Porsche factory driver Patrick Pilet has been brought in to replace Dwight Merriman at IDEC Sport after Merriman was ruled out following his practice crash on Thursday.
Pilet was originally part of Porsche’s North American GTE Pro entries before they were withdrawn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Frenchman has never raced a prototype at Le Mans before.
Merriman, a regular in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, crashed the #17 ORECA 07-Gibson heavily in practice on Thursday and will not be able to compete at Le Mans, where he was set to make his debut.
Pilet teams up with Merriman’s IMSA partner Kyle Tilley and Jonathan Kennard in the blue ORECA, making him the second Porsche factory driver to late a callup to the LMP2 class at Le Mans after Nick Tandy joined the G-Drive by Algarve Pro team.
