Rolex 24 all-nighter pays off, DragonSpeed ORECA to race

Shortly before 2 p.m. on Thursday, Loic Duval contacted the barrier exiting Turn 1 in the closing minutes of the second Rolex 24 at Daytona practice session. Duval was unhurt, but the Gibson-powered No. 81 Dragonspeed ORECA sustained major damage, sending the team scrambling to repair the car.

The team was forced to miss qualifying and night practice while changing to a spare tub. Duval was fourth fastest at 1m40.511s prior to the incident. At 5:45 a.m. on Friday morning, repairs were finally completed.

"It was a long night, but hopefully it's well worth it," said DragonSpeed crew chief Steve Noakes. "We had chassis damage, and went to a new tub. We got out of here about a quarter to six, went back for a shower, and then right back to the track. It's all good now."

Duval will be joined by Henrik Hedman, Nicolas Lapierre and Ben Hanley in Saturday's Rolex 24. As a result of missing qualifying, the will start 12th at the back of the Prototype grid.

Starting from the back is not an obstacle at the Rolex 24. Andy Lally had a see-saw weekend in 2011, when he went from the Rolex Series GT class pole to the back of the grid when the qualifying time for his TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup was disallowed due to improper mounting of the rear wing. Joined by Spencer Pumpelly, Wolf Henzler, Brendan Gaughan and Steven Bertheau, Lally came back to win – his fourth of five Rolex 24 class victories.