by Russell Atkins
Johnny Herbert believes CET Solaroli Motorsports will be capable of challenging for outright American Le Mans Series honours on its full-time debut next season, despite the project being somewhat behind schedule.
The Briton will once again team up with fellow ex-grand prix ace and former Champion Audi team-mate JJ Lehto, behind the wheel of an LMP2-class Porsche RS Spyder. Both are previous winners of the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance classic, while Lehto lifted the 2004 ALMS crown and with some 23 series triumphs to his name currently lies equal fourth in terms of career ALMS successes.
The Porsche Spyder project is getting off the ground, Herbert told
Crash.net during his recent P1 Powerboat tryout at Lake Como in northern Italy, and there's a chance of us going off to do a bit of testing towards the end of the month.
It is a little bit behind schedule sadly, and everyone's a little bit frustrated by that, but it's still moving forwards. I think by the beginning of September we'll be a bit more on top of everything.
We know we can't really do anything this year. Ok, we can go out there and possibly win races, but we want to be in a position where we can start next year in a proper manner. We know the LMP2s are competitive; we know the Porsche is competitive at the moment. There's no point in rushing into this. The main thing is to go out there and win it next year. We just need to get the whole thing feeling right.
As to being reunited with Lehto, having last partnered the Finn in an Audi LMP1 machine four years ago when the duo emerged victorious in four of the nine encounters, only narrowly missing out on the title to the factory Audi outfit Herbert's serious side gave way to his more widely-recognised mischievous grin and cheeky-chappie demeanour.
![JJ Lehto [left] and Johnny Herbert celebrate their win in the Road America 500 [Pic credit: ALMS/Rick Dole]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/63739.jpg )
