Acura Ends Road Atlanta GTP Test After Second Accident

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Testing of Acura’s ARX-06 LMDh car ended early on Wednesday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta following the second accident in three days for the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing car that led to Wayne Taylor Racing’s Acura also being parked.

Sportscar365 understands that Matt McMurry lost control of the MSR car over the curbs in Turn 7, resulting in left-rear corner damage to the ORECA-chassied prototype.

It came following an accident on Monday by Tom Blomqvist, which was triggered by a rear suspension component failure.

That incident temporarily parked both Acuras as representatives from Honda Performance Development and ORECA worked to put together a temporary fix for a piece that will need to be redesigned.

Wednesday’s incident, unrelated to the issues on the opening day of testing, came at an inopportune time, as the MSR car had to be repaired on-site before being transported to the Windshear wind tunnel for the the ARX-06’s homologation, which is scheduled for later this week.

“On Monday, we had an incident with the No. 60 ARX-06 that resulted from a component failure,” said HPD President and technical director David Salters.

“Working with Oreca, we were able to manage this with a running condition change and had a productive day of testing on Tuesday.

“Today, a loss of traction and spin resulted in contact with the barrier, again with the No. 60 Acura.

“The cause of the spin and contact today is unrelated to the issue we experienced on Monday. However, it seemed prudent to stop and protect scarce parts as we have a date with the wind tunnel and homologation shortly.”

The IMSA-sanctioned GTP test came to a close on Wednesday afternoon with BMW and Cadillac completing additional mileage with its LMDh machinery.

The next major group test is understood to be at Daytona International Speedway later this month, which should see all four manufacturers present for the first time.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John