Lotus to expand involvement in Indy, GP2, GP3, GT and Le Mans racing

To say that Lotus has its hands full would be a gross understatement. In addition to the five new concept cars which the British automaker and engineering firm unveiled in Paris this year, Lotus is also expanding its racing programs in a big way. The House that Colin Built expressed its intentions to do so nearly a year ago, but as with the complete revamp of its entire product range, we didn't expect anything quite this drastic. Looks like we ought to be listening when the folks at Lotus speak.

In addition to the controversial licensing partnership that led to the marque's return to Formula One, Lotus has announced a whole slew of racing programs upon which it is embarking on in the near future. First up is the expansion of its Indy racing team – operated in partnership with former Champ Car chief Kevin Kalkhoven's KV Racing – from one car to two. Cosworth will undoubtedly be dropped from the effort as the F1 team switches to Renault power (the team also announcing a partnership with Red Bull Racing to use its gearboxes and other technologies for next season), and Lotus will be developing its own aerodynamics package on the new adaptable chassis that takes to the grid in 2012.

Moving beyond, Lotus is also teaming up with ART Grand Prix – champions of several single-seater feeder series – in both the GP2 and GP3 championships. (Lotus F1 chief Tony Fernandez meanwhile announced the launch of his own GP2 team running under the Air Asia banner.)

Not enough? Lotus isn't stopping there. Based on the enthusiasm garnered by the Evora GT4, Lotus is working on both GT3 and GT2 versions of the car, as well as a GT2 racer based on the new generation of vehicles displayed in Paris, though they aren't saying which one just yet. (That may be largely a marketing decision though, as the vehicles share a common architecture.) Last but not least, Lotus is also crafting a purpose-built, closed-cockpit Le Mans Prototype conforming to the ACO's LMP2 formula. That's a whole lot of racing goin' on, and there's yet more to read about in the press release after the jump.