IndyCar team to expand into sportscars

The Honda-powered Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team, which fields entries for 2010 ALMS P1 co-champion Simon Pagenaud and rookie Mikhail Aleshin, is working on joining the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in 2015, and has targeted a Prototype berth with Honda's new ARX-04b coupe.

"We're looking at complementing our IndyCar program with sports cars due to the level of technologies involved, and with our relationship with Honda Performance Development, sports car racing is a natural route for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to be considering," SPM General Manager Rob Edwards told RACER.

"It's not a stretch for us; when we look at our HPD relationship, the big investment we've made in simulation tools, and the limited testing on the horizon, it's a very similar challenge to IndyCar in that regard. There's a wealth of sports car experience to be drawn upon, as well," added Edwards.

"And the more programs you can spread those tools and resources across, the more it makes sense. It all has taken significant budget investments, and there's a lot of parallels in what we do in IndyCar and what it takes to be successful in sports car racing. Be it driver-in-the-loop simulation or vehicle dynamic simulation, they're applicable to both series and we'd like to be in both if we can make things happen."

"We'd hope it would be of interest for funded drivers and sponsors, but across the board, it would also fit with our IndyCar program, the sponsors we have there already, the Indy 500 – one of the world's biggest events, and we'd think anyone involved with our sports car program would be able to take part in some of the high-profile things that we do," Edwards explained.

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