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Michael Shank Racing Fastest In Rolex Series Tests At Daytona

Daytona Beach, FL – Michael Shank Racing led the way in the first of three days of Rolex Series tests Saturday at the Daytona International Speedway. Michael Valiante turned the fastest lap in his Ford Riley with a speed of 125.943 miles per hour. “The car is working well, and the transition to this team has been very smooth,” Valiante said. “They expected me to be fast, and they have made it very easy for me to come in and drive the car.”

Shank’s teammates are John Pew, A. J. Allmendinger and Ian James.

The second fastest time was turned in by the TELMEX Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley team of Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Juan Pablo Montoya. Pruett recorded the team’s top speed with a run of 125.458 mph.

The Brumos Porsche of David Donohue, Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia garnered the third-fastest speed at 125.380 mph.

Donohue led the way, doing so after dark. “The team changed engines before the night session, and the car was good,” Donohue said. “It was my first day in the car since the Utah race.”

Penske Racing’s Porsche Riley was the fourth fastest at 125.292 mph. Ryan Briscoe, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas comprise the driving team.

In the GT class, the Speed Source Mazda RX-8 of David Haskell, Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham and Jonathan Bomarito led the way with a fast lap of 115.247 mph. The Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 Cup entry of Wolf Henzler, Leh Keen, Dirk Werner and Richard Westbrook took the second place honors at 114.819 mph. The Racer’s Group Porsche GT3 Cup car of Spencer Pumpelly, Ted Ballou, Tim George Jr., Emmanuel Collard and Richard Leitz was third fastest at 114.817 mph…

Fifty-two Daytona Prototypes and GT cars were on the track Saturday. Three practice sessions were run on the 3.56-mile road course and five additional sessions are scheduled in the next two days.

In an afternoon incident, the Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac Crawford of Andy Wallace blew a tire entering turn one and the driver did a series of high-speed spins without hitting anything. The car was damaged but was repaired in time to participate in the night session. Co-driver Danica Patrick took her first laps in the car on Saturday evening.

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