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Dodge pulls factory-backed Viper from Road Racing

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Very depressing news came from Dodge today when it announced that it will pull its factory-backed SRT Motorsports Viper from the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship after the 2014 season. This is just within days of multiple wins. SRT Motorsports won the 2014 IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GTLM-class driver and team championships in the season-ending Petit Le Mans 10-hour endurance race at Road Atlanta just two days ago, Saturday, October 4. It also finished second in the GTLM manufacturer championship, all in just its second full year of the program.

This and a strong heritage for Viper in road racing means that success can't be the problem. Why is Dodge pulling the plug? It is unclear but, according to Ralph Gilles, Senior Vice President of Product Design at Chrysler, it is a business decision. He said: “Our company has made a business decision to discontinue the SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R racing program. 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.”

I can only think of funding as being the challenge. I hope that funding is the only problem and that it will be available to put back into the sport soon. For now, we will have to miss the Viper unless an independent team decides to go at it.


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