Menu to miss out after Ferrari fails scrutineering

The car has been designed and built by the Banbury-based motorsport engineering firm and was to be driven by reigining British Touring Car Champion and DTM star Alain Menu and his former Ford BTCC team mate Rickard Rydell.

Both Prodrive and Menu have had to forego their sportscar debuts due to transmission irregularities. The car is fitted with a transverse gearbox and the rules for the championship state that the 'position of the transmission is free, providing its location and orientation remain original' to the road-going car.

"We consider our car to be within both the spirit and the letter of the law," said Prodrive technical director David Lapworth. "We respect the view of the series scrutineer, and this is our first entry into sportscar racing, we do not wish to create any controversy."

The confusion has arisen due to the fact that some of the internal components of the Xtrac-built customer gearbox used by Prodrive, and other sportscar teams, are believed to have a different layout to those within the gearbox found on the road-going car.

"We are clearly very disappointed that we will not be racing this weekend," added Lapworth. "The team has done a fantastic job in preparing the car for its debut and were all ready to go out and see the car realise its potential."

An announcement from the company states that Prodrive is awaiting the outcome of discussions about the regulations before reconsidering its options.