Corsa Motorsports was able to celebrate a historic first outing under hybrid power in the American Le Mans Series after Johnny Mowlem and Stefan Johansson took third place at Lime Rock Park.

The Ginetta-Zytek, which had previously raced under traditional power prior to the hybrid bow, followed the two Acuras home to complete the podium having run without any major issues.

“The car raced well,” Mowlem said. “We have more development work to do with the hybrid power as well as sorting all the various car handling issues that this technology brings with it, but we know there is tremendous potential from a competitive point of view. Perhaps more importantly, every advancement we make with this racing package will eventually find its way to road vehicles on the public roads, which is a huge part of all this.

“We used the hybrid motor the entire race, completed the race and finished on the podium. It's nice to have been a part of making a little piece of history! All in all, a good weekend.”

The main issue the team faced was that it struggled through the race to produce sufficient power from its battery to offset the 85 kilograms of additional weight the system adds - hitting the car's overall performance and highlighting the need for the team to find and develop improved battery technologies that can deliver the necessary power.

However, team boss Steve Pruitt was still happy with the weekend.

“It was a giant first step,” he said “and to be on the podium in our maiden race was even more reassuring that we are headed down the right path that represents the future of the electrification of advanced vehicle technologies. Now that we have given birth to the system competitively, we must now focus on how we track down the big budget factory teams in front of us using the technology that will enable us to do so.”