Acura Drivers Facing “Tough” GTP Driver Market

Acura drivers Renger van der Zande and Colin Braun are facing a “tough” GTP driver market in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as they search for drives in 2027.

The Meyer Shank Racing teammates are the two remaining full-season Acura GTP drivers who are still free agents.

Acura confirmed in April that it would bring its GTP efforts in the WeatherTech Championship to a close at the end of the current season.

Fellow Acura pilots Nick Yelloly and Tom Blomqvist both recently signed for the incoming Ford Hypercar team in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Speaking with Sportscar365, both Braun and van der Zande confirmed they’ve been in various discussions for a race seat for next year, but neither driver has yet signed a contract.

The sports car veterans both blamed the shrinking GTP field and an uptick in multi-year driver contracts for their difficulty in finding a seat in the top class.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of new hardware coming into GTP, and a lot of the seats in IMSA are on multiple year deals,” said Braun. “It’s a tough time to be out of a deal when it doesn’t really cycle with everyone else.

“It’s a challenging landscape but I think it’s still early days and there’s a lot of time between now and Daytona.

“For me, every year it’s always the same kind of thing. Only recently really have I been on any multiple year contracts. It was always one year at a time and figure it out in the off season and go again.

“That’s served me well for my career and I’m sure it will be no different this time.”

The long-standing Acura MSR driver confirmed he was specifically targeting an IMSA seat.

“I would definitely want to stay in IMSA for sure,” said Braun. “I enjoy the racing. I’m very much a U.S. guy, based here. And I’ve just got so much experience here. I feel like I’m a good add to any IMSA level program.”

On the other hand, van der Zande – who has 19 career IMSA wins to his name, emphasized he was not solely focussing on a drive in the U.S.-based championship and is “open to everything” including a gap year where he raced in other series.

When asked if he would be interested in one-off projects like his drive in the HWA EVO.R at the Nürburgring 24 earlier in the year, the Dutchman said: “It’s good fun. At the end, it’s a side project, so being in the top of the racing league is my ambition, and then something on the side is very, very nice.

“Any car development that you’re part of is learning. I think at the Nordschleife we were there just to finish, but the testing that we did to improve the car was the interesting part.”

Van der Zande explained that he found developing a team and a car to be very rewarding and was looking for an opportunity to do so in his next racing venture.

“Whatever program comes up, I think that would be what I have been looking for,” he said. “Making the team better, making the car better, and being a part of a development to then win races with it I think is very satisfying.”

The 40-year-old said he’s open to joining either an existing team or a new venture.

“I think both is very nice because you can go into a program that is well established and you can win races from the get-go.

“If you have to develop a team towards something that can be successful, that’s the fun of that, and you really want to win races at the end of it. Both can be very satisfying.”

Van der Zande: “Frustrating” to See Competitive Acura GTP Parked

The Dutchman expressed his frustration at the premature end of Acura’s GTP program, particularly as the MSR squad appeared to be on an upward trajectory with its ARX-06.

“I think what the philosophy of Honda was that they were putting a lot of young people in charge at very key positions,” said van der Zande. “You only do that if you have a long-term deal. Otherwise, why would you take people and teach them how to run race cars?

“The investments we all made to get everybody up to speed are now finally showing results after one-and-a-half years. So, it’s really a shame that’s ending.

“I think for me personally, I would have liked to get the fruit from the investments, which is probably only [going to happen] next year when the program is already stopped.”

Assessing the team’s prospects for the end of this season, van der Zande said there was only a “very small chance” that the championship leading No. 31 Action Express Racing team would lose its advantage over the rest of the field.

“We will try everything to get the wins and if we can finish this program off with a win or two, that would be fantastic,” he said prior to Sunday’s race that saw Jack Aitken’s points lead reduced after his race-ending incident with Kevin Estre.

“I have to say, everybody is very focused on getting the maximum result out of it.

“From the Honda side, we’re still pushing to get the maximum out of it. There’s no budget saving or anything that could affect us doing racing. So I’m very happy about that.”

John Dagys contributed to this report