Yelloly, van der Zande dominate early, push to the lead late for first IMSA victory of the season
Detroit, Mich. (31 May 2025) – Renger van der Zande executed two late-race passes in traffic to take the lead in the No. 93 MeyerShank Racing Acura w/ Curb-Agajanian machine, and went on to win the Detroit Grand Prix, the first victory of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship for Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian (“AcuraMSR”).
Acura MSR started the 100-minute race with both of its cars on the front row. Pole winner Nick Yