Patterson Replacing Injured McGuire at Aragon

United Autosports’ No. 23 Oreca 07 Gibson will move up from the LMP2 Pro-Am category to run as a Pro entry at this weekend’s 4 Hours of Aragon as Garnet Patterson has been brought in as a late replacement for Jim McGuire.

Bronze-rated driver McGuire suffered an accident during the first of a pair of test sessions on Wednesday, which the team said “aggravated an old injury.”

Instead, the Anglo-American squad has turned to Patterson, who raced for United’s LMP2 squad at the Asian Le Mans Series earlier this year.

Patterson will team up with full-season regulars Paul di Resta and Guy Smith for the four-hour night race in Spain instead.

With the addition of the Silver-rated Australian, the No. 23 machine moves out of the LMP2 Pro-Am class, which requires teams to field a Bronze-rated driver in its lineup.

As a result the team will have a pair of cars in the regular LMP2 ranks, with the No. 23 car joining the No. 22 entry driven by Marino Sato, Oliver Jarvis and Phil Hanson.

It retains a presence in the Pro-Am class through its third Oreca, which sees Filipe Albuquerque make his European Le Mans Series return alongside Daniel Schneider and Andy Meyrick in place of Nelson Piquet Jr.

Patterson, meanwhile, will run double duty at the event, also competing in the Michelin Le Mans Cup race in a United-entered Ligier JS P320 Nissan alongside Josh Caygill.