#lmp2

Lotus LMP2 drove during yesterday’s practice session at Le Mans despite a legal battle that threatened the team’s chances of having functional cars.

Lotus LMP2 might not be racing in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Earlier in the month, Mazda announced its diesel racing program for the Grand Am series, but the Skyactiv-D will also be present at next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Nissan executive vice president of engineering Andy Palmer has announced no plans of fielding an LMP1 race car for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in the foreseeable future. For now, Nissan will remain committed to its production-based LMP2 entries, jumping into battle starting next week at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

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

NISMO’s VK45DE powerplant, which has had huge success in the SuperGT series powering the Nissan GT-R to a championship in 2008, will be installed in LMP2 class race cars from 2011 and on. NISMO has partnered up with Zytek Motorsport, a noted Formula 1 engine builder, with Zytek taking responsibility for servicing and maintaining all the engines.

“Zytek Motorsport is delighted to enter into this partnership with Nissan Motorsports International. We firmly believe that this collaboration between these two excellent brands is going to produce competitive and reliable products. It is an honour to work with a manufacturer of the standing and reputation of Nismo and we look forward to a long and successful partnership,” said John Manchester, Zytek Motorsport’s Operations Director.

Official press release available after the break.

An Acura will run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. British Strakka Racing intends to compete with the car, in the Europe Le Mans Series, including at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, with an Acura ARX-01b prototype that it is currently in the process of buying from the Lowe’s Fernandez team. Fernandex racing, despite winning the LMP2 championship in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), has yet to secure a sponsor for the 2010 season and so it has decided to entertain the possibility of selling the car.