Meyer Shank Racing is set to leave IMSA at the end of the 2023 season – Motorsport Week

Meyer Shank Racing have announced their departure from IMSA, after 19 consecutive years of competing in the IMSA-based sports car championship, with a view to focusing on their Indycar program from 2024.

The team, currently racing the #60 Acura ARX-06 GTP in this year’s All Weather Championship, are set to mark this month’s Petit Le Mans as their final race.

At the Battle of the Bricks, which took place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, they crossed their 350th start in North American sports car racing.

With the Acura NSX GT3 and their DPi car, they claimed titles in 2019, 2020 and 2022, and won this year’s Daytona 24 Hours despite the team being caught entering tire pressure data to submit to IMSA, thus taking the winning points. reduced. .

“Making the decision to take a year off from IMSA was not easy by any means,” said Michael Shank.

“Our people live and breathe this team, and they’ve dedicated their entire lives to working on these cars and racing them — and many of them have been with us for almost 20 years. For Jim (Meyer) and I, our main goal was to keep our guys and to ensure that they will all be okay, which we were able to do.

“There are a lot of projects that we have going on in the shop, and of course some people will be helping with our growing Indycar program.

“A third Indianapolis 500 entry for Helio (Castroneves) is a big deal and I’m glad to have the right people to help us be as ready as possible for him to get that fifth. And then when we need to prepare for the IMSA program, we’ll still be able to have this group great plus ready to go.

“I have so many people to thank who have had such an impact on me and the way this team has grown – Jim France has been our supporter since we joined the series in 2004 and he is someone I cannot thank enough.

“Jon Ikeda, David Salters and everyone at Honda, HPD, and Acura, gave the MSR image and trusted us to run this program for the last few years and we’ve accomplished some great things since running together.

“All my staff and drivers who have been with us – and we have a huge list – I can’t thank them enough.

“Many of these guys have changed my life since I started this team in Grand-Am.

“Like I said, we’re not going anywhere, we’re going for now, but definitely not forever.

“Taking next year to step back and focus on our Indycar plan will be important for us as a team.”

Their first victory was in 2006, at the ‘Discount Tire Sunchaser 100k’ in the hands of Ozz Negri and Mark Patterson.

MSR claims their departure will not be permanent, and that they will return at some point in the future.

They are currently fifth in the standings, having won Petit Le Mans last year with Tom Blomqvist, Olly Jarvis and Castroneves.

For Acura and HRC US, their IMSA GTP class representation will be reduced to one team for 2024, including only two Acuras run by the Wayne Taylor Racing outfit.