NASCAR driver Marcos Ambrose will join the defending Rolex 24 At Daytona Champions Michael Shank Racing after impressing in the #60 Ford-Riley at the “Roar Before the 24” test at Daytona last week.
Ambrose will join the line up of AJ Allmendinger, Justin Wilson, John Pew, and Ozz Negri as Negri continues to recover from an pre-season testing injury.
The team is in good form to defend its title after topping five of the eight sessions during the “Roar” testing between the two team Daytona Prototype entries.
“We couldn’t have been happier with how quickly Marcos gelled with everyone on this team,” said team owner Mike Shank. “Obviously he’s very fast in the car, but he was also great out of it. That’s hugely important for a race like this–you need to have everyone pulling in the same direction. He fits that perfectly. We are incredibly lucky to have someone like him interested in racing for us. Ozz is coming back quickly, but we wanted to go ahead and commit to having Marcos with us now.”
Negri continues to work on his fitness and is expecting to make the grid for the 51st running of the Rolex Daytona 24 but is frustrated to have missed testing the car as he looks to help the team on it’s way to a two-in-a-row victory.
“The biggest thing for me is to not do anything that keeps this team from winning the race again,” said Negri. “It was hard to watch everyone test this weekend, but I still was very proud of the results. We’ve been working very hard on our set ups and it was good to see such a strong test. Marcos is a good guy and has the right attitude with this team. I’m happy to have someone like him as my teammate and hopefully I can contribute to another big result in a couple of weeks.”
With previous experience of the Rolex 24 along with NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing this weekend Ambrose will go in to the race with plenty of experience on both the oval and 3.56-mile road course.
