#NewJerseyMotorsportsPark

As a way to keep the Viper name in the spotlight until the next model arrives, Dodge is spending the summer hunting down as many track records as possible with its now-retired halo performance car.

Called the Viper Record Tour ’11, Dodge has already taken its hard-core ACR street-legal track machine to New Jersey Motorsports Park and Sebring International Raceway and reportedly has plans to claim two more lap records at both Texas World Speedway and Daytona. No details have been provided on who the driver is, but Kumo Wittmer, who drives a Viper Cup Car in the SCCA World Challenge series, is tipped to be a pilot for several of the runs. Whitmer, it should be noted, already set the production lap record in the Viper ACR at Miller Motorsports Park.

Perhaps most exciting, however, is word that the ACR may be headed back to to the Nurburgring in search of the lap record there. A Viper ACR did hold the record there in the past, but has since been surpassed by both the Porsche GT2 RS and the the 2012 Corvette ZR1.

[Source: MotorTrend]

Hit the jump to watch the recently released New Jersey and Sebring record runs:

NJMP is one of the newest tracks in America, having opened its doors back in 2008. It currently has two road courses and a professional karting track. Future plans included adding a tri-oval and an off-road track.

Jason Saini raced to the top of the podium in his Mazda6 this weekend, during the SCCA’s SPEED World Challenge Touring Car series event at New Jersey Motorsports Park’s Thunderbolt Raceway. Saini placed third in qualifying but quickly made it to second place off the standing start, and spent much of the rest of the race fender to fender with defending series champion Peter Cunningham in his RealTime Racing TSX.

Saini passed Cunningham on the third lap but only secured some distance when Cunningham got tied up defending his position from Andrew Aquilante in the Phoenix Performance Inc. Subaru WRX.

When the checkered flag flew, however, Saini had secured an almost three second advantage after Cunningham, giving him not only the race victory but also the lead in the points race.

“I raced with Peter a couple of times last year. We had some side-by-side battles. He came out on top last year. This time, I came out on top. It is a dream come true to race with a guy like Peter,” said Saini. “I looked at where his strengths and weaknesses were and tried to push him. I tried to stick the nose in every once and a while to see. I just had a bit of a stronger car at that point and I was able to get down on the inside. I tried one time. I didn’t make it stick. I tried again and it did.”

As for the third-place Aquilante, he managed the last podium spot in just his third World Challenge race. Initially much of the credit can be handed to Subaru’s all-wheel drive system, which allowed Aquilante to race from a standing-start grid position of 8th to 3rd overall in just one lap.

“The start was good,” Aquilante said. “It was kind of wild the first couple of laps, with Jason and P.D. going back and forth. Jason got around him and things settled in single file. Then, about halfway through the race, I started to try to pick it up and the tires started to go away.”

“I finally caught up to them. I had a few runs at Peter down the front straightaway. We went side-by-side. He knew what I was going to do, so he protected the inside well. There were a couple of times he let me on the inside, but I couldn’t quite make it stick. I tried not to run him off the road. It was a good race.”

Finishing out the top five were Cunningham’s teammates Kuno Wittmer in 4th and Pierre Kleinubing in 5th.

As for the points race, as mentioned, with the win Saini takes the lead, with Kleinubing in 2nd and Seth Thomas in 3rd with his BMW 328i.

The race will be broadcast on SPEED Chanel Friday, May 22 at 2 p.m.. The next race is scheduled for Mosport International Raceway on May 16th and 17th

[Photo Credit: Mark Weber/SCCA]

Complete race results after the jump: