Having just won the 2014 IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship titles for both driver and team in the GTLM class with its SRT Motorsports works team, Chrysler has announced that it is ending its efforts in the competition. This means the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R racing program concluded this past Saturday at the season-ending Petit Le Mans event.
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The move is part of Chrysler’s decision to reposition SRT as a performance sub-brand of Dodge, with all focus now on the Dodge brand’s product lineup. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Viper will retire from racing for good, but any future factory efforts will likely be with a Dodge-branded team.
“Our company has made a business decision to discontinue the SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R racing program,” Chrysler design chief and the man in charge of the SRT Motorsports program Ralph Gilles said in a statement. “We are very proud of the amazing achievements our fantastic teams, drivers and partners have achieved on track the last few seasons.”
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As mentioned, those achievements included winning the 2014 IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship driver and team titles in the GTLM class. The driver title went to Kuno Wittmer, Marc Goossens and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
The championships were the first major North American sports car road racing titles for Viper in more than a decade and came less than three years after returning to competition halfway through the 2012 IMSA racing season. Vipers last captured a major North American sports car championship in the 2000 American Le Mans Series.
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