Yahoo Autos IMSA Champion Tom Blomqvist Lands IndyCar Seat
If you have watched IMSA prototype racing over the past two seasons, you know Tom Blomqvist already. The prototype star has three major endurance racing wins and a championship to his name with Acura in just a season and a half at Meyer Shank Racing, including an untouchable performance at this year's much-hyped Rolex 24 at Daytona. Now, Blomqvist is taking that speed to single-seaters, joining MSR in one of their IndyCars for the full 2024 season.
Blomqvist's path to IndyCar mirrors the career of another current Meyer Shank driver, series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud. Like Pagenaud, Blomqvist had a somewhat successful single-seater career before moving to sports cars early. His breakout then came in a Honda-powered car in the top class of the top American sports car series, leading to part-time opportunities in the season after his first championship. That in turn led to a full-time hiring in his late 20s, leaving plenty of time for a full, senior-level single-seater career.
The appointment to an IndyCar seat is the biggest step yet in that strange career. Blomqvist, the son of legendary Group C pilot Stig Blomqvist, first made his name outscoring Max Verstappen in the 2014 Formula 3 European championship. While Verstappen went from third in that fourth-level series straight to an F1 ride, Blomqvist's runner-up finish landed him in a similarly early promotion to the DTM with BMW. Although he fell out of the DTM in 2017, he competed for two more seasons as a BMW GT driver in IMSA and saw some limited opportunities in Formula E.
In 2020 and 2021, that turned into a full-time dual opportunity in Formula E and the FIA World Endurance Championship's LMP2 class. Blomqvist struggled to adapt to the all-electric series, but he was able to secure second in the LMP2 championship for Jota and earn a ride at Meyer Shank Racing's Acura prototype program for 2022. A Daytona win, a title on debut clinched in the closing hours at Petit Le Mans, and another Daytona win have highlighted his past two years, all while MSR has allowed Blomqvist to both test their IndyCar entries and, on one occasion, fill in for an injured Pagenaud during a race at Toronto earlier this season.
The long-rumored hiring of Blomqvist means that four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves will move into a part-time role with MSR. Castroneves will join the team in a third car for the 2024 500, but he will be most visible throughout the year as a part-owner of the operation after buying into a newly-announced minority ownership position with the team. It is the second move from full-time to part-time in his career. As Castroneves has already won the 500 as a partially-retired part-timer, that lack of seat time should not impact his shot at winning a record-setting fifth Indy.
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