#PetitLeMans

Nissan’s DeltaWing racecar and the victory that almost wasn’t.

Nissan’s experimental race car just crashed again, this time while preparing for this week’s Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. 

After a disappointing finish at this years 24 hours of Le Mans, the Nissan Delta Wing is preparing for its redemption race, the Petit Le Mans held at Road Atlanta Raceway.

After an unfortunate accident took the Nissan Delta Wing out of the running at 24 hours of Le Mans back in June, the company has announced that the next race for the experimental race car will be at Petit Le Mans, held every year at the Road Atlanta race course. 

Earlier in April, SRT revealed its Viper GTS-R race car that is destined to return to the American Le Mans Series this year and now we know when.

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.

Any Lotus enthusiast will tell you that the brand would be wise to stop pumping resources into Formula 1 and IndyCar, an instead get more heavily involved in road racing. After all, in many respects it represents a better bang-for-the-buck for the marketing folks, with a direct correlation between the cars that race and the cars sold through dealers.

Nissan fans will rejoice at the brand’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans race this year.

Porsche has announced that it will enter the 911 GT3R Hybrid race car in the famed Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta on October 2nd.

Porsche feels sufficiently confident with the hybrids fuel economy and performance gains that they are interesting in campaigning in the Petit Le Mans, and the ALMS series, should their jaunt at Road Atlanta go well. Since the Automobile Club de ‘Ouest, the sanctioning body that oversees LeMans, hasn’t drawn up any rules for hybrid race cars, the GT3R will go unclassified for now.

Road Atlanta will be the first race in a few series called the LeMans Intercontinental Cup. The GT3R will also appear at the race in Zuhai, China, but hasn’t confirmed that the car will appear at Silverstone for the European round later on.

Gallery: Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid

Hit the jump to read the official press release