RSR's Jaguar XKR GT2 To Debut at Petit Le Mans This Weekend

BRASELTON, Georgia — RSR's Jaguar XKR GT2 is being rolled out at the 12th annual Petit Le Mans event this week, a first step in what's planned to be a full run at the American Le Mans Series championship in the 2010 season. RSR team owner Paul Gentilozzi will be one of the three drivers using the track time at Road Atlanta to test and develop the Jaguar; the others are veteran sports-car racing drivers Scott Pruett and Mark Goossens.

Gentilozzi and his two sons formed RSR to build and race the Jaguar in the ALMS. Gentilozzi previously built and raced XKRs in the North American Trans-Am Series with his Rocketsports Racing team.

The RSR Jaguar is built from the aluminum skeletal structure of the production XKR and retains the production doors, roof and deck lid, Gentilozzi said. The body work for the GT2 racer was created in the Jaguar Advance Design Studio, with extensive aerodynamic modification, and the carbon fiber composite bodywork was produced in Michigan. The result, Gentilozzi says, is "a GT2 car that contains the DNA and the spirit of the Jaguar design department and the production car."

Yokohama is supplying the tires, and the RSR Jaguar will have a Bosch Motorsport ECU, Bosch spark plugs and Brembo brakes.

The Petit Le Mans event lasts for 10 hours and 1,000 miles, beginning at 11:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday. It will be covered live on the SPEED cable-TV channel.

Inside Line says: A little sneak preview of what to look forward to in 2010. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent