Interview with MSR's Dave Kanning

I recently spoke with Dave Kanning of Michael Shank Racing. Kanning is the engineer for the No. 60 Ford Riley piloted full-time by drivers Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri Jr. The Columbus-based team recently changed from Lexus to Ford, and I asked Kanning how the change to Ford helped or improved the team's performance. Kanning said, "The access to the huge palette of engineering resourced Ford has made available to us. They've really given us the tools so we can learn about the car finally, which is wonderful."

Earlier in the week I had spoke with Burt Frisselle, driver of the No. 6 MSR Ford Riley, about his team's speed in the Rolex Test Days at Daytona. Frisselle said that his team had been fast ever since they unloaded at Daytona. Presenting the same question to Kanning, he said, "For the whole three days we made just very minor adjustments. We like to have the car come out of the box darn competitive. It gives us a chance just to rub on things a bit, find the little details."

A question that many people wonder about is the engineering aspect of such a long race like the Rolex 24 at Daytona. "It's a 40-hour workday." said Kanning. "The biggest challenge is balancing the sheer speed versus how much we use the car up to get that speed, and balancing the reliability versus the outright speed. That's the hardest thing. It's difficult to get them[the drivers] to slow down to get that tenth of a second to get that car to last the 24 hours."

Michael Shank Racing has a few new drivers this year for the Rolex 24. Joining the team this year is Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson. I asked Kanning what it's like to have an experienced veteran like Mark Patterson switch off to a relatively new face to the sport in 19-year old Graham Rahal. "To be honest, Graham is so mature for a 19 year-old, its amazing. I will have absolutely no qualms when Graham gets in the car. He's wise well beyond his years, and he's smart with his decisions."

After topping the speed charts this past weekend at Daytona testing, look for Michael Shank Racing to land at least one team on the podium at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.