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DeltaWing to Leave Roar Test Early After Accident

DeltaWing to head home early after accident in Saturday’s fourth session…

Photo: Darren Pierson

Photo: Darren Pierson

The promising Roar Before the Rolex 24 test for the DeltaWing has been cut short, with the team confirming on Saturday it will head home early after an accident in Turn 4 during the fourth test session of the weekend.

Memo Rojas, in his second day of running in the now all-white and Claro/Tracfone-backed No. 0 DeltaWing DWC13 coupe, lost the aero through Turn 4, the Kink, and made left side damage to the car’s left rear quarter panel. He was evaluated and released from the infield care center.

The car was brought back to the garage on a flatbed and after the team surveyed the damage, determined it was too extensive to repair on site.

The team will now leave and return to its Braselton, Ga. base to make repairs before the Rolex 24 at Daytona itself. It had planned to depart after Saturday’s running anyway; this just brings the departure schedule time forward to today.

Rojas co-drives with Katherine Legge, Gabby Chaves and Andy Meyrick.

Chaves, who set the car’s fastest time on Friday of 1:39.536 before the team improved another tenth on Saturday to 1:39.484 in session three, was still enthused with the car’s progress this week.

“We know where we need to improve and we’re already so much better than last year,” Chaves said. “We’ll fix this damage and go onto the Rolex 24 itself.”

The DeltaWing completed 12 laps in this session before the accident. In the first three sessions, the team completed 105 laps (29, 48, 26), so the team heads home with a total of 117 laps banked over two days.

Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) is Sportscar365's North American Editor, focusing on coverage of the IMSA-sanctioned championships as well as Pirelli World Challenge. DiZinno also contributes to NBCSports.com and other motorsports outlets. Contact Tony

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