No LeMans this year for SRT

[VIPER BAZ UK]

Still gutted and can't really understand it...
As Jon B said just real released in Europe but pull out of Le-Mans. ..

Still gutted .....

[Ohiotj]

I am upset they are not racing at mid ohio both last year and this year. I loved this race and now it seems the brickyard is the closes race I have. If my memory serves me right Mid-Ohio was the first track viper returned to. That was very cool to see. I feel bad for LeMans but worse for me.

[gfviperman]

About as sad a Viper Day as it can get ...

[XSnake]

I am upset they are not racing at mid ohio both last year and this year. I loved this race and now it seems the brickyard is the closes race I have. If my memory serves me right Mid-Ohio was the first track viper returned to. That was very cool to see. I feel bad for LeMans but worse for me.

The series chose not to go back to Mid Ohio, not SRT

[Shooter]

Ok look, you guys are reading this WAY to deeply. This isn't the first time it's ever happened.

Let's look at this from a history standpoint of the GTS-R. The original car debuted in 96' with Oreca ran a limited schedule, concentrating on the Euro and Asian BPR Global GT series, the 24 at LeMans and the Canaska Southwind team ran in the GTS-1 class of IMSA (pre-ALMS). That team finished 29th at Daytona and 12th at Sebring. When Oreca debuted in BRP in April, it failed to finish. Four GTS-R's, two for each team showed up at LeMans and the best finish was 10th. Canaska had the best finish of the year at Mosport finishing 2nd in class.

That was the debut year. THAT was a learning curve.

Oreca could afford to go to LeMans without spending so much cause Oreca was (and still is) a French race team. The 2nd year of the GTS-R program never went to LeMans and Oreca only had one Viper at Daytona. The rest after that is history. When ALMS debuted, Team Viper was the first GTS class champions.

So...

SRT starts a two-car team with Riley Technologies. The current car debuted at Sebring, finishing 6th. It finish 2nd at Mosport and then a month later WON at Road America. There was no 24 hour race in the 2013 ALMS season, so why NOT go to LeMans? Despite how ugly that race ended up do to the loss of Allan, it was still the ultimate test all year for the cars and they finished the race. They gathered data and used that to the advantage at Daytona this year AND IT SHOWED. Viper finished 5th and 9th in the championship standings for 2013.

Right now, three mildly adequate races in, Viper is sitting 3rd in the standings, crawling it's way up the ladder. Just two points behind BMW and five behind the manufacture-that-shall-not-be-named. There shouldn't be any blaming or finger pointing as to why SRT isn't going there. Why race at LeMans? Honestly? Why waste the time this year to do one race that has no impact on the USCR schedule. Riley Tech knows they have a dominant car. Let them focus their efforts in USCR, it's working so far with or without added weights or restrictors.

And not for nothing, no offense to our friends in Europe but is the Viper even on sale there? Can it? Wasn't the gen III in Europe just called an SRT-10 because Viper was already some copyright over there? I know of at least one car in Dubai and one in Germany and there is a privateer team in Europe with a GT3-R. Does the 'race on Sunday, sell on Monday' method even work anymore? I'm pretty sure there are at least 10 different reasons for buying a Camry or SS in a customers mind other than that Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon drive them in NASCAR...and that's another thing. Sports car racing probably isn't nearly as popular here stateside as it is in other countries.

I could go on but I'll stop here. I'm grateful for the efforts of Riley Technologies and and the support for the Viper. I hope they score some sweet victories this year and the years to come.

--RS

Bang on post Schen.

[Fatboy 18]

Fair post, but its still disappointing for us European fans

[ViperGTS]

There is plenty of arguments why racing in Le Mans is too expensive or does not fit the schedule of a certain team or or or... the same would be true for all other teams racing in Le Mans.

It's probably as simple as this: there is no more money in the bank for such an adventure!

[jrkermode]

Massively disappointed.

[I Bin Therbefor]

FWIS, if FIAT wants Ferrari to race in Europe and Viper in the US, that's OK by me. If Le Mans is on the future docket for Viper and a couple of US races is on the future docket for Ferrari, that too is OK by me. What's not OK is the Team Viper performance in races entered. I think Riley is a great engineering outfit. I'm not nearly so sure about their ability to race the cars. A separate race team might do better in addition to Riley as fabricators/engineers.

Further, I recall that the first year in racing was funded by the market budget. That raises questions as to how well the racing effort is funded. If Team Viper is to race, proper budget and organization is necessary. Is it there?