Emanuele Pirro will make an additional appearance with Drayson Racing in this weekend's Miller Motorsports Park American Le Mans Series round after owner/driver Paul Drayson sustained a non-racing-related foot injury.
Five-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner and former Audi factory driver Pirro was scheduled to join Drayson and his regular teammate Jonny Cocker in the team's LMP1 Lola for the endurance events only, but will now get an extra outing in Utah.
Drayson expects to be fit again for the following round at Lime Rock a fortnight later.
"I am very disappointed to be sitting this one out," he said. "I know that Emanuele and the team will do an outstanding job and I'm looking forward to cheering them on from the pit lane."
Team manager Dale White said it was a relief to be able to re-call Pirro in Drayson's absence.
"We're all incredibly disappointed that Paul won't be able to race with Jonny this weekend but, fortunately, we were able to get Emanuele on very short notice," he said.
"He has had to step out of a ride at the Le Mans Classic to do this but we can go into this race with the smallest amount of unknown variables and that is a huge advantage in a very disappointing scenario."