Scott Sharp will return to his American Le Mans Series roots in 2013 with Extreme Speed Motorsports set to swap to the P2 prototype class.

Moving into the purpose-built Honda Performance Development ARX-03b prototypes, Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) will run for the P2 championship beginning with the 61st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida next month.

The ESM driver lineup remains the same with Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek co-driving the No. 01 Tequila Patrón racing machine, and Ed Brown and Guy Cosmo in the sister No. 02 Tequila Patrón prototype.

The announcement comes off the heels of ESM’s best season to date where Sharp and van Overbeek finished second in the GT championship in 2012, which included victories at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Petit Le Mans.

ESM owner/driver Sharp returns to prototype racing where he won the ALMS LMP1 championship in 2009 aboard the Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-02a prototype with co-driver David Brabham. The pairing also won four times in Acura’s P2 car during the 2008 ALMS season. Sharp’s co-driver van Overbeek is new to the P2 class but has amassed more than 100 ALMS starts and expects to be up to speed quickly in the new black and green racing machine.

Racing in the P2 class will be new to Brown who will team up Como – a former P2 race-winner with a 2005 victory in a Mazda-powered prototype.

The 2013 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila begins with the 61st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida on March 11-16.

“I’m very proud that ESM will move to the P2 class, effective immediately. We will have two Honda ARXs for next month’s ALMS season-opener at Sebring,” Sharp said.

“We enjoyed our three-year run in the GT class with Ferrari. If the GT class is a strong factory-supported class and you are not a full manufacturer entry, everything falls on the shoulders of the team. As a result, the independent teams are at a serious disadvantage compared to their factory-supported counterparts.

“For ESM to win two races last year, finish second in the GT championship and beat the top factory GT teams in the world is a huge testament to the time, effort, energy and dedication of everyone at ESM and Tequila Patrón.

“We feel we have a terrific opportunity to learn and develop the P2 car this year, and that will put us in an ideal position going into the merged season of 2014!