Harvey to contest 2018 IndyCar races as part of Shank/SPM tie-up
Michael Shank Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports have confirmed a partnership that will run one-time British Formula 3 champion Jack Harvey in a partial 2018 IndyCar season
Harvey drove for SPM in the last two races of 2017 as the team rotated drivers after Mikhail Aleshin left the team mid-season to focus on BR Engineering's LMP1 programme.
The British driver also contested the Indianapolis 500 with Shank, and SPM admitted it was keen to work on a deal to run Harvey at some point in 2018.
The former SPM Indy Lights driver is likely to race at St Petersburg, Long Beach, the Indy 500 and the season finale at Sonoma next year at least.
"I had a very positive experience racing for Mike Shank in the Indianapolis 500 [in 2017], and it was great to build on that with SPM in the last two races of the year," said Harvey.
"Now to be racing for Mike and to also have the support of SPM for this program, it is the best of both worlds for me."
Shank added that the partnership could be a multi-year undertaking.
"I'm so happy to have everything come together and to be able to make this announcement—there was a ton of work that went into just getting to this point, and of course, it is just the start," said Shank.
"This is a very big deal - for me and my wife Mary Beth, and for my race team.
"We are really excited to have Jack back with us and very focused on making the most of this multi-year programme.
"It is a big undertaking but I've been working on this nonstop, every day for months to have everything in place for us to be able to go out and build a competitive programme."
SPM co-owner Sam Schmidt said he was excited to finally realise the ambition of linking up with Shank.
"Ric [Peterson, SPM co-owner], myself and everyone at SPM are really excited for this partnership with Mike Shank, his team and, of course, Jack Harvey who we're so pleased to welcome back into the organization," he said.
"We continue to look for ways to strengthen our team and improve our core operations, and we think this multi-year partnership will do just that.
"Mike's history in motorsport speaks for itself, and we're pleased he has decided to expand his IndyCar programme and involve us in that endeavour."
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