Viper GTS-R makes competitive debut at Mid-Ohio

Saturday saw the Viper makes its much-anticipated return to competitive motorsports when SRT Motorsport's Team Viper successfully campaigned its pair of Viper GTS-R cars in the sixth round of the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. What did success look like? Far from a podium finish, Team Viper was pleased just to have both cars finish the race, and was pleasantly surprised to have one crack the top ten.

The two cars fielded were the No. 91 Forza Motorsports Viper GTS-R (blue/silver) driven by Kuno Wittmer and Dominik Farnbacher and the No. 93 Pennzoil Ultra car (yellow/silver) driven by Marc Gooseens and Tommy Kendall.

We were at the race and watched both Vipers make their debut. While not nearly quick enough yet to threaten the Corvettes, Porsches, BMWs and Ferraris that contend fiercely for the GT Class crown, the Vipers were nonetheless very consistent and Team Viper reports the cars actually got quicker as the race progressed.

While the No. 91 car made it through Mid-Ohio's 15-turn, 2.4-mile course all day without incident, and in fact spent most of its time running down the black-and-gold liveried Lotus Evora of Alex Job Racing, the No. 93 had two incidents, including an off-track excursion in the final minutes of the race. The GT Class was won on Saturday in a thrilling finish by Corvette Racing's Oliver Gavin, who held off the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in his No. 4 Corvette C6 ZR1 for the race's final 20 minutes.

With the addition of the Viper this year (and the Lotus Evora), the GT Class of ALMS racing has become one of our favorite series to watch, especially in person where the personalities of these cars can be felt thundering in your ears. The Viper's 8.4-liter V10 engine makes a very distinct sound on the track. While not as gutteral as the Corvette's 5.5-liter V8, it's also not as loud as the BMW M3's 4.0-liter V8 nor as shrieky as the Ferrari 458 Italia's 4.5-liter V8 either. It falls somewhere in between the the Corvette and BMW, and could stand to have its volume cranked up a notch. And though the Viper's new design looked the part of a menacing GT car on the track, we hope at some point the cars will be wearing liveries that harken back to the red-and-white-striped Oreca Vipers that dominated early ALMS racing.

The next time Team Viper competes will be at Road America in two weeks.