Remember how Dodge retired from NASCAR right after winning the Sprint Cup Championship in 2012? Well, the Michigan-based automaker did it again, this time around announcing it’s pulling the plug on its sports car racing program; effective immediately. Specifically, Dodge is discontinuing the SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R racing program following a successful IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship season at the end of which SRT won both the team and driver titles in the GTLM class.
The news is heartbreaking to say the least.
"Our company has made a business decision to discontinue the SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R racing program," said Ralph Gilles, Senior Vice President of Product Design, Chrysler Group LLC. "We are very proud of the amazing achievements our fantastic teams, drivers and partners have achieved on track the last few seasons."
So how does Dodge explain this decision? Rather briefly, saying it "will redirect its focus and efforts on the brand’s product lineup." Although there’s no official confirmation, what really happened isn’t much of a mystery. Dodge is obviously trying to cut expenses, and the first hint that the Viper racing program is in danger surfaced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Chrysler cancelled the Viper’s trip to France due to lack of sponsorship and ultimately decided to kill the program altogether.
Let’s hope that racing money is going to improve the Viper and make it a better competitor to the new Corvette Z06.
Click past the jump to read more about the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R.
Dodge Discontinues Viper GTS-R Racing Program originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 7 October 2014 14:00 EST.
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