Ever since Peugeot revealed its wild and wingless 9X8 hypercar for the World Endurance Championship in 2022, Stellantis has been linked with running it under a different brand in America.
The multinational car manufacturing conglomerate – which owns the brands Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram Trucks and Vauxhall – had been tipped to race the car under the Dodge banner in IMSA SportsCar Championship competition.
When Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Total.com asked Stellantis’s racing boss Jean-Marc Finot at the Spa 6 Hours whether such aspirations still existed, he replied: “I don’t think IMSA is suitable for a brand like Dodge.”
He added: “Dodge produces muscle cars that are more suited to GT cars. The visibility for Dodge would probably be better in NASCAR.”
Dodge was involved in NASCAR’s top division from 2001 to 2012 and boasts a flagship road car model in the Challenger SRT Hellcat, which is not currently active in international racing. Stellantis is also inactive in GT3 racing and would have to set up a customer racing department to do so.
The former Fiat-Chrysler Group was last involved in the American Le Mans Series and IMSA as a factory force with the SRT Viper a decade ago, while its most-recent appearance dates back to the GTD victory at the 2016 Petit Le Mans with a Viper GT3 model run by Riley Motorsports and driven by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Marc Miller.
#33 Riley Motorsports SRT Viper GT3-R: Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Marc Miller
Photo by: Action Sports Photography
For Stellantis, the subject of IMSA is not on the agenda for the time being, according to Finot: “We have a car, but we don’t see any need to compete in IMSA. First and foremost, we have to take care of the performance of the Peugeot WEC team.
“You could think about the Maserati brand, but we are already involved in Formula E with this.”
In addition, DS Automobiles is also active in Formula E with Jay Penske’s team, but this is not an obstacle due to the group’s electrification strategy.
Peugeot has run its 9X8 Evo model, which includes a rear wing, since the six-hour race in Imola, but has so far not achieved more than two seventh-placed finishes.
The 9X8 will make its American debut in the upcoming WEC round at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas on 1 September.
Meanwhile, Aston Martin will become the first manufacturer to run a car in IMSA’s GTP class built to Le Mans Hypercar regulations next year, although its Valkyrie is a non-hybrid – unlike all of its LMDh rivals.