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Rubens Barrichello to contest the Daytona 24 Hours for Wayne Taylor

Ex-Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello will race for Wayne Taylor Racing in this weekend's Daytona 24 Hours

WTR has made Barrichello, 43, a late addition to its line-up for the opening round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Barrichello, who won 11 grands prix during his F1 career, will share its Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP with regular drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and team co-owner Max Angelelli.

It will be the second consecutive year that Brazilian Stock Car Championship regular Barrichello, who raced against Angelelli in Formula 3 in the early '90s, will compete at Daytona.

He drove a Riley Daytona Prototype for the Starworks team last year.

Barrichello, whose Formula 1 career came to end in 2011 after 19 seasons, said: "I'm excited by this opportunity because the Daytona 24 Hours has always been a race in which I've had a great interest.

"When I recently expressed an interest to drive this year for Wayne [Taylor, WTR boss] and his team, he made it possible for me."

Wayne Taylor, whose squad finished runner-up at Daytona in 2013 and '14, said that for the team to add a fourth driver "it had to be somebody who is at the top of his game".

He also pointed out that Jordan, the younger of his two sons, had "been a little under the weather recently".

"With a race of this magnitude and intensity, you want to be sure you have plenty of driver support," Taylor Sr explained.

"This is something of a precautionary move, but to include a driver of Rubens' calibre in our already stout driver line-up, we should be in great shape."

This will be Barrichello's third start at Daytona and his second outing aboard a Daytona Protoype.

He raced a Porsche 911 GT3-R as part of an all-Brazilian driver line-up including friend Tony Kanaan in the 2013 24 Hours.

Barrichello then contested the Indianapolis round of the Grand-Am series at the wheel of the Doran team's Dallara-Ford DP01 later that season.

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