Yahoo Autos Meyer Shank Hits Back at Doubters Following IMSA Win at Mosport
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After its season-opening victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January was all but vacated by IMSA, the panache and cutting-edge confidence of the Acura team led by Mike Shank seemed to disappear.
Its heavy-duty points penalty for racing with low tire pressures knocked Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian out of WeatherTech Championship contention. It was an added gut punch to have been turned in by Honda Performance Development to IMSA for software improprieties discovered in the weeks after the race.
Once the penalties were announced in March, co-owner Mike Shank took ample criticism for casting a cloud over the first GTP race featuring the new generation of hybrid prototypes, which is intended to revitalize IMSA. Following the team’s victory from the pole at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada for drivers Tom Blomqvis and Colin Braun on Sunday using both pace and strategy, Shank hit back.
“This was a little bit of redemption,” said Shank, who fired his chief engineer once IMSA found an illegal bypass of its telemetry for monitoring minimum pressure in the Michelin tires, regulated for all teams.
“A lot of nasty things were said about my team, my partner, my family,” continued Shank. ”It’s not warranted after January. This (victory) is all for them, the doubters.”
The second-place finish at Mosport left the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport looking for its first GTP victory of the season. It was the runner-up at Daytona, but IMSA elected to not change the finishing order after the belated discovery of the winners racing with tire pressures below the mandated minimum.
Mosport was not kind to Cadillac. Its point-leading Action Express Racing team got caught out by caution periods and ran offline late in the event while contesting position, soon to be followed by the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R of Chip Ganassi Racing. The latter suffered a second major crash in as many months bringing out a caution with just under five minutes remaining.
Renger van der Zande was nudged off entering Turn 8 by the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8. The driver, who had a huge crash at Spa, again walked away, this time following a head-on collision with a tire barrier at nearly racing speed. Augusto Farfus was penalized by IMSA for avoidable contact with a drive through penalty.
Blomqvist, Braun Win Again
Michael Shank’s drivers Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun proved they could win again on board their Acura ARX-06 after getting some help with the typical style of the Shank team—by gambling. Mosport’s daunting high-speed dash through glacially formed hills uses up a lot of fuel and energy, but the team paid no heed. It rolled the dice with only victory in mind given its points position.
The No. 60 Acura squad’s last pit stop came 16 laps before its chief rivals, the runner-up No. 10 Acura of Ricky Taylor and Felipe Albuquerque. But it still made it to the finish, skipping an opportunity to pit from the lead during a late caution. A final caution with five minutes remaining meant a total of 19 minutes behind the pace car were run in the last 37 minutes of the two hour, forty-minute event, which rewarded the fuel gambit and sealed victory in the Chevrolet Grand Prix.
“The racing gods were looking down on us today,” said pole winner Blomqvist, who watched the final strategy unfold after driving the first stint. “We rolled the dice to try and go long and knew the only way we were going to win that race was if the yellows kind of played into our corner. And thankfully they did.”
“It was tough,” said Braun. “I knew Felipe had pitted, so he was good on fuel. So, for me it was all about giving the Meyer Shank Acura HPD car a good restart, build a bit of a gap. and go into fuel saving mode. I was really surprised with the pace on the fuel save. Once we got to the traffic, I knew we were going to be strong because we had gapped a lot in the stint before.”
Fraga vs. Grist, Round II
In a pass at Turn 10 that recalled a move first thought to be impossible until the late, great John Paul Jr. introduced it during the World Sports Car era, Felipe Fraga pulled off a surprise attack to win in LMP3. He stuck his Ligier inside Garett Grist’s JS P320. Grist, who considers Mosport his home track, ended up in the grass on the exit after side-by-side contact before rejoining to finish second.
While the question of avoidable contact hung in the air and the JR III team threw its arms into the air along the nearby pit road during their driver’s agricultural expedition into the grass, no penalty was forthcoming as the race clock wound down.
The winning move gave Riley Motorsports, where Gar Robinson is the bronze-rated driver, a perfect record in this year’s three races for the LMP3 class this season. It followed a “coming through” episode between the same two drivers at Watkins Glen which also ended in Fragga’s favor after a gutsy maneuver resulted in a narrow, high-speed overtaking.
Streaks End in GTD Pro
Corvette Racing’s 11-race winless streak in GTD Pro came to an end and Vasser Sullivan’s streak of nine consecutive podiums also fell be the wayside at Mosport. Meanwhile, the constant threat of the GTD teams finishing ahead of the GTD Pro teams subsided for a second straight race.
Not driving the fastest car according to qualifying, the C8.R GT3 drivers Jordan Taylor and Andy Garcia worked a little “Corvette Racing” magic, according to Taylor’s pre-race prediction. After setting up for the race instead of qualifying, the team’s pit strategy of undercutting on its first pit stop and driver change soon after Jordan had his requisite 30 minutes behind the wheel for points paid a winning dividend.
When the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and Vasser Sullivan’s Lexus RC F GT3 did battle in Turn 1 following a late restart, Ben Barnicoat came out the worst for his overtaking effort in a battle for position with Patrick Pilet. Barnicoat’s Lexus radiator took a hit and the car, which went off track in the incident, was retired. Pfaff drivers Pilet and Klaus Bachler settled for second behind the Corvette on the team’s home track. It was the last of the GTD Pro teams to pit, which did not pay a dividend.
The Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 was the first GTD entry to hit the pit road for the exchange from Madison Snow to Bryan Sellers after 47 minutes. They were soon followed by the McLaren 720S GT3 EVO of Inception Racing, where Frederik Schandorff stepped up for Brendan Iribe. Those two teams went on to finish first and second in class which on this day was the best track position strategy at Mosport.
It was the second of two runner-up finishes on the day for McLaren, whose driver Lando Norris stood on the podium at the British Grand Prix.
