Patrón Highcroft Racing's work as the official factory-backed team for Honda Performance Development continued last week with the first track test for the 2011-spec LMP engine.

The 2.8 liter, twin-turbo V6 was unveiled at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2010 American Le Mans Series LMP co-champion Simon Pagenaud was charged with putting the first on track laps on the new power plant at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, South Carolina.

The team's championship winning 3.4 liter normally aspirated V8 was swapped for the new engine - a process which took approximately seven weeks with the Highcroft engineering squad making small tweaks to the bodywork for the new engine to fit components such as the turbo intercoolers.

The team completed 435 miles on the new production-based engine over the two day test.

"The regulations for next year will slow down both LMP1 and LMP2 cars so it obviously felt slower than our car from this season, but overall the new engine ran exceptionally," Pagenaud said.

"The HPD boys always do an outstanding job and I was incredibly impressed with how smoothly everything went. The car/engine package was very easy to drive straight away and the turbo was a real surprise.

"While it obviously lacks the top speed from the V8, the level of torque was very impressive."

Honda Performance Development enjoyed an incredible year of success in 2010 - taking the American Le Mans Series championship in the most competitive season in ALMS history.

HPD also took class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Strakka Racing and the HPD-powered Lola of RML took the LMP2 championship in the European-based Le Mans Series.