Britain's last Le Mans 24 Hour race winner has put pen to paper in a deal that will see him driving for one of the most famous and successful marques in endurance sportscar history.

Guy Smith, who triumphed in the La Sarthe classic with Bentley in 2003, will compete for LMP2 honours in the 2007 American Le Mans Series at the wheel of a Porsche RS Spyder. The agreement means the 32-year-old will remain for a second consecutive season with New York-based Dyson Racing, which will be switching from the LMP1 Lola to a two-car Porsche entry for the expanded 12-race series, beginning with the Sebring 12 Hours in March.

“The Porsche was very good this year while the revised '07 model looks very sexy,” the Yorkshireman asserted. “I am confident it will have increased performance and other detail improvements.

“I believe LMP2 will be the class next season. There will be at least seven potential class-winning cars, entered by very good teams and each featuring top class driver line-ups. It's going to be a very tough year.”

Smith first competed in the ALMS in 2000 and finished sixth in the LMP1 Drivers' Championship this year, with a best result of second at Mosport. He will continue to partner Chris Dyson, while fellow American Butch Leitzinger shares with Britain's Andy Wallace.

“I'm confident that with the Dyson team and Chris, we can claim some wins and hopefully the ALMS LMP2 Championship,” he added.

“I've never driven a Porsche racing car before but I'm obviously aware of the company's amazing motorsport history and I'm very excited to be adding the Porsche marque to Bentley and Audi as one of the sportscars I have raced.”

Smith will drive the Dyson Racing Porsche for the first time in the ALMS Winter Test from 21-24 January at Sebring, before contesting the Daytona 24 Hours, also in Florida, with fellow Briton Oliver Gavin, Dyson and his father, Rob, in a Crawford Pontiac on 27-28 January.

The Porsche Spyder competed in this year's ten-round ALMS championship after making a class-winning race début at Laguna Seca 14 months ago. It registered eight LMP2 class successes including an outstanding one-two result outright at Mid-Ohio this season to clinch the manufacturers' and drivers' LMP2 titles.