IMSA: Visit Florida Racing hires Harvey for new management role

Michael Harvey will lighten the management load on Visit Florida Racing team owner Troy Flis in his new role as director of race operations.

The veteran IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team will head into 2017 with a new Gibson-engined Riley Mk 30 WEC LMP2 package driven by Belgium's Marc Goossens and Holland's Renger van der Zande. After years of coming up short against its rivals, Harvey, who joins VFR from the Fall-Line Motorsports team, will be tasked with shaping the program into a contender as IMSA's Daytona Prototype international formula comes on-line.

"Michael (Harvey) is a great addition to the team, and is going to help us tremendously as we take on this new program with the Gibson-Riley," said Flis. "For me to bring someone with his background to this team, right now as we are getting ready for the new regs, it is great timing and it is a very strong match for what we need in order to be consistently contending for wins and championships again."

Harvey is looking forward to the challenge of taking on factory DPi efforts from Cadillac, Mazda, and Nissan, along with tackling the opposition from other WEC-spec P2 entries.

"I am grateful to have had the experience that I had at Fall-Line Motorsports and will miss that group but this was entirely too much of an opportunity to pass up," Harvey said. "Right now is a really exciting time for IMSA, because everything is new and we are all starting from the same point – there is a lot to be learned about these new cars.

"With the stability and success that Troy (Flis) and the Visit Florida team have had, it is a very attractive opportunity for me and I'm very eager to get our car and get going."