No LeMans this year for SRT

[XSnake]

http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/new...-from-le-mans/

[RedTanRT/10]

Sorry to hear this!

[ACRucrazy]

I've heard a few mentions about not making it. This is the first official.
I can't understand why so I won't speculate. I'm sure there are reasons and it's for the better.

[Ohiotj]

It sucks as I record the whole race and watch it over the next few days. I liked being able to follow the vipers. However I hope they stay active in racing in the states. This means more to me then Le Mans. If the budget would have got blown all at one race vs running the season in Tudor then I am all for it.

[TowDawg]

The way that IMSA is going, I would pull out of it and run as many other races as I could (including LeMans). It seems everyone in that organization either has their head completely up each others asses, or are just dumber than bricks.

[Solid Red 98]

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/leman...-from-le-mans/

Poor sales are packing a wallop. :-(

[mnc2886]

This is way worse than I thought....

[Policy Limits]

U kidding? Lots of folks are happy. I'm just not one of 'em

[daytonprowler]

The way that IMSA is going, I would pull out of it and run as many other races as I could (including LeMans). It seems everyone in that organization either has their head completely up each others asses, or are just dumber than bricks.

+ 1

[Propsail]

Really bad/sad news

[Solid Red 98]

I know it is extremely expensive to send a works team to LeMans, but they really need to bite the bullet and send them anyway. It is far too early to concede on such a high profile race so early. I'm getting the same sick feeling in my stomach that came regarding the ME412 and Daimler. The Viper just has too much spanking potential to share the track spotlight with Ferrari. How many halo cars can a company get behind? I hate to see Chrysler/Dodge be the doormat for another foreign mark.

[VRYALT3R3D]

Here is a better, more credible source:

Details remain sketchy as to exactly why SRT Motorsports elected to cancel its Le Mans outing. One rumored reason is that the extra endurance races scheduled for this season because of the combination of the Grand-Am and American Le Mans Series -- which meant adding races such as the Rolex 24 at Daytona to the Vipers’ schedule -- has caused the company to concentrate its spending on the American market, where sales of the new Viper road car have been disappointing. It is also possible that the company may be concentrating more on the sales of its privateer Viper GT3-R package eligible for the GT-Daytona class of the United SportsCar Championship through team principal Bill Riley and his company.

When asked Monday evening by Autoweek if skipping Le Mans is a result of low Viper road-car sales and the recent shutdown at Detroit’s Conner Ave. Plant where the cars are built, an SRT source said, “No, motorsports and product strategy are two separate business functions.”

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2014...SCAR/140329918

[mnc2886]

Here is a better, more credible source:


http://www.autoweek.com/article/2014...SCAR/140329918

Much better to hear I guess. I really don't want the Gen V to go away. I would really like to see it evolve.

[slitherv10]

Well look back at one of my earliest posts and I had stated that bringing out a race division with a low budget and a new car will only hurt them and the Viper. Well here it is folks.

I always said that putting the money towards the street version and doing more internal testing and marketing was the key to survival and sales. Unfortunately they went the different route and put millions of the 120 million they may have had towards the racing division and cut short the street car. Many said, not enough money to make the car go faster, others said it was the best they could do with such a small budget. Well it would have been a bigger budget had they implemented most of that money towards better marketing and a more powerful mean son of a you know who, in your face, brute monster that all were awaiting from SRT.

Maybe they are retooling for the ACR version and surprise everyone in a few months with the 2015 ACR.....keep your fingers crossed, I think its coming.

[2010.Blue.White.ACR]

Very sad indeed

[V10LEE]

If it's not because of financial reasons. Then FIAT want's their Ferraris on top. After all it is their Halo Car..

[mnc2886]

Well look back at one of my earliest posts and I had stated that bringing out a race division with a low budget and a new car will only hurt them and the Viper. Well here it is folks.

I always said that putting the money towards the street version and doing more internal testing and marketing was the key to survival and sales. Unfortunately they went the different route and put millions of the 120 million they may have had towards the racing division and cut short the street car. Many said, not enough money to make the car go faster, others said it was the best they could do with such a small budget. Well it would have been a bigger budget had they implemented most of that money towards better marketing and a more powerful mean son of a you know who, in your face, brute monster that all were awaiting from SRT.

Maybe they are retooling for the ACR version and surprise everyone in a few months with the 2015 ACR.....keep your fingers crossed, I think its coming.

If anything, the GTS-R was the test mule for the ACR. Ralph cited down force statistics that were what I was hearing for the GTS-R. I hope NYIAS has a surprise in store....

[100]

The Viper is way too Handicapped by the LeMans committee already (would you want to bowl against me with a 250 point handicap -- probably not. The racing is only good for Viper product development. As soon as the Viper has another win, the race officials will handicap it more. Staying out of europa sounds really good. SRT wants to focus, and that's cool. We need to show some support of Conner Avenue and the rest of the SRT team. As the Audi R8 puts Audi on the map, the Viper puts SRT on the map, which elevates Dodge. What car do you covet more than on orange TA? These folks are kicking ass, and its going to get better.

The French are getting off dictating a castrated Viper (extra weight, restrictors, less fuel).

[Coloviper]

Confirmed replacements are two Ferraris. Pretty easy to see what just happened here. Either way, maybe it will direct the money to some of the production cars like the upcoming convertible. Not great news but not the end of the world either.

[SWEEN]

They might be two separate departments but if the viper had amazing sales they wouldn't withdrawal. Just like when they said sales are going as planned, they are obviously not going to say "Yeah sales are awful so were going to shut down the plant for a little bit".

Anyways very sad news. Hopefully 2015 will sell better!

[ViperSmith]

Personally I think the races are all bullshit because they handicap the Viper and C7R to the point they can't compete.

But sad.

[Schen]

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

[hemotox]

FYI

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2014...mpaign=awAlert

[Ohiotj]

You really can't even blame the mistakes with being a new series. The mistakes were just simple human errors. It could happen to anyone. I promise they didnt make the wrong calls on purpose. It could have been handled better but any sport has some problems. I watched a cleveland indians game last year where the umpires watched video review of a home run ball. It was clear the other team hit a homer. However even after watching the tape the umpires still got it wrong. And the call was very obviouse. If IMSA had fundamental problems I would say jump ship. But I feel they are a sound series ho will only get better.

[Sybil TF]

Bummer.