Mike Shank

Mike Shank (born September 22, 1966) is an American race car team owner and former race car driver born in Columbus, Ohio. Before leaving driving to concentrate on car ownership, he ran one race in the 1996–97 Indy Racing League season, the 1997 Las Vegas 500K at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He started racing in 1989, winning SCCA Ohio Valley Region's Novice Driver of the Year. He also won the 1996 Player’s/Toyota Atlantic C2 championship.

Michael Shank Racing 2011 Rolex Sports Car

As an owner of Michael Shank Racing, he was car owner for Sam Hornish, Jr. when he won the 1999 Formula Atlantic series Rookie of the Year title. In 2006, his car, driven by Justin Wilson, A. J. Allmendinger, Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson, finished in 2nd position overall and in the Daytona Prototype class in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Shank has been twice named Formula Atlantic Team Owner of the Year.

IndyCar

The team purchased a 2012 Dallara IndyCar, with the goal of adding a full-time IndyCar program in 2012 while continuing their Grand-Am Road Racing programs.[1]

The original intention for the IndyCar program was to run under the name "MSR Indy", with A. J. Allmendinger and Brian Bailey as co-owners.[2]

The 2012 Indycar program was to field Paul Tracy in selected races including the Indianapolis 500 but no races were entered.

Michael Shank Racing announced that it had sold its Dallara chassis to Sam Schmidt Motorsports in February 2013 and declared its intention to collaborate with another team on a 2013 Indianapolis 500 entry. No such program was finalized in time for the race.

For the 2017 Indianapolis 500, the team has partnered with Andretti Autosport for an entry driven by Jack Harvey.[3]

Grand-Am

In 2004, Michael Shank Racing entered the Rolex Sports Car Series DP class with drivers Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Burt Frisselle, finishing 12th in the drivers classification. The team won in 2006 at Miller Motorsports Park and finished second in the 24 Hours of Daytona. They finished 8th in points in both 2006 and 2007, with John Pew becoming Negri's codriver. In 2008 they finished 10th, winning in the first race held at the New Jersey Motorsports Park. They finished 8th in points in 2009 and 10th in 2010. In 2011 they improved to a sixth place overall.

Michael Shank Racing won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2012 with A. J. Allmendinger, Justin Wilson, John Pew, and Oswaldo Negri as the drivers.

IMSA United SportsCar Championship

In 2014 Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series merged to form the United SportsCar Championship. Michael Shank Racing ran a single Riley Ford Ecoboost DP with drivers John Pew and Oswaldo Negri. In 2015 and 2016, the team raced a Ligier JS P2-HPD, claiming wins at Laguna Seca and the 2016 Petit Le Mans.

The team will switch to the GT Daytona class in 2017, where they will enter two factory Acura NSX with drivers Ozz Negri, Jeff Segal, Andy Lally and Katherine Legge.

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-17. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-01-16. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  3. ↑ Smith, Luke (2017-04-12). "Shank will finally take part in Indy 500 with Harvey, Andretti | MotorSportsTalk". Motorsports.nbcsports.com. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
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