Guy Smith will be seeking a winning start to his 2008 American Le Mans Series season when the new campaign kicks off next weekend at Sebring.

The 33-year-old Briton will line-up with Chris Dyson in one of the Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyders for the event, which will feature a bumper entry of competitive cars in the LMP2 class.

Eager to kick-start his campaign in the best possible way, Smith admitted that Sebring is the hardest event on the calendar with only the Le Mans 24 Hours in the summer being more difficult.

"Sebring is definitely the hardest ALMS race and arguably the highlight of the ALMS season as well as it being the first race of the year which makes you pumped up in itself," he said. "There is always an amazing atmosphere and a crowd in excess of 120,000.

"As it's the first race of the season it's important to come away from the race with some points under your belt – it's a long twelve-race series which doesn't end until mid-October. A good result in the opening race would set up the season perfectly but twelve hours around Sebring can throw up a number of unknowns.

"The Sebring race is incredibly tough – only the Le Mans 24 Hours being more arduous, physically and mentally demanding for a driver plus mechanically challenging for a car. Indeed it's commonly believed that twelve hours of racing in the intense Florida heat at Sebring is the same as the twice-around-the-clock event in France."

The new season marks Smith's third season with the Dyson team and second at the wheel of the RS Spyder which has undergone a series of changes over the winter.

"The 2008 Porsche Spyder RS features a number of small, detailed changes compared to last year's model which the Dyson team and myself raced for the first time in 2007," he said. "Having got that season of experience under our belts, the Dyson team – and me for that matter – will definitely have a better understanding and knowledge of the Porsche which is a totally different machine from the Lola the team previously ran.

"The recent test at Sebring went really. We started with a blank sheet of paper concerning a new set-up and we spent three days fine-tuning the chassis to the notoriously bumpy Sebring track which features a lot of surface changes. We'll start the Sebring race week having made a lot of progress."