The level of talent headed to the Rolex 24 at Daytona continues to escalate with the announcement of Le Mans winners Romain Dumas and Loic Duval to CORE autosport’s WEC P2 Prototype entry.

The Frenchmen will join team owner/driver Jon Bennett and Colin Braun in the No. 54 ORECA 07-Gibson entry, and bring exceptional credentials to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program.

“Our team principal, Morgan Brady, was instrumental in searching the world for the best endurance drivers,” said Bennett. We have developed many great relationships since CORE’s beginnings in 2010. These relationships and Morgan’s talent for understanding personalities and strong team chemistry brought us to this incredible opportunity for us all.”

Stepping into the CORE team with Duval holds special meaning for Dumas as he seeks his first win at the prestigious event.

“Loïc and I were teammates at Audi in 2012 and as soon as I heard it was a possibility for him to be part of the team, I was very enthusiastic,” said Dumas, who blitzed the ALMS P2 category on behalf of Porsche in the late 2000s. “We live very close to each other – eight miles away – so we have a good relationship. It was clear when I spoke with him that we are there to achieve the best result and we are old enough to understand that we are here for the team and that’s very important for Daytona.”

For Duval, the quality of CORE’s outfit made signing on for the Rolex 24 an academic decision.

“The main thing I know about CORE is they are the GT factory team for Porsche and to be honest that is about it,” he said. “I spoke a little but with Romain and he explained to me about how professional the team is. It wasn’t a surprise though, because when you are a factory team for Porsche it means a lot already. I knew that the team was first class.”