Webber said he had signed a multiyear deal with Porsche to race prototype-style sports cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship series.
But Chris Reinke, head of the Le Mans racing prototype project at Audi, said it is the fact that new technology can be compared in the same race to the older technologies that makes the event — and laboratory — so attractive.
Kristensen, meanwhile, had chased down the leaders and put his Audi back on the lead lap, when he too was clipped by another car, this time the Rebellion racing prototype, at turn one.
Gidley, in the much faster GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing prototype which had been qualified on pole by Alex Gurney, hit the Risi Competzione Ferrari very heavily, after leaving the International Horseshoe (turn three) before the kink at turn four.
Factory-sponsored racing prototypes are sweeping the world's toughest endurance contests, while limited-production demonstration projects are showing that triple-digit fuel economy is no longer theoretical.
It incorporates competitive action on the track and promotes the development of new road car technology in racing prototypes, pushing manufacturers to combine high speed with maximising fuel efficiency and reliability.
In this handsome book, lavishly illustrated with photographs by John Lamm, he focuses primarily on the competition sports cars, among them the magnificent Testa Rossas, Dinos and Monzas, though the endurance racing prototypes and even a team truck are examined.
Infiniti's newest race car prototype is actually inspired by vintage race vehicles of the 1940s, with a torpedo-style sleek cylindrical body and offset wheels at the end of extended axes.
Dr. Travis Taylor, star of the National Geographic Channel's "Rocket City Rednecks," will run the race in prototype full-body armor.
Specifics are unknown, but reliable estimates put the cost of racing a prototype in the WEC at between $100m and $200m for the first year and well beyond $50m for each subsequent year.
"The objective is to allow both series to develop and enhance their championship personalities, retaining their leadership positions in the arena of world motorcycle road racing - WorldSBK, with its focus on production-based racing, and MotoGP with its focus on prototype racing".
