Fontana: Michael Shank Racing Saturday report

Michael Shank Racing improves Saturday form to take 4th in Fontana qualifying

Fontana, CA (2 April 05)--The Michael Shank Racing team made some big gains on Saturday at California Speedway to dramatically improve the car from Friday, taking fourth on the grid for Sunday's Ferrari Maserati 400 for round three of the Rolex Sports Car Series. Mike Borkowski qualified the car, and absolutely stepped up to the challenge, posting the best lap of the weekend for the Mears Motor Coach-liveried Pontiac-Riley with a best lap time of 1.33.740 seconds on the 2.82-mile circuit.

The qualifying result is the second consecutive race that the Michael Shank Racing squad has started from the second row, despite not having the luck fall their way during qualifying.

"We waited in the pits at the beginning of the session to go out so that we could have a gap and get some clean laps, but it didn't work out because when I went out, I got caught up when a couple of other cars went spinning off, and then just like at Homestead, the session got black flagged on my next fast lap," said Borkowski. "So when we went back out, I did manage to get a couple of good clean fast laps in, but by that point, the tires were a little past their prime so we had to settle for fourth."

The session provided another example of the parity in the Rolex ranks, as the top ten qualifiers were separated by just one second. Team owner Mike Shank was pleased with how much his team has improved the car over the weekend, but the fierce competitor in him was still not satisfied with the result.

"We did make a lot of improvements today, and Mike did a great job in the car, but we just need to do a better job of sending him out there when there is a gap, because with how competitive this series is, getting held up from traffic by just a bit can mean the difference between pole position and being in fourth like today," said Shank. "But overall, we are pretty happy with how much speed we have in the car, and feel like we can get a good result tomorrow."

Sunday's Ferrari Maserati 400 is slated to run for 400 kilometers, or 89 laps of the 2.82-mile infield road/oval course, will start at 4 PM EST on Sunday, and will be broadcast live on Speed Channel.

-SGM-