Blomqvist: Acura MSR Turning Focus to Manufacturers Title
Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA
Tom Blomqvist has all but conceded he and co-driver Colin Braun winning the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP drivers’ championship, with the Meyer Shank Racing team putting a focus on delivering Acura the manufacturers’ title, following a recent return to form for the team and luxury brand.
While Blomqvist and Braun sit sixth in the GTP standings, some 308 points behind leaders Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell of Porsche Penske Motorsport, Acura sits only 90 points behind Porsche in the manufacturers’ championship, thanks to points hauls at Detroit and Watkins Glen, where each of MSR’s cars were victorious.
With the drivers’ title likely to come down to an intra-team battle between the two Penske Porsche 963s, Blomqvist admitted the primary focus has now shifted to the manufacturers’ crown.
“In terms of the championship, the driver’s championship, to be honest realistically, it’s kind of gone,” he said. “We’re not really chasing it, to be honest.
“But we still stand a chance if we keep it up, in the manufacturers, which is which is definitely a big goal of Acura’s.
“We haven’t given up there and having won the last two events and obviously only the one car gets points for that.
“I think ultimately that’s probably what we’re going to be trying to focus on more than the drivers itself.
“Let’s see. I mean, that’s kind of the goal really for us now. [We] have to put the drivers aside because realistically it’s unfortunately, a bit out of reach.”
Speaking prior to the release of the pre-event Balance of Performance for the event, Blomqvist said he felt upbeat heading into this weekend’s Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America, which kicks off the final three-race stretch for the GTP class.
“Depending on what we’re given, we’re pretty confident,” he said. “The goal is to go into the weekend and kind of come out of there with a pretty good result. But we’ll see how it is.
“In the past, it’s always been a pretty strong track for us, so I don’t see a reason why it’s not going to be again. And I think we we’ve really made good gains as a team as well.
“Every race we’re kind of getting better with the new organization, there there’s a lot of new faces and new people. And I feel like we’re just getting stronger.
“I think we’re well, we’re hopeful that we can fight for the victory again [this] weekend.”
While Blomqvist and Braun’s No. 60 Acura ARX-06 entry is partially made up of crew from their 2023 campaign, the No. 93 car of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly boasts many new faces, including engineers from Honda Racing Corporation USA that are calling the shots on the car.
“The crew from 2023, that team was built for one car,” he explained. “Now we have two cars. So then most set of guys that I had on our car in 2023 have moved; half is on the 60 car and the other half is on the 93.
“And then we’ve obviously had to go out and recruit more mechanics. We have a load more engineers as well.
“Obviously, there’s a lot more where HRC is a lot more involved. I would say basically most of the other car, kind of from an engineering perspective is running managed by, HRC themselves, so engineers who employed by them.
“So just that integration has been the biggest thing, I think, to overcome and then also managing two cars on track from a strategic standpoint.”
He added: “I think we had a couple of instances early in the year where we kind of I would say we didn’t nail it, tripped over ourselves and compromised or didn’t nail both results with both cars.
“So that was trying to learn how to get the best out of that. It’s still an ongoing thing. But I don’t think we’ve nailed it yet.
“If you compare, let’s say, the operational side of Penske in 2025 when they first started vs. in 2023, it’s obviously a completely different ball game and we’re kind of going through those issues of running, let’s say two cars and not having really done it in the past.
“There’s a ton of new people who are also running race cars or running a race car like for the first time as well.
“We’re just learning, let’s say, and adapting and making changes where we need to do better and so on and so forth.
“It’s been quite a process so far, but we’re getting better each weekend. Hopefully we just keep on going in this direction and, yeah, get some good results.”
Source: Sports Car 365