Herta to work with Vision Racing

But the 38-year-old former Champ Car and IndyCar race winner is adamant that he still intends to get back into a racing seat and is not retiring from the cockpit.

"This is a different kind of challenge for me, and I'm not setting off on this looking to become a driving coach, instructor or something like that," Herta said.

"It was an opportunity to start building a relationship with Vision Racing. I'm pretty open-minded about where that could go."

Vision's regular drivers Ed Carpenter and AJ Foyt IV have the least road course experience in the IRL IndyCar Series field, and Herta believes his extensive experience in Champ Car, IndyCar and sportscars will be a real boost to the team.

"The mental approach to a road course versus an oval, how do you approach when you put new tyres on the car or qualifying versus race set-up, nuances or whatever sticks out," he said.

"I thought it might be a place where I could help them a little and contribute to the programme.

"And I love racing, so it gave me a good reason to come out here and re-establish some relationships. I still want to race cars, so this isn't 'Ah, Bryan is going to start doing this instead.' It was a chance for me to build a relationship with an IndyCar team that I think is going places right now and be at the track."

Herta and co-driver Christian Fittipaldi lost their places in AGR's ALMS Acura line-up shortly before the Lime Rock race, having had a disappointing start to the 2008 season.

Prior to switching to sportscars in 2007, Herta had accumulated 179 race starts in Champ Car and IndyCar, taking four victories.