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GRAND-AM
SHANK: A Hot One In New Jersey
There is no way to really prepare both your drivers and team for such conditions...
Michael Shank Racing survived a scorcher at New Jersey. (Photo: LAT)
Was it really that hot?
The answer is YES ... I'm sure you heard all about the heat issues at New Jersey, but let me tell you we saw 106F ambient and 147F track temp for two of the three days of running. This was torture times 3!
There is no way to really prepare both your drivers and team for such conditions and if I'm being totally honest, the track is not one of our favorites despite us winning there a couple of years ago. My complaint mainly lies in the fact that they started with a clean sheet of paper and you would think could have made at least a wider track to race with but didn't. It's very hard to pass and ANY off line action puts rubber build up on your tires and kills the next 2 laps for you.
We unloaded pretty good with the #60 Crown Royal car. We decided to try a few things that we have never done before and found more speed in that new direction. We kept with it and John posted a P7 qualifying effort.
John was only 3/10's off of P5 so he was not happy with himself and vowed to make it right at the start..Our goal for John is to get top 5 qualifying every race. He is capable of doing it if we give him a good car. I'll have more about John later in this blog but suffice to say he has made huge strides in every facet of his race driving!
Ozz was very happy with car in the warm up and we looked forward to the race. We talked a lot about heat management in our race meetings and what to do to prevent issues related to the driver over a stint. The good news was that the cars systems seemed to be able to hang with the heat and really not cause any problems on that side.
We had decided to run John for 30-45 minutes at the start then put Ozz in for the final 2 hours. At the start of the race John settled right into P6 as he promised. No issues at all, none...When the first caution came out at 40 minutes we switched drivers as planned.
With Ozz in the car we maintained P5-6 until we got the call that Ozz would need some relief and that we should put John back in the car. John was more than happy to get back in and prepped himself for another 1/2 hour stint. In the past we have literally burnt Ozz down in the car, no way I wanted that for him again. If he says he needs John to help.. that's what we are doing..Sometimes I forget that Ozz is human actually and I need him for the long haul.
Here's the cool part...John goes out with the closing drivers in the cars and pretty much turns the same lap times over this second stint, he runs his fastest times of the race and get's through traffic twice as good as he did in his first stint...To say I'm proud of John is a HUGE understatement nor does it do justice to his confidence at this point of the season.
With about 40 minutes in race we put Ozz back in the car and while we lost track position doing another driver change John really saved the day and came through for us!!
With new tires Ozz turned very fast lap times and all we needed was one caution to be back in the mix.
Unfortunately we were the last yellow...Without going into all the gory detail Ozz got in a shoving match with another car and we lost. Pretty big amount of damage too..This series is so hard and if you blink you get run over or left behind...It's the reason I love it..When you do well you really have done something cool!!
So we finished P8 and fell to P6 in championship...Even though we have not got the podiums we had last year we feel like we are making good progress on chassis and certainly John has been able to close the gap at every track to Ozz and the other pros (And that was our goal at the beginning of the season).
The really cool thing about DP racing is that we keep making gains in the cars. You would think after 8 years we would be topped out, that's not the case at all. In fact we are spending more time now than ever developing the aero and shock packages.
We came home for a week off then headed to Mid Ohio for a one day test with both the #23 and #60 cars. We were very happy to be able to bring back Zak Brown and Mark Blundell for Watkins Glen and Mid Ohio race at the end of the season, and we also had a one day test at Mid Ohio as part of the preparations.
We had a very good plan of attack for the day for both cars. The #23 drivers flew right from competing in the 24 Hours of Spa to Mid Ohio for this test. I could see right away that they were completely exhausted. But they soldiered on for the day and did a great job getting back up to speed right away.
We have definitely found a new direction with the chassis and it looks like it could really help us for the rest of this year and next. Both cars ran very competitive times and should be pretty good off the trailer for the race at Mid Ohio in September...
I have to say that, for the record, teaming with the whole United Autosports group this year has been a great experience. Sometimes when you get in partnerships someone always feels shorted or left out, this has been completely different and I'm very happy Zak and I worked this out. I look forward to the future with them.
Last Word: Whether you know Mark Blundell/Martin Brundle or not I have a new level of respect for them on all levels after this year. I never knew them during their F1 or Indycar days but I can only imagine the trouble these two brothers got into. These two guys are real heroes and it's a pleasure to have them on my team now and in the future! Many thank to Zak Brown putting this together!
See you all at Watkins Glen!
