SHANK: Finally Back To Two

GRAND-AM

SHANK: Finally Back To Two

We really looked forward to having Matt Bell and James Davison in our car and getting the Crown Royal car up to speed at a track we have traditionally been very strong at in the past...

Michael Shank | Posted July 14, 2011

Michael Shank Racing returned to a two-car program last weekend in Monterey. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

It took us awhile but we were finally able to get the No. 23 car back out for a Rolex race. We really looked forward to having Matt Bell and James Davison in our car and getting the Crown Royal car up to speed at a track we have traditionally been very strong at in the past.

Well that's where the good stuff stopped, as we knew at the end of the first test session that we were in trouble. The cars were not very good and despite a lot of effort to make sure they rolled off the trailer fast, the fact was that we needed to have a rethink by the end of the test day on our setups.

I will devote only one paragraph to the engine imbalance right now in our series...There is one without question, Grand-Am knows it and I hope it’s fixed somewhat by the time we roll to New Jersey. Somehow we have gotten away from a 500 horsepower series to upwards of 600. Despite everyone's best effort, including the series, we cannot help ourselves and the power keeps on rolling in.

After the first day of testing our engineers developed a plan to get our cars balanced again. By the end of the first official practice we knew we were on to something, and by the end of the second we had got our cars back under control 90%. A big relief set in ... Now we can fine tune and get ready for qualifying.

John Pew and Matt Bell would do the qualifying for us. Both did a great job improving their fastest times of the weekend for qualifying, Bell would line up P8 and Pew P9.

Overnight we tried a couple more changes for the short 15 minute warm-up and they seemed to work as the cars finished P1 and P2 in the warm-up with Ozz leading the way and James only four-tenths behind.

Both drivers had good starts and gained one spot each during the first half-hour run. Very clean with really no drama. When the first caution came out we pitted both cars and switched drivers.

During this middle part of the race there were a couple of stories: First James restarted in P4 which was great except he got dropped in right in the middle of the guys that have been doing this for many years. The good news is he did a great job and even led 10 laps as the pit stops cycled around…zero mistakes. Ozz had a harder time of it spinning the No. 60 car while overtaking the No. 5 car. Good news is he made up the ground by the end of the stint.

After the last round of green flag stops we had lost valuable track position and I was pushing our drivers very hard to make up everything they could. Unfortunately James locked a front wheel up going into turn one that resulted in a flat tire for the 23 car and the resulting damage from the flat took the car out of the competition. James and Matt did a very good job for us, they were very professional in their approach. I would have them back in a heartbeat and I thank them for all their efforts this weekend. They had an easy top-five going for sure.

After the last yellow Ozz restarted P5 and stayed there the rest of the race. Ozz tried a lot of things to get more from the car during the final stint but we still lacked a little front grip that kept him from really attacking.

Overall not a horrible race weekend for us. We know where we are weak, and where we are good.

A couple of final thoughts:

- I have to say Thank You to Intersil the primary sponsor on the No. 23 car this weekend. We entertained about 130 guests and it was a real pleasure meeting all of you, thank you for your support.

- With the announcement of Indy on our schedule for 2012, I am more excited than ever for our series. I believe that there will be more announcements soon that will put us where the people are for 2012 and beyond!

See you in a week!!
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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Michael Shank

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