24 Hours of Le Mans winners Romain Dumas (pictured) and Loïc Duval will contest the Rolex 24 at Daytona next January with the CORE Autosport squad.
The pair will co-drive an ORECA 07-Gibson with CORE regulars Jon Bennett and Colin Braun, who are moving up to the Prototype category of the IMSA Sportscar Championship.
CORE Autosport won the IMSA Prototype Challenge title in 2015, and has also run the Porsche North American factory GT programme since 2014.
Both Dumas and Duval have prior experience in the ORECA – Dumas raced an Alpine-badged version at Le Mans, while Duval raced an 07-Gibson entered by the DragonSpeed squad at Daytona earlier this year.
Duval also made a one-off appearance in a G-Drive Racing ORECA at the Bahrain finale of the World Endurance Championship in November.
The French pair bring numerous high-profile sportscar achievements to the table, and join a star-studded field that also includes two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso and current Williams driver Lance Stroll.
Dumas, a current Porsche factory asset, won Le Mans in 2010 (with Audi) and 2016 and is also a World Endurance champion and three-time Pikes Peak hillclimb winner.
Duval, meanwhile, is contracted with Audi in DTM and claimed overall honours for the German manufacturer at Le Mans in 2013 with Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish.
“I am excited to share our new ORECA 07 with an amazing group of all-star teammates," said Bennett.
"Both Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval are simply two of the most talented race drivers in the world."
"Both have unmatched experience in 24 hour endurance competitions. In the trophy case, both Romain and Loïc have proof of the day they stood upon the podium as overall champion at Le Mans."
"I know Colin [Braun] and I share our new teammates’ passion for adding the Rolex 24 overall win to our collection of victories."
Dumas added: “Loïc and I were teammates at Audi in 2012 and as soon as I heard it was a possibility for him to be part of the team, I was very enthusiastic."
"We live very close to each other—eight miles away—so we have a good relationship. It was clear when I spoke with him that we are there to achieve the best result and we are old enough to understand that we are here for the team and that’s very important for Daytona."
"I think the ORECA's pace will be pretty good. I know we have a lot of competition ahead of us. First, we have to do our own race, without looking at everyone else, then the race will come to us if we are doing a good job.”
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