IMSA: Falken team set for overnight thrash to make Petit Le Mans

Team Falken Tire is situated approximately 50 feet from Michael Shank Racing in the Road Atlanta paddock, and having seen the MSR team pull off a miracle to get their car ready overnight for Petit Le Mans, they'll have a chance to perform a miracle of their own after their Porsche 911 RSR was badly damaged in qualifying.

Where MSR had the "luxury" of suffering their crash late Thursday night, Bryan Sellers' qualifying crash approximately 18 hours before the start of the race will leave the Falken crew very little time to straighten the Porsche's bent chassis.

The Derrick Walker-owned, Phil Howard-led team removed the car's engine, transmission, and suspension before transporting the car to a local frame shoplate Friday afternoon. Porsche then supplied jigs that will allow the frame repair experts to assess the how much the affected areas of the car moved in Sellers' meeting with the barriers at Turn 4, and provided the GT Le Mans racer can be pulled back into alignment, the team will start the process of re-installing the drivetrain and suspension.

"There's a local shop that has all the tools to repair it," Walker (RIGHT) told RACER. "The way these chassis are made, there are lots of bits that are bolted and glued together, so when you try to move them back, you break a lot of those seals so you have to do a proper inspection and repair.

"The hit wasn't as bad as we thought it might be, and I think we'll be OK fixing it, but it's a question of time and how long it will take to get it straight and then put everything back together."

The Walker Racing team will wait to learn the results of the chassis straightening efforts and plan to react as soon as word comes in. As the final race for the Falken IMSA program, the team will do all they can to ensure they're on the grid.

"We'll know later tonight whether we'll make it or not," Walker continued. "We're obviously pushing as hard as we can because we want to have a proper send-off for Falken and thank them and reward them for their years of great partnership with our team and all they've done for the fans.

"I think we can do it, but it will take all night, for sure. It will be a complete rebuild. It's the last race, so we've got to do everything in our power to make it happen."