Humaid Al Masaood has been backed with his teammate Steven Kane to make an immediate impact in the American Le Mans Series when they make their debut in the championship this weekend.
The Emirati has paired up with Kane in a LMP1 Mazda Lola coupé to compete in the rest of the season, ahead of a full championship challenge in 2012.
The pair missed the first two rounds, but join it for tomorrow's third round at the Lime Rock Park track in Lakeville, Connecticut.
Al Masaood, who has previously competed in the Speed Euroseries, has already run a series of tests at the Monticello Motor Club's circuit in New York, where he enjoyed the performance of the car.
"The car will hit 320kph and reach 100kph in 3.2 seconds, so it's quite a beast," said Al Masaood.
Kane is confident it will not take long for he and his Abu Dhabi-based teammate to be competitive in the series.
"The hardest thing for Humaid and I will be learning the tracks in America," the Englishman said, "but I don't think that should be too much of a problem, and we'd like to think we could get a podium finish by the end of the year, ahead of a full assault on the championship in 2012."
The car is being run by Dyson Racing, and Chris Dyson, the vice-president and sporting director of the team, said he was impressed with both his new drivers.
"Humaid got up to speed incredibly quickly despite these cars being quite intimidating to drive," Dyson said.
"His professional and methodical approach allowed him to master the car quickly and start to work on improving his lap times. His teammate, Steven Kane, was also very comfortable in the car from the outset and gave extremely good feedback."
* Agency
