The new SRT Viper squad had one goal on its mind entering the Mid-Ohio round of the American Le Mans Series – get to the finish.

Not only did both the No.91 and No.93 V10-powered machines make it to the checkered flag, they scored a top ten result on debut for Kuno Wittmer and Dominik Farnbacher.

“It wasn’t pretty but both cars finished,” said team boss, Bill Riley.

“We’ve got a lot to build on.  We’re about two seconds off where we need to be and that showed in the race.  Now we need to build on that and go from there.

“We were consistent but there are things we have to work on.  There are gains to make with the car.  We’ll keep chipping away on it.  I think we’ll get about half of the gap taken care of pretty quickly.”

The return of the Viper to the ALMS paddock was a fan highlight of the Mid-Ohio weekend.

“I’m very proud of my team,” Farnbacher said (pictured right).

“I could say mission accomplished because our goal was to finish the race.  We didn’t make a mistake.  We didn’t go off the track.  It was a good start for both teams, something to build on for the next race.”

The No.93 entry of Tommy Kendall and Marc Goossens had two minor incidents – slight contact with another car early in the race and a trek off course in one of the turns in the final minutes – but the American/Belgian duo still made it to the checkered flag.

“In a lot of ways, it feels like a win,” Kendall said.

“You get ahead of yourself, everybody want to run before they can walk.  But our goal was to run as many laps as we could and finish both cars.

“It’s a tribute to this group, these guys.  We’ve got plenty to work on.  I’m encouraged.  I though our race pace was decent.  There’s certainly some good take-aways.”