Acura Conquers Competition at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Canadian Tire Motorsport ParkPlaying their energy management strategy to perfection, Meyer Shank Racing led an Acura 1-2 sweep of today’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport finishing second for Acura.
· Meyer Shank Racing duo of Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist claim their second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win of 2023
· Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor bring Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura home second
Playing their energy management strategy to perfection, Meyer Shank Racing led an Acura 1-2 sweep of today’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport finishing second for Acura.
In the premier GTP division for hybrid prototypes, Blomqvist and Braun had their #60 MSR Acura ARX-06 at the front of the field for the majority of the two-hour, 40-minute contest, despite a flurry of incidents and late-race caution flags turned the race into a contest of pit stop strategies.
Stretching their final run for an impressive 78 minutes, MSR held on for the victory; with the sister WTRAndretti Acura of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque coming home second.
The victory is the second of the season for Acura, both 1-2 results, with the previous win coming at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona. In scoring their first overall win today at CTMP, the Meyer Shank organization became the first GTP team to win multiple WeatherTech Championship races in 2023 in the new hybrid prototype era.
Today’s victory moves Braun and Blomqvist to sixth in the championship after six of nine races; while Albuquerque and Taylor are third in the standings, just 29 points out of first.
It was tough. The other guys were good on fuel, so for me it was just about getting a good restart and building a gap and then going into fuel save mode. I was surprised with the great pace the Acura had on the fuel save. Then, once we got through the traffic, I knew I could probably pull a gap and we did. I’m just super proud of everyone here with Meyer Shank Racing, Acura, and HPD. Everyone did a great job. You know, obviously, we've been close [to another victory]. We've had good pace all year. So, great is it converted to a win and we definitely had to work for it this week.
It was tough. The other guys were good on fuel, so for me it was just about getting a good restart and building a gap and then going into fuel save mode. I was surprised with the great pace the Acura had on the fuel save. Then, once we got through the traffic, I knew I could probably pull a gap and we did. I’m just super proud of everyone here with Meyer Shank Racing, Acura, and HPD. Everyone did a great job. You know, obviously, we've been close [to another victory]. We've had good pace all year. So, great is it converted to a win and we definitely had to work for it this week.
What a crazy race!” We started really well with Ricky [Taylor] putting pressure and pulling a big gap on everybody. Then I got in the car and was actually feeling good, just saving the tires and controlling the position. At one point with the strategy, the safety car went out when we just pitted. So, it’s like ‘perfect’ and by then we thought it’s going to be an easy win. But then it was so chaotic with so many yellows. It turned out that the Meyer Shank car got to the end. It’s so hard to pass around here and whoever was in front were going to pull away. We’re happy with P2 today. It’s a start, we’ve been having a rough season with amazing pace. Congrats to HPD for the pace and the car we had today. So, let’s continue with this momentum.”
What a crazy race!” We started really well with Ricky [Taylor] putting pressure and pulling a big gap on everybody. Then I got in the car and was actually feeling good, just saving the tires and controlling the position. At one point with the strategy, the safety car went out when we just pitted. So, it’s like ‘perfect’ and by then we thought it’s going to be an easy win. But then it was so chaotic with so many yellows. It turned out that the Meyer Shank car got to the end. It’s so hard to pass around here and whoever was in front were going to pull away. We’re happy with P2 today. It’s a start, we’ve been having a rough season with amazing pace. Congrats to HPD for the pace and the car we had today. So, let’s continue with this momentum.”