Mike
Mike Shank is team owner of Michael Shank Racing, one of the premier Daytona Prototype teams in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. Learn more about Shank and his team at http://www.michaelshankracing.com
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
The answer is YES ... I'm sure you heard all about the heat issues at New Jersey, but let me tell you we saw 106F ambient and 147F track temp for two of the three days of running. This was torture times 3!
There is no way to really prepare both your drivers and team for such conditions and if I'm being totally honest, the track is not one of our favorites despite us winning there a couple of years ago. My complaint mainly lies in the fact that they started with a clean sheet of paper and you would think could have made at least a wider track to race with but didn't. It's very hard to pass and ANY off line action puts rubber build up on your tires and kills the next 2 laps for you.
We unloaded pretty good with the #60 Crown Royal car. We decided to try a few things that we have never done before and found more speed in that new direction. We kept with it and John posted a P7 qualifying effort.
John was only 3/10's off of P5 so he was not happy with himself and vowed to make it right at the start..Our goal for John is to get top 5 qualifying every race. He is capable of doing it if we give him a good car. I'll have more about John later in this blog but suffice to say he has made huge strides in every facet of his race driving!
Ozz was very happy with car in the warm up and we looked forward to the race. We talked a lot about heat management in our race meetings and what to do to prevent issues related to the driver over a stint. The good news was that the cars systems seemed to be able to hang with the heat and really not cause any problems on that side.
We had decided to run John for 30-45 minutes at the start then put Ozz in for the final 2 hours. At the start of the race John settled right into P6 as he promised. No issues at all, none...When the first caution came out at 40 minutes we switched drivers as planned.
With Ozz in the car we maintained P5-6 until we got the call that Ozz would need some relief and that we should put John back in the car. John was more than happy to get back in and prepped himself for another 1/2 hour stint. In the past we have literally burnt Ozz down in the car, no way I wanted that for him again. If he says he needs John to help.. that's what we are doing..Sometimes I forget that Ozz is human actually and I need him for the long haul.
Here's the cool part...John goes out with the closing drivers in the cars and pretty much turns the same lap times over this second stint, he runs his fastest times of the race and get's through traffic twice as good as he did in his first stint...To say I'm proud of John is a HUGE understatement nor does it do justice to his confidence at this point of the season.
With about 40 minutes in race we put Ozz back in the car and while we lost track position doing another driver change John really saved the day and came through for us!!
With new tires Ozz turned very fast lap times and all we needed was one caution to be back in the mix.
Unfortunately we were the last yellow...Without going into all the gory detail Ozz got in a shoving match with another car and we lost. Pretty big amount of damage too..This series is so hard and if you blink you get run over or left behind...It's the reason I love it..When you do well you really have done something cool!!
So we finished P8 and fell to P6 in championship...Even though we have not got the podiums we had last year we feel like we are making good progress on chassis and certainly John has been able to close the gap at every track to Ozz and the other pros (And that was our goal at the beginning of the season).
The really cool thing about DP racing is that we keep making gains in the cars. You would think after 8 years we would be topped out, that's not the case at all. In fact we are spending more time now than ever developing the aero and shock packages.
We came home for a week off then headed to Mid Ohio for a one day test with both the #23 and #60 cars. We were very happy to be able to bring back Zak Brown and Mark Blundell for Watkins Glen and Mid Ohio race at the end of the season, and we also had a one day test at Mid Ohio as part of the preparations.
We had a very good plan of attack for the day for both cars. The #23 drivers flew right from competing in the 24 Hours of Spa to Mid Ohio for this test. I could see right away that they were completely exhausted. But they soldiered on for the day and did a great job getting back up to speed right away.
We have definitely found a new direction with the chassis and it looks like it could really help us for the rest of this year and next. Both cars ran very competitive times and should be pretty good off the trailer for the race at Mid Ohio in September...
I have to say that, for the record, teaming with the whole United Autosports group this year has been a great experience. Sometimes when you get in partnerships someone always feels shorted or left out, this has been completely different and I'm very happy Zak and I worked this out. I look forward to the future with them.
Last Word: Whether you know Mark Blundell/Martin Brundle or not I have a new level of respect for them on all levels after this year. I never knew them during their F1 or Indycar days but I can only imagine the trouble these two brothers got into. These two guys are real heroes and it's a pleasure to have them on my team now and in the future! Many thank to Zak Brown putting this together!
See you all at Watkins Glen!
Mike
Mike Shank is team owner of Michael Shank Racing, one of the premier Daytona Prototype teams in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. Learn more about Shank and his team at http://www.michaelshankracing.com
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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