IMSA: Legge joins MSR for Belle Isle

Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian has announced that the team will race in the IMSA Sports Car Classic on June 4 on Detroit’s Belle Isle with the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Honda-powered Ligier to be driven by Katherine Legge alongside Ozz Negri.

Shank’s full team will be based in Europe starting in the end of May, and the IMSA outing will be made in parallel with the Ohio-based team's preparations for its 24 Hours of Le Mans debut on June 18-19.

With the team also set to participate in the mandatory Le Mans Test Day on June 5, the Detroit IMSA race effort will see the deployment of some complex international travel logistics as the 100-minute Detroit sprint event will take the checkered flag just over 12 hours before the green flag flies to start the test at Le Mans.

With the close proximity of dates and the large geographical distance between the two events, the Michael Shank Racing team had initially elected to not participate in the Detroit race weekend. But with the logistics now confirmed and with support from Honda, the team has reversed that decision.

With John Pew – who won the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca race with Negri earlier this month – tabbed to manage the Le Mans Test Day runs, the team has IMSA and Indy car veteran Legge (below) to share the driving duties with Negri in Detroit. Legge’s DeltaWing squad is not scheduled to compete that weekend and agreed to allow her to join the team for Belle Isle.

Further bolstering the Detroit effort will be Doran Racing’s Kevin Doran, who brings decades of IMSA experience as a team owner and manager to the weekend. Members of the Doran Racing squad will also supplement the on-site personnel for the Michael Shank Racing effort.

“I have to admit that I hated the idea of missing Detroit, so for everything to come together for us to race that weekend the way that it has, I’m really happy,” said team owner Shank. “Hopefully we can bring Honda some good points in the championship. Thanks to Katherine for jumping in to help us out with John already being set up for the Test Day in France.

"We are looking forward to having her with us, and I really appreciate Dr. Panoz (Panoz DeltaWing Racing team owner)and Tim (Keene, DeltaWing team manager) letting her join us that weekend. It’s a bit more logistical legwork for us, but we’ve got a good plan in place, and we’ll have Kevin Doran and some of his guys in Detroit to help us out, so we feel good about having a competitive race in Detroit.”

"This is not only my first time in an LMP2 but my first time racing at Detroit and I am really looking forward to it," said Legge. “I am extremely grateful to Mike Shank and Honda for offering me this chance to drive and really appreciate that Dr. Panoz agrees that this is too good of an opportunity to miss as the DeltaWing is not racing. Ozz has already started sending me in-car footage and notes for me to study, and I hope to be as ready as possible from the start of the weekend. This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I intend on making as much of it as I possibly can."

The Detroit weekend is a quick one with practice and qualifying on Friday, June 3 and the 100-minute sprint race set for Saturday, June 4.