Blomqvist: MSR “Rolled the Dice” On Two-Stop Strategy

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Meyer Shank Racing “rolled the dice” in going the final 1 hour and 16 minutes of the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on a single replenishment of energy according to Tom Blomqvist, who admitted they would have likely finished sixth if there had not been the series of three full-course cautions in the final hour of the race.

Blomqvist and co-driver Colin Braun claimed their second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season in a strategic run to the checkered flag for the pole-sitting Acura ARX-06, which led a race-high 96 laps.

However, Blomqvist’s early controlling run went awry during the first round of pit stops when the No. 60 crew dropped to third on pit lane.

“I thankfully managed to hand over the car to Colin in the lead early on but then it kind of went against us a bit,” Blomqvist explained.

“We lost [time] in the stop, which we really didn’t foresee, so we need to look at that and understand what went on.

“It made our life a little more difficult, and in traffic it was just harder to follow and the pace was… Some of the cars that looked slow in the beginning were back in the event.

“Things go in circles sometimes and luck played into [the No. 10 car].

“They got a good call with the yellow and we kind of just rolled the dice and said, ‘There’s no point in finishing third. We’re not really in the championship. Let’s roll the dice, hope for some yellows.’

“That was really our only chance. We were going for the win. The last yellow saved us because it enabled us to go almost flat out to the end.”

Blomqvist said the team was forced to re-think its strategy when Filipe Albuquerque pitted under green with 54 minutes to go, just moments before the race’s second yellow came out that would have essentially gifted the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura the lead.

“At that point, we were like, ‘OK, what do we do here?’ Ideally it’s best to come in if it goes green,” he said.

“The other guys were pulling in and at one point, if it went green the whole way, we’d be dropping back to sixth.

“The goal was to kind of go first or not.

“We took a gamble but it played out for us. It was a good call from the guys, ultimately, the racing gods were looking down on us and gave us those yellows.

“Otherwise it wouldn’t have happened… We got a bit of help but those things happen sometimes in racing.”

Braun admitted he wasn’t entirely sure how close they were on energy in the closing laps of the race, which ended under yellow.

“I’m not sure how bad we needed it,” he said. “I think they were trying to keep that away from me, I guess.

“I was doing everything I could under the two yellows to try and save as much as we could.

“It’s tough because you also wanted to warm the tires back up for the restarts so it was a bit of a balance there of trying not to burn too much fuel but also get some tire temp.

“Those yellows played into our favor. [But] we still had a bit of fuel to save.

“I knew if I could get a good jump and push hard on the restart for a lap or two I could build a bit of a gap and settle in, hit the fuel number.

“Once we caught traffic, it was going to be a bit of a gamble.

“But I felt like I had good pace in traffic on the stints prior, so if I did get to the traffic, it was just max push through the traffic and try to keep building that buffer to make life easy.

“You never know when you catch it wrong and it swings back against you.”

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