Deltawing Will Race with Modifications in 2013 ALMS Season

The Nissan DeltawingNissan DeltaWingJapan, 2012 > present19 photos
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will make its US competition debut in one week at Petit Le Mans, but a new announcement means that the car will see even more competition in the American Le Mans Series for the 2013 season.

The Deltawing will undergo some power modifications and race in the ALMS next season. Whether those upgrades will mean more boost for the turbo or an entirely new engine has not yet been announced. The IMSA sanctioning body's plan is to evaluate how the car compete's with LMP2s at Petit Le Mans and make the necessary modificatoins. The car will get some reliability and chassis modifications for next reason regardless. 

“Nissan DeltaWing attracted enormous fan and media interest throughout the world as a result of it racing at Le Mans – and fan interest in seeing the DeltaWing race at Petit Le Mans is extremely strong. There is no question DeltaWing is selling tickets as a result of it making its North American competition debut at Road Atlanta," said Scott Atherton, ALMS President and CEO.

Highcroft Racing, which races the Deltawing, is hinting that if things are successful, the car will be offered to customer teams. Although, how that will work with the 2014 rule changes is unknown. 

“Seeing the car compete at Petit Le Mans will provide us with an important comparison to the current prototype competition. The car has some significant advantages (lower weight) and major disadvantages (lower horsepower). The data gathered from Petit Le Mans will be very important for us to finalize the rules package and apply any performance balancing which may be required," said Scot Elkins, ALMS COO.

Source: ALMS