{"id":972,"date":"2018-06-01T15:29:06","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=972"},"modified":"2018-06-05T15:30:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T15:30:17","slug":"front-row-start-for-meyer-shank-racing-at-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/01\/front-row-start-for-meyer-shank-racing-at-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Front Row Start for Meyer Shank Racing at Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Looking for repeat victory, Meyer Shank Racing qualifies second and third for the Detroit Grand Prix<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Belle Isle, Mich. (1 June 2018) \u2013 After scoring its first GTD win in Detroit in 2017, Meyer Shank Racing continued to show strength at the Belle Isle circuit with a second and third place qualifying effort for the 100-minute Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The 2.35-mile temporary road course on Belle Isle plays host to Round 5 of IMSA WeatherTech competition this weekend and will see the return of both Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 machines in the team\u2019s stable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1320 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7054-300x169.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7054-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7054-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7054-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7054-260x146.jpg 260w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7054-50x28.jpg 50w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7054-133x75.jpg 133w\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/>Lawson Aschenbach and Justin Marks will share the co-driving duties in the No. 93 Acura NSX GT3 while the team also saw a return of the No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 \u2013 which sits second in the team championship standings \u2013 piloted by Katherine Legge and MSR endurance driver Mario Farnbacher.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Returning as reigning champions of the Belle Isle course, having secured the maiden win for the Acura NSX GT3 last year, Meyer Shank Racing got off to a fast start in Friday\u2019s practice. Despite a quick two day, sprint format weekend, the team was provided over three hours of on track practice to optimize the car\u2019s set up for the 100-minute race on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Focusing on the handling over the track\u2019s notoriously bumpy surface, the team locked in a suitable suspension set up prior to the early evening qualifying run on Friday. Both MSR machines topped the timing charts at some point during practice, with the No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 clocking the quickest time in Practice 1 and the No. 93 Acura NSX GT3 with the third fastest time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With Legge and Marks elected for qualifying duties, the pair had to quickly get up to speed as the session was shorted by three minutes following a weather delay. Legge brought her No. 86 machine up to speed, building her pace with each lap to notch a flyer of 1:29.390-seconds on her seventh lap. Having started on the front row in last year\u2019s event, Legge is hopeful for a winning result come tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecond is a great spot to start since we are second in the championship,\u201d said Legge. \u201cI made a small mistake on my second flyer, but I don\u2019t think that cost us anything. We won here last year from second so I think we are in a good spot. I have my teammate, Mario (Farnbacher) with me who is doing awesome. We will see what\u00a0<span data-term=\"goog_1844477019\">tomorrow<\/span>\u00a0brings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Completing his first qualifying run in IMSA WeatherTech competition at Detroit, Marks\u2019 patience paid off as he posted his fastest time \u2013 1:29.717-seconds \u2013 on the very last lap to slot him third in the GTD order.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1321\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7062-225x300.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7062-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7062-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7062-110x146.jpg 110w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7062-38x50.jpg 38w, http:\/\/www.michaelshankracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG_7062-56x75.jpg 56w\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/>\u201cThe day started really strong,\u201d said Marks. \u201cI lost my way a little bit in the second practice but we went back and looked at data and video, breaking down how practice went just to make sure I did my best driving when it counted in qualifying. The car was getting better and better each lap. We were able to find a good gap at the end. I just stuck my neck out there and got aggressive to put down a good lap. It\u2019s super important to qualify good here since it\u2019s so hard to pass, so I am happy with my run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Coming straight from a busy month of May in Verizon IndyCar Series competition, Mike Shank is happy to see both of his Acuras with competitive starting spots in the field.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe worked really hard for a long time to get these cars good on all different types of tracks that we go to,\u201d said Shank. \u201cThe engineers, crew, and drivers just did an awesome job here today. Katherine (Legge) got us a P2 and Justin (Marks) got his first top three qualifying spot this year. I am super happy for him! It was a tough practice for him earlier today, but he just kept working at it and really came through for us in qualifying. I am really happy!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The 100-minute Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear will go green tomorrow at 12:40 p.m. ET with live coverage on FS2 beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking for repeat victory, Meyer Shank Racing qualifies second and third for the Detroit Grand Prix &nbsp; Belle Isle, Mich. (1 June 2018) \u2013 After scoring<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-meyer-shank-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions\/974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}