Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Looking for Podium Return at Road America

Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian No. 60

Honda Performance Development

Continental Tire Road Race Showcase

 
TRACK: 4.048-miles with 14 turns, Road America is a historic track known for its various challenging aspects. The track is one that has so much history, the corners have names instead of numbers. The Moraine Sweep, Hurray Downs, The Carousel, The Kink, Kettle Bottoms, Canada Corner, Thunder Valley and the Road America straight all combine for a thrilling lap.

 
ROAD AMERICA DRIVERS: John Pew and Ozz Negri

 
EYE ON THE PODIUM: Michael Shank Racing tasted the spray of champagne earlier this year with a victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and then again with a third place finish in the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of the Glen. Traditionally strong at Road America, Michael Shank Racing looks for its return to the podium this Sunday.

 
MSR’S STRENGTH AT ROAD AMERICA: John Pew and Ozz Negri have never finished outside of the top-five since first running at Road America with Michael Shank Racing in 2011. Those five top-five finishes include two podium finishes – third in 2012 and second in 2014.

 
THE REARVIEW – A LOOK BACK AT ROAD AMERICA 2015: Last year, the Michael Shank Racing group rebounded from an early setback to score a top-five finish. A leak in the fuel cell was found just prior to the morning warm up and a repair that would have taken an entire day to fix back at the shop, was completed in just a matter of hours ahead of the race. That teamwork culminated in a fourth place finish. John Pew delivered one of the best performances of his career to battle back up the order after the team was handed a penalty for not making it to the grid in time when the team was working right down to the wire to make repairs. Pew handed the car over to Negri in good position who went on to bring the Honda-Ligier home fourth.

Road America 2012: Started – 5th Finished – 3rd (John Pew & Ozz Negri in the No. 60 Ford-Riley)

Road America 2013: Started – 11th Finished – 5th (John Pew & Ozz Negri in the No. 60 Ford-Riley)

Road America 2013: Started – 7th Finished – 6th (Justin Wilson & Gustavo Yacaman in the No. 6 Ford-Riley)

Road America 2014: Started – 7th Finished – 2nd (John Pew & Ozz Negri in the No. 60 Ford Ecoboost-Riley)

Road America 2015: Started – 5th Finished – 4th (John Pew & Ozz Negri in the No. 60 Honda-Ligier JS P2)

 
OPEN WHEEL ROOTS AT ROAD AMERICA: Both Negri and Pew have deep roots at Road America that extend back to their open wheel days. Pew took his first-ever laps in a racecar at Road America when he did a Skip Barber Racing event with his son Travis in 2001. It was then that he caught the racing bug and has since raced Star Mazda, Porsche Cup, Daytona Prototypes, and LMP2 machinery at the track. Negri’s first experience at Road America was as a test driver for the Barber Dodge Pro Series.

Team owner Mike Shank’s first experiences at Road America were as a driver and not a team owner. He raced at the track in Toyota Atlantics, but his time at Road America dates back to his early club racing days. After several years of Atlantics competition, Michael Shank Racing transitioned into the sports car ranks in 2004. But it wasn’t until 2011 that Mike Shank’s team finally returned to Elkhart Lake with the then GRAND-AM series before it merged with the American Le Mans Series and became what’s now known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

 
Mike Shank on racing at Road America: “It was in 1989 and I qualified second in Pro Sport 2000. It’s a great track, I loved it. Of course being a Midwestern guy, I raced at Road America in club racing all of my life. I raced in Toyota Atlantics at the track in 1996. And then again as a team owner, we ran several different guys there and podiumed a few times.”

 
JOHN PEW TALKS ROAD AMERICA: “Road America is unique - it’s very long and has very unique famous corners. It’s an old track and has a lot of history. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the IMSA schedule. Last year was my best memory at the track. We discovered a leak in the fuel bladder on the morning of the race and had to basically take the entire car apart to fix it. It was a massive repair and the guys managed to fix it within hours in time for the race. But we were late for the grid which meant that we not only had to start from pit lane while everybody else took the green flag, but we also had to do an extra stop in the pit lane once the race had started. It was an unfortunate situation and I pushed really hard. It was one of the best drives I’ve ever had through all of the GT traffic. I gave the car to Ozz (Negri) in good position, so that’s my best memory.”

 
OZZ NEGRI TALKS ROAD AMERICA: "The Honda-Ligier is better everywhere we go. Big improvement from where we were last year because we know the car so much better and just have more data to build off of. Now when we go to a new track, we have a baseline to build from instead of taking an educated guess about where we should be. So we go into each event with more confidence. The Road America fans are very well known for being very active and having knowledge of what has been going on with me and the series – it’s a very educated fan base.

 
TELEVISION BROADCAST INFORMATION: 

LIVE on FOX Sports 1 – Sunday, August 7 at 4:00 PM ET

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