi R15s in second and fourth. Tom Kristensen set the second fastest lap in qualifying with a 1:47.680, and will share the car with partners Allan McNish and Dindo Capello before the R15 chassis is retired.

And while LMP1 saw a battle between European rivals, LMP2 came down to an all-Japanese dual, with the Level 5 Motorspots Lola-Honda driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay besting Soheil Ayari in the Signatech Nissan. A second Level 5 Motorsports Honda placed third.

In the hotly-contested GT category, the new Ferrari 458GT cars got all the publicity, but managed only 5th in class, while one of the older F430GT models driven by Gianmaria Bruni took the GT pole. Finishing just behind was the Corvette ZR1 driven by Oliver Gavin. BMW took third in an M3 GT driven by Dirk Werner, with the top-placing Porsche just sixth.

Watch all the action starting Saturday, March 19 on ABC, ESPN2 or ESPN3.com. Those outside the U.S. can watch the race live at www.americanlemans.com

Highcroft Racing has dominated the LMP2 class of the American Le Mans Series for the past 4 years, but the program didn’t seem to be doing much to promote the Acura brand. In light of that, the car will now be branded as a Honda Performance Development car, a move that signals both a positive shift for Honda’s in-house go-fast division, and a bad omen for the company’s beleaguered luxury division.

This year, Highcroft will be campaigning their new entry in the much tougher LMP1 class. Patron will also no longer be sponsoring the car, having decided to instead sponsor the ALMS series as a whole. Michelin will step up to provide the funding for Highcroft. The new car, dubbed ARX-01e, will share the same tub and 3.4L V8 as the LMP2 cars of years past, but everything from the suspension to the aerodynamic package will change to make the car more competitive for LMP1.

With legendary race cars like the Audi R15 and Peugeot 908HDi as the top dogs of LMP1, Highcroft will have a tough fight ahead of them if they want to gain any ground. The first race, held in Sebring, Florida, kicks off Saturday.

Hit the jump to read the official press release

HIGHCROFT’S HPD ARX-01e REVEALED

Highcroft Racing has unveiled its new Honda Performance Development ARX-01e LMP1 machine – the new car which the back-to-back American Le Mans Series champions will take into battle at next week’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport tire and the ALMS Michelin racing tireHPD’s latest entry into the overall LMP1 class is powered by a development of the 3.4-liter V8 engine which has been the mainstay of its sportscar activities since the debut of the Acura program in 2007.

The final driver to do battle alongside David Brabham and Marino Franchitti in the ARX-01e will be revealed tomorrow, but the three Highcroft drivers will have an additional vastly experienced “co-driver” riding beside them – the Michelin Man.

Known internationally as “Bibendum”, the Michelin Man and branding for the new MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport tire will appear prominently on the side of the #01 machine at Sebring.

The new MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport tire (Ultra High Performance street tires) will launch in the U.S. on April 1. These are the highest performing street tires that Michelin has ever offered. The new tires are “born from endurance racing” at places like Sebring and Le Mans.

While the tub and engine of the ARX-01e may have come from last year’s championship-winning LMP2 ARX-01c machine, that is where the similarities end.

The new car features a heavily revised aerodynamic and suspension package design and built by HPD’s partner, Wirth Research.

In LMP1 spec, the engine is fed by a larger air restrictor to combat the additional 50kg required for the LMP1 class (900kg).While the HPD engineers toiled away on the durability testing of the engine at the higher power specification, Wirth Research worked hard to develop the new aero package, which has been designed with an eye to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Compared to the LMP2 car, the ARX-01e also features wider Michelin tires on both the front (wider by 1.18″) and rear (wider by 2.36″).

“The way the rules have gone this year, it seemed like a natural fit to take the engine that has been so successful in the LMP2 class and use the basis of that for the LMP1 class,” said Steve Eriksen, HPD Vice President.

“With the change in restrictor size and wheel/tire package available, we believed we could have a pretty competitive package, especially considering the ACO’s desire to better balance the performance of the diesel and petrol powered cars.

“This package represents a good, solid base to compete in LMP1.”

Since the commencement of the partnership between Honda Performance Development and Highcroft Racing in 2007, the Danbury, CT-based squad has recorded a major series of milestones for HPD – first overall ALMS win, first ALMS LMP1 victory, first LMP1 championship, first team to record back-to-back titles and the highest ALMS point-scoring team in every season of the initial Acura program.

“We are returning to the LMP1 class with an evolution of our original LMP2 car, and doing so with the team that started with us on chassis development in the beginning,” Eriksen said.

“Highcroft from the very beginning has worked hand-in-hand with our HPD engineers and our partners at Wirth Research to develop the ARX chassis and obviously has been very successful.

