Scott Sharp and the ESM team had high hopes of battling the Daytona Prototypes for victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona but early set-backs have taken the two Florida-based cars out of contention.

Sharp’s HPD and the Oak Racing Morgan Nissan made contact at the bus stop causing a spin and Ryan Dalziel later radioed in saying he had no drive. The team had to return to the paddock to replace the gearbox.

“We had a really great opening stint and it exceeded our expectations. We raced with more guys than we expected and were getting through traffic really well. We worked our way up a couple of spots, which was nice,” Sharp said.

“There was one little hiccup on my part, I went underneath the Oak car in the Bus Stop and he just turned in on me. He was going to take off my front nose if I didn’t pinch the car way to the left and that made me spin. It was unfortunate, but luckily we didn’t lose a lap.

“Ryan was strong in his stint until the gearbox problem. The team replaced the gearbox, but that red flag period set us back a little more. The guys worked really hard to get us back to the track.

“This is not how we wanted to start the race, but there is plenty of time left on the clock. We’ll see what happens during the next segments of the race.”

Ed Brown also suffered an incident at the bus stop and made contact with the tire wall. Repairs to the No.2 car put both ESM cars well down the timing screen.

“Something just snapped when I was going through the Bus Stop. I was able to get it back to the garage and the guys went to work. There was some suspension and bodywork damage, but the guys made a quick repair and we were back on track.

“This is not the way we wanted to start the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, but hopefully both cars can come out with some points and move on. Both crews have done an amazing job repairing both cars.”