Le Mans, France (15 June 2016) – Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian’s journey to Le Mans took a significant step forward on Wednesday when the team turned its first official laps at the historic 8.47-mile  circuit.

It was the first official day of on track action as teams prepare for the 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, set to begin Saturday afternoon local time with LIVE coverage on FOX Sports 1 beginning at 8:30 AM ET.

Michael Shank Racing’s Le Mans 24 Hour drivers John Pew, Ozz Negri, and Laurens Vanthoor all put in laps on Wednesday with intermittent rain falling during the first session of the day and mostly dry running on offer in the second session. All three drivers completed the required five night time laps to qualify to drive in this weekend’s race.

The day first saw a four-hour Free Practice session that the team used to continue to grow its familiarity with the huge and ever-changing circuit, closing out the session 10th in the LMP2 order. The track is renowned for tricky conditions and Wednesday was no different as rain slowed the proceedings at times, with dry lines also emerging during the session.

As the darkness started to fall around Le Mans, a session that is known as a ‘Qualifying Practice’ ran through the night time hours as the sun set just before 10 PM. The qualifying procedure for the world renowned endurance race includes three qualifying practice sessions in which the best lap time set by each car among all three sessions sets the grid. The two final practice qualifying sessions will be held on Thursday evening.

Wednesday’s 6 hours of hot track time also marked the first chance for the Michael Shank Racing team to work through the intricacies of racing in a new series with a new set of rules for nearly everything, from pit stops to not spinning the tires in pit lane.

The No. 49 Michael Shank Racing Honda-Ligier JS P2 completed 60 laps through Wednesday’s two sessions with Vanthoor posting a fast lap of 3:38.837-seconds to run fifth quickest of the qualifying practice session.

Two more qualifying sessions are set to take place tomorrow evening.

QUOTEBOARD

JOHN PEW, DRIVER: “It’s been great. It sometimes was raining on one half of the track and it was dry on the other half so it was very interesting to learn the car and see what it’s like in the rain. I think we have a good car. It’s a fun track. It’s a very nice track. The fans are all here already, and they’re all over the place. It’s just so fantastic to be here. I’m such a lucky guy!”

OZZ NEGRI, DRIVER: “It’s been good. It’s been pretty intense with it raining in a few parts of the track. I haven’t done too many laps. It’s all going good. We’re working on the car and understanding a little bit more about the tires and this track. I’m looking forward to the race.”

LAURENS VANTHOOR, DRIVER: “When I started the first session, the track was really dirty so it was a little difficult to work on the car. It rained, it dried up, it rained, it dried up, it did that maybe 10 times! It was difficult to do some proper work but both John (Pew) and Ozz (Negri) managed to do quite a bit of laps which is important.”