Gil de Ferran doesn't expect to ride into the American Le Mans Series as successfully as he rode out of Indy-car racing. But his track record suggests repeating that kind of success can't be ruled out, either.
More than four years after ending a stellar open-wheel career with an IRL IndyCar Series victory at Texas Motor Speedway, the 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner announced Tuesday his return to racing with Acura's fourth LMP2 team in the road-based ALMS. The Brazilian will be the lead driver for the new de Ferran Motorsports, with other drivers and personnel to be named for the ARX-01b prototype.

"Getting back in the car is exciting, and having a team is what I'm excited about," said de Ferran, 40. "This takes it to a new level, it fulfills an ambition and I hope it works out."

De Ferran will not race in the season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring (Fla.) in March but vows to be ready by midseason. He has hired general manager John Anderson, who helped guide Dario Franchitti to Indy 500 and IndyCar Series titles last year as one of Andretti Green Racing's two team managers.

Legendary team owner Roger Penske, for whom de Ferran won two CART championships and one of Penske's record 14 Indy 500 trophies, also has added input. De Ferran wouldn't say whether this effort would lead to ownership in either the Champ Car World Series or IRL, choosing to focus more on the job at hand.

The Fort Lauderdale resident will set up shop in Indianapolis.

"I've already got a full plate and am really pushing hard for it to work," he said.

De Ferran said this venture is the culmination of an idea that began after he joined CART in the mid-1990s. He developed relationships over time with industry folks and particularly with Honda as he drove the brand to back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001.

After winning Indy (in a Toyota) and finishing second in points, de Ferran retired and briefly worked as a television commentator before becoming sporting director for Honda's Formula One operation in 2005.

That two-year stint provided valuable background for starting and running a team. So did the confidence he built from racing other series.

"There were people I constantly talked with a number of years, and when I went to Europe with the F1 team, we talked about (forming) a potential team back then," he said. "It just so happened that the timing was right for me and for Acura, which was looking to expand its program, and that type of business interested me.

"(Retirement) was (the) thing to do at the time, and I was eager to do other things and move on. But over the last four years I've been exposed to different things and learned a lot in the process, and it has prepared me for the step I'm making now."

Acura, which entered ALMS last season and won its debut at Sebring behind Andretti Green's IRL trio of Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Bryan Herta — returns with AGR, Lowe's Fernandez Racing and Highcroft Racing. The new ARX-01b chassis features an updated 3.4-liter V8 engine built by Honda Performance Development.

Gil de Ferran already has made himself right at home in the American Le Mans Series by posting the fastest time in Friday's test session for the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by the Grand and Little America Hotels. De Ferran, whose de Ferran Motorsports team is debuting this week, toured Miller Motorsports Park in 1:32.424 (118.772 mph).

De Ferran, a former Indy 500 winner and two-time CART champion, will drive his Acura ARX-01b with Simon Pagenaud for the balance of the 2008 season in LMP2. This is his first race since winning his IndyCar finale at Texas in 2003 and he hardly showed any rust whatsoever. Four of his last five laps in Friday's session were better than anyone else on the 3.048-mile, 15-turn circuit just outside of Salt Lake City.

"The run and the handling was quite good," de Ferran said. "The grip was low because the track is hot. We kept the tires on to test the balance of the car on a long run It was good to be so competitive with all the cars on the track."

De Ferran was 0.489 seconds better than Marco Werner in Audi Sport North America's leading Audi R10 TDI, the fastest of the LMP1 entries. Werner, who will drive with Lucas Luhr, put in a lap of 1:32.913 (118.098 mph) was nearly 0.8 seconds better than Penske Racing's Romain Dumas in the No. 7 Porsche RS Spyder and another tenth-of-a-second quicker than Frank Biela in the second Audi.

The traffic was tight," said Pagenaud. "We got used to passing cars every lap. We know the race will be tough and it's only Friday. We know Porsche and Audi will do much work overnight."

Dumas was second in LMP2 with teammate Timo Bernhard, who saw their eight-race class winning streak end with a runner-up finish at Long Beach. Third in P2 was Dyson Racing's Marino Franchitti with a 1:33.457 (117.410 mph) in the Porsche RS Spyder he will share with Butch Leitzinger.