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Shank on IMSA Return: “This is Where We Belong”

Mike Shank looks ahead to Meyer Shank Racing’s return to GTP ranks with Acura…

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Acura Meyer Shank Racing team co-owner Mike Shank says his team is ‘back where it belongs,’ returning to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2025 with an expanded two-car Acura LMDh effort following a year-long hiatus.

The Ohio-based squad is set to run a pair of Acura ARX-06s in the championship’s top class next year, featuring full season pairings Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist and Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly.

The team confirmed on Thursday that Alex Palou and Scott Dixon will join for the endurance rounds, with MSR’s NTT IndyCar Series regular Felix Rosenqvist set to join for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“This is where we started,” Shank told Sportscar365.

“This is where we belong, and we’re going to do everything possible to get it back up in the front again here.

“Sports car racing for me personally is our basis. It’s our rock. It’s where we started from really, and it allowed us to do and win the Indy 500, so we owe it a lot and we’re super, super stoked to be back.”

The Jim Meyer and Shank-led organization returns to the WeatherTech Championship next season, having expanded its footprint to a pair of ARX-06s, one run by Acura MSR and the other engineered by Honda Racing Corporation USA.

MSR boasts significant experience in prototype racing and notably fielded a Honda-powered Ligier JS P2 for two seasons before it embarked on a program running Acura NSX GT3 machinery.

The highlight of that tenure came in the form of back-to-back GTD titles, spearheaded by Mario Farnbacher.

The team then stepped back into IMSA’s top class to successfully compete in Acura DPi and LMDh machinery before its exit at the end of a multi-race-winning 2023 season.

“We had lots of different things going with other OEMs and stuff,” Shank said.

“But at the end of the day, the folks that Acura were all there too when we started this program. We started developing this [LMDh] car in 2022.

“They’re all there still, and we always got along so well with them. A lot of them were there when we developed the Evo packages for the NSX GT3 also, which was where the technical relationship really got strong.

“I’m super happy to have all those folks back in our lives. There’s a comfort level there and a communication level that’s just built in, so it makes it a lot easier going forward.”

MSR “Worked Hard” in “Every Way Possible” to Return to IMSA Grid

While the team pulled its focus to its NTT IndyCar Series program this year, Shank says MSR “worked hard to get back” on the IMSA grid for 2025, ultimately announcing its GTP class return with Acura and HRC US in June of this year.

“We worked hard,” said Shank. “We worked hard to get back in every department and every way possible to get back.

“Once we found out we had the [IMSA] program, which was a bit ago, we started having a core group of people working on the program, and it’s been great.

“That core group I’m talking about are a lot of the people I had in 2023 and even way before that, so they got to really focus on trying to do it.

“Now that said, it’s still a huge undertaking, and it’s a different class than it was in ’23, so we’re just kind of working that out now.”

Shank revealed that the team’s testing mileage has been limited to a recent shakedown at Sebring International Raceway ahead of this weekend’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway.

“
We did one day at Sebring effectively about a week ago, and that went well,” said Shank.

“That was really raw. We were just learning how to talk to each other. But today was a better day than those days, and tomorrow will be a little bit better. We hope we just kind of build and build.

“We’re less than four weeks removed from Petit [Le Mans], where we weren’t in it at all. So in three weeks’ time, we’ve gone from nothing, zero, to wrapped trailers and 100 people here.”

The next major on-track outing for the team is likely to be the Roar Before the Rolex 24 in mid-January, according to Shank.

“We may do a shakedown or something before we come back [to Daytona] just to be as prepared as we can,” he said.

“But with the testing rules and with the time we need in the shop to finish everything from branding to clothing to cadence and procedures and stuff, we need four to six weeks to really get properly set up.”

Despite a lack of testing time heading into next season, MSR has race-winning experience running ARX-06s, having competed in the first season on IMSA’s new GTP era with a single car in 2023, collecting a season-high three wins, including at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Motul Petit Le Mans.

“We won Petit Le Mans on a great strategy, in a great race for all three drivers that day,” said Shank. “I’m really proud of that.

“We’ve won Petit Le Mans three overall three times, [the Rolex 24], overall three times, which is great. 
The one that we’re missing is Sebring, so we need to work on that, which we will. But I’m super happy.

“You’ll see it. It’ll just build and build.”

Jonathan Grace is the host of Sportscar365's Double Stint Podcast and a contributor to the web site's IMSA-sanctioned race coverage.

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