“There has been a lot work put in by the folks at Wirth Research on this chassis conversion. It is not just a case of bolting on LMP1-sized wheels and installing a bigger restrictor. The work completed by both Wirth and Highcroft in a short space of time has to be applauded, and I believe we should have a package which should be very aerodynamically efficient and should achieve very strong results.”

Highcroft Racing and HPD have been strong partners with Michelin since the commencement of the Acura program in 2007, and the forthcoming opening round of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron and the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup at Sebring presented an ideal opportunity to showcase the soon-to-be-released MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport tire.

Over the past four years, Highcroft Racing has clinched 11 ALMS wins, nine poles, 27 podiums and two championships on Michelin tires.

“Highcroft has been a tremendously successful partner with Michelin over the past four years and the forthcoming Sebring race presented an ideal opportunity to explain how the MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport tire (pictured right) was born from endurance racing,” said Silvia Mammone, Michelin & BFGoodrich Motorsports Manager.

“Two of the three most innovative technologies featured in the MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport tires are derived directly from endurance racing. Both the Twaron (twore-on) belt and the Bi-compound tread were actually developed in competition at Sebring and Le Mans.

“The impending launch of the MICHELIN® Pilot® Super Sport tire and the timing of the Twelve Hours of Sebring enabled us to take advantage of this opportunity to showcase the product though the American Le Mans Series’ new US television package.

“We’re delighted the Highcroft team will have the Michelin Man along for the ride for the 12 hours – further lessons learned from this Sebring race will make it into the road tires of the future.”

The Highcroft team is now en route to Sebring ready to shake down the machine at the historic airfield circuit. The team’s drivers have already completed several days of “virtual” laps on the Wirth Research simulator in preparation for the race.

“We are extremely proud of what we have achieved with our partners at HPD and Michelin over the past four years,” Highcroft owner, Duncan Dayton said.

“With these kinds of partnerships, HPD and Michelin don’t just provide us with a car and tires to go out and race. They have dedicated engineers who are part of the team on race weekends – these guys have really become part of the family.

“Together, we have been intricately involved in developing the race car to improve performance and reliability. These lessons learned go into the cars and tires of tomorrow.

“I’m tremendously proud of what our team has achieved with HPD, Wirth Research and Michelin with the creation of this car and can’t wait to see how it will perform.”

West Racing Team announced last October that it would field a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 race car in the American Le Mans Series, marking the return of the Italian brand to ALMS since a dismal performance back in 2004 with a Murcielago R-GT. After much anticipation and with the season nearing its start, West Racing has just released the first photos of the purpose built race car.

Few details about the car are available, but it certainly looks menacing painted matte-black and sporting a set of HRE Monoblok wheels. Tires come from Yokohama Advan, which will sponsor the effort for the season.

West Racing recently announced Nicky Pastorelli and Dominik Schwager as drivers, with the first race set to take place March 19th, at Sebring.

We’ll be sure to keep an eye on the team and see if a Lamborghini can in fact be a successful race car.

GALLERY: West Racing Team Gallardo LP560

At the recent launch of the 2011 Porsche Carrera GTS in California, the journalists present were treated to a special guest: five-time American Le Mans Series champion Joerg Bergmeister.

The Porsche factory driver got his first chance behind the wheel on the streets, comparing the wide-body 408-hp Carrera to his own daily driver, the 911 Carrera S. He even draws a few comparos to his Flying Lizard 911 GT3 RSR race car

No Corvettes were harmed in the making of this film.

See the video after the jump:

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A pair of Lamborghinis will compete in the 2011 American Le Mans Series, marking a return to the series for the raging bull brand after a disappointing season back in 2004 with the Murcielago R-GT. It wont be the top-dog Murcies trading paint, but rather the more appropriate Gallardo models competing in the GT Class, alongside road rivals from Porsche, Ferrari and of course the Chevy Corvettes.

Commanding the effort will be West Racing Team with sponsorship by Yokohama. That being said the team will compete using Yoko’s Advan tires.

While Yokohama might have a rather impressive racing history, Lamborghini does not, with past efforts more embarrassment than a cause for celebration. However, it’s likely the GT Class Lambos will share a great deal with the Gallardo SuperTrofeo racing cars that have now been tested and improved over two seasons as purpose built race cars. And so along with hope, there are the assurances of Mark Chung, Yokohama’s director of corporate strategy. “With the Ferraris, Porsches, Corvettes and everyone else battling it out, we feel the GT Class is going to be super competitive and a lot of fun. The West Racing Lamborghinis will be right in the mix and ready for the challenge,” he said.

We’re excited to see the Lambos back in action and hope the company’s racing future is brighter than its past. Could it be any worse?