Ryan Hardwick is unfortunately out of this weekends Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The American had a big accident in yesterday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge practice session, where he crashed heavily in the Bus Stop Chicane in his Porsche 718 Cayman GT4.
He was sent to the hospital for an overnight stay, but is in stable condition – but not able to race the car.
This is the second crash in five days for Hardwick, who destroyed his Porsche 911 GT3 R car in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship night practice session. That car was so heavily damaged, that the team had to buy a new car, and then put their engine, gearbox etc into that chassis, so they were able to compete in the qualifying race on Sunday afternoon.
Hardwick is usually a solid gentleman driver, closing the 2020 season by winning the 12 Hours of Sebring with Wright Motorsports, with Jan Heylen and Patrick Long as teammates.
The pair will have Trent Hindman as a teammate, alongside Porsche works driver Klaus Bachler, who was 4th man on the car anyway.
Hindman has raced the IWSC championship for the last few seasons, being a full season driver on Meyer Shank Racing Acura first, and then moving into endurance driver for Heinricher Racing Acura in GTD.
Racing24-7.net wish Ryan Hardwick a speedy recovery, and hope to see him back in a racing car in the near future.