The factory Viper racing program is no more.
Despite winning both the 2014 Driver and Team Championships in this year’s inaugural TUDOR United Sports Car Championship and coming in second place for the Manufacturers Title, Chrysler has decided to end the Viper’s race program.
The loss of the factory-backed effort from Chrysler/Dodge is a blow to the GTLM class of the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship which also features the factory-backed entries from Chevrolet (Corvette), BMW, Porsche and Ferrari.
According to the announcement, the Dodge brand will redirect its focus and efforts on the brand’s product lineup.
Ralph Gilles, Senior Vice President of Product Design, Chrysler Group LLC., says it was a business decision to discontinue the SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R racing program and that the Dodge brand will redirect its focus and efforts on the brand’s product lineup.
“We are very proud of the amazing achievements our fantastic teams, drivers and partners have achieved on track the last few seasons. We thank them for their hard work, effort and commitment to SRT Motorsports. It’s been an honor to be a part of the inaugural IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship season and we wish them every success in the future,” said Gilles in the statement.
While the newly redesigned Corvette Stingray has been a hit with buyers, sales of the Dodge Viper have fallen way off this year with new car deliveries averaging around 50 Vipers per month. With an MSRP that starts at $102K, the Viper will also be impacted by the coming of the 650 hp Corvette Z06 which has a starting price at $78,998.
Earlier this year, Viper bowed out of its planned participation at the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well.
The Viper GTS-Rs were great competition in the IMSA racing series and after finally achieving recognition for their efforts over the last two years by earning two of the three championships in GTLM class, we and countless other racing fans are very sorry to see them go.
Source:
DailySportsCar.com
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