The Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian two-car campaign will start the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona from sixth and eighth after the starting grid was set on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.
“It wasn’t everything we wanted, but we all know that the starting order is only important for the first 30 seconds of this race,” said team owner Mike Shank. “Don’t get me wrong–we would love to be starting from the pole again. But we are only just starting to scratch the surface with this new Riley. We know what it takes to finish well here, and that is our focus. Everyone is doing their jobs well and we’ve trained all off-season for our pit stops so we are just working through the plan we have for the weekend.”
Ozz Negri pushed the No. 60 LiveOn Ford-Riley DPG3 to a fast lap time of 1:41.978-seconds around the 3.56-mile circuit, and the previous pole winner and track record holder will open the race before turning the machine over to co-drivers John Pew, Justin Wilson, and AJ Allmendinger.
“We were missing a little bit of time with the car this afternoon, but this race is going to be all about traffic, patience, and having a mechanical package that keeps you on the right side of the pit wall, just doing the laps,” said Negri. “We have some ideas on where to improve our pace and will just work on it in the night practice–hopefully we will keep learning tonight. The more laps we get in this car, the better our notebooks are so we just have our heads down and are working to be where we need to be on Sunday.”
Michael McDowell, making his second consecutive Rolex 24 At Daytona start for Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian will start in the fourth row, taking the No. 6 machine to a quick lap time of 1:42.414-seconds in the 15-minute session. McDowell will be sharing the driving duties with Rolex debutants Felipe Nasr, Jorge Goncalvez, and Gustavo Yacaman.
The time marked the fastest of all the previous-generation Daytona Prototype machines entered in the race.
“We didn’t have the speed to fight for anything closer to the front but that wasn’t a surprise,” said McDowell. “I’ve got some experience in this race–I love it– and the biggest thing is for us to have a car that’s good through the full stint and that we keep it in one piece and just to be there to fight in the morning. That’s the name of this race–it’s endurance. I’m happy to be back with Mike Shank and I want to thank Mike Curb for being a part of this. Hopefully we can just execute, get a little racing luck, and come home with a strong finish.”
Source : Michael Shank Racing