Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian will start the 54th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona from third on the grid on Saturday after driver Ozz Negri braved some treacherous track conditions on Thursday in the No. 60 Tire Kingdom Honda-Ligier to post a fast lap time of 2:07.432-seconds.
 
Rain fell all day on Thursday through the two practice sessions held ahead of qualifying at the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course. With puddles of standing water already on the circuit, the rains worsened during the 15 minute qualifying session with it bucketing down by the time the checkered flag flew.
 
The team, which impressed in testing at the Roar before the 24, dealt with challenging conditions from the start of the day. Mindful of those conditions, Michael Shank Racing took a conservative approach to qualifying with one goal in mind – keep the Tire Kingdom car on track and in prime condition for the big 24-hour endurance classic on Saturday.
 
Negri, who won the pole in the 2008 and 2015 editions of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, will look for a second victory in the huge endurance challenge this weekend as he teams with John Pew, AJ Allmendinger, and Olivier Pla for the opening round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
 
“It was really, really dangerous, but at the same time you’re trying to put a fast lap down and you’ve got to go for it,” said Negri. “At the very end of the run it started to get a little bit out of hand. I don’t think anyone was going to go any quicker. I think for the race we’re good. We’re up toward the front and the car is in one piece for the 24 hour race. It looks like we’re going to have dry weather in the next couple of days and our car is good. The pole is just a bragging right. We’ve been working hard with the Michael Shank crew and the great HPD engineers.”
 
Negri, who fine-tuned the car through the first two practice sessions, opted to bring the No. 60 Tire Kingdom Ligier to pit lane prior to the checkered flag in order to minimize the risk to the car.
 
“We had a good solid start,” said Team Owner Mike Shank. “For sure we could take more chances if we wanted to but the number one thing we didn’t want to do is take any more chances than we already have. I’m happy with the decision that Ozz (Negri) made to pit a bit early. I would have loved to be on the pole. We’ve done it here a couple times, but it wasn’t meant to be today with the conditions and everything. I’m super confident with where our car is. I think we have a real shot at it. Tomorrow resets everything with sunshine. I’m just happy to get through it in one piece. We’re going to skip tonight’s practice if it rains like this and just get the car prepped up. Right now we’ve got to get the car dried and blown out and ready for the race.”
 
Michael Shank Racing looks forward to a final practice on Friday prior to the race with sunshine expected for the next three days in Daytona.