Elkhart Lake, Wis. (9 August 2014)– Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian continued to unlock more performance this weekend as the series visited Road America for Round 8 of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (FOX Sports1 broadcast, 6:30 PM Sunday).

Drivers John Pew and Ozz Negri were encouraged by the uptick in performance with the Ford EcoBoost/Riley combination in the early practice sessions leading up to Saturday’s qualifying. That upward trajectory continued in the 15-minute session which saw Negri post the car’s fastest lap of the weekend with a lap of 1:56.676-seconds on the 4-mile natural terrain road circuit that is the stuff of road racing legend.

The effort secured a spot on the fourth row for Sunday’s two hour, forty-five minute race, with Pew set to take the green flag at the start from seventh on the grid before turning the car over to Negri to take to the finish.

“I’m really happy with our progress this weekend,” said Negri. “Our car feels really good. We  keep getting better and I think we will race well tomorrow.That’s our thing. The car is perfect. I really don’t know where else we can go quicker unless they give us more downforce and more horsepower.”

Negri and Pew combined for a run to third place at the track in 2012, and will target another strong performance on Sunday. Follow the race at 1:15 PM CT with live timing and scoring at scoring.imsa.com.