An amazing overnight effort by the Braselton, Ga.-based Elan Technologies has seen the damaged Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 tub receive its repairs and the team is now busy trying to get the car ready to make it out for qualifying, which begins at 4:35 pm.m ET.

“I got a text from Tim Keene at DeltaWing and Elan Motorsports at eight this morning saying the tub was done, so that’s unbelievable,” said Shank, whose team stripped the crashed chassis (ABOVE) down to the bare tub after John Pew hit the wall during Thursday night practice. MSR’s Honda-powered Ligier, which is carrying a livery in tribute to the late Justin Wilson, will start the lengthy rebuild process as the team races to get the car ready for Saturday’s 10-hour Petit Le Mans season finale.

“[Elan] worked all night,” Shank continued. “My faith was renewed again in humanity after the huge outpouring for Justin (Wilson), but now this is just ridiculous. The racing community just boggles my mind. We want to tear each other apart every weekend but when something goes wrong all they do is contribute. We owe them a lot and there is definitely a big gift card coming to those boys that worked all night last night.”

Click on the thumbnails for larger images from the repair job:

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Elan’s Tim Keene, who runs the DeltaWing Racing program, shared insights from their side of the repairs.

“I made contact with Mike shortly after the accident, at the same time as Scott Atherton was trying to get him in touch with Élan. I told our crew chief, Stef (Chistel), who was still at the track, and he went to take a look at the car. He thought it could be repaired, so we let Mike know that we had guys lined up willing to work through the night til it got done. They got the car to the shop around midnight. Stef and I left around 1:00 a.m. Mike Bryant (Élan Motorsports manufacturing director), Howie Udall and Paul Matthews worked through the night.

“I checked with Mike Bryant at 7 a.m. to see how things were going and he said the car would be ready to be picked up at 9 a.m. I sent Mike Shank a note and he was over the moon, he couldn’t believe it. They were expecting to get it later today and work through the night themselves. They’ll definitely make the race and hopefully they’ll make qualifying.

“The worst part of the damage was the upper wishbone mounting point, which was pushed in. They were able to do a good repair that will be safe and let the car run well. It will need to go to Ligier for a proper, better looking repair when the weekend is over but the main thing is to get them through this event. It’s nice to be able to do something for someone else, especially with the Justin Wilson cause. I spoke with Don this morning and we’re donating half the cost of the repair to the Wilson Children’s Fund.”