One of four announced drivers for the new SRT Viper American Le Mans Series program, IndyCar points leader Ryan Hunter-Reay confirmed Wednesday his participation in this year’s Petit Le Mans with the team.
“The Petit Le Mans is where I’d be driving the car in Atlanta, and it’s after the (IndyCar) season,” he said Wednesday.
Announced at the manufacturer’s launch, Hunter-Reay joined Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher and Marc Goossens as confirmed drivers. The Viper race dates have not been publicly announced, although the car is expected to premiere for several races before Petit, according to sources close to the program.
Hunter-Reay, whose torrid streak in IndyCar has seen him rip off three straight victories from Milwaukee through Toronto, will now have a singular focus for the remainder of the season rather than attempting to dovetail any ALMS commitments directly alongside.
“Yeah, it’s after the season, so I’m just going to keep focused on IndyCar during the season now, and there is really nothing else coming up that I know of,” he added.
Hunter-Reay has been one of the most versatile drivers this season; besides IndyCar, he has also raced in the Grand-Am Rolex Series at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in a Riley Ford Gen-2 Daytona Prototype, and at this year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring again with the Level 5 Motorsports P2 squad and its HPD ARX-03b. Hunter-Reay won the P2 class at Sebring in 2011 with Level 5.