Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Ready to Sprint in Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix

Monterey, Calif. (30 April 2016) – Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian is ready to move forward in the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda on Sunday in a two-hour sprint race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

After setting the third quickest time in each of the three practice sessions held ahead of Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying run, Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 Honda-Ligier JS P2 shared by John Pew and Ozz Negri, will start the race from eighth on the in the 24 car combined GTLM and Prototype class grid.

The Northern California weather was constantly changing, and Friday brought very cool and windy conditions. Saturday was warmer, but the chill in the air returned in time for the evening qualifying run.

“The car was a little different than it had been in the previous sessions,” said Pew who improved his lap time with each lap through the qualifying run. “We just seemed to lack overall grip. I had a hard time in some of the corners, and getting on the power there was oversteer. If I had another five laps maybe we could have gone a couple positions better, but these tires come in a little slow on this car when it’s cold. There was a lot more rubber down on the racetrack after all the sessions today. We were the last group to run of the day, so the track had changed significantly. You never know what can happen in the race, we’ll just mind our business, stay out of trouble and see what happens.”

Pew set his fastest lap of 1:20.881-seconds on his final flying lap.

“We’re going to go back and analyze the data tonight because we should be a little stronger than that,” said Team Owner Mike Shank. “We’ll look at it. We’ve been P3 all weekend so we’re not sure what exactly changed. We’ll look ahead to the race. It is what it is, we’ll see what we can do strategy-wise. We’ll do something, that’s for sure.”

The Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda is set to go green Sunday at 11:15 AM local time (2:15 PM ET) and will be televised LIVE on FOX Sports 1.