Price sacked by Panoz

Price's departure comes just as the team heads towards the second half of the ALMS calendar and according to this week's Autosport magazine, the Englishman was sacked from his position as director of racing last week, but is to use the time to resurrect his own team, Dave Price Racing.

"This gives me a little bit of time to re-instigate DPR for next year," said Price. "I want to do something and I want to take a view on what that might be over the coming months."

The Panoz team notched up a third place finish at the opening round of the ALMS championship in Texas, but has never matched its season-opening pace and both LMP07 cars retired at Le Mans last month.

Panoz suggested that the team needs to be more centralised and the fact that Price is based in the UK while Panoz's HQ is in Georgia made communication difficult.

"We needed someone who wasn't just flying in for the races," said Panoz. "Because of his other business commitments, Dave was unable to offer us any more of his time."

Price added: "It wouldn't have been my choice to leave the team in the middle of the season, but it is Don's team and he makes the decisions."

Price will retain his minority share-holding in the Panoz organisation. He does not yet know what direction he will take with DPR, which has not raced since 2000, when it entered two Panoz cars in the SportsRacing World Cup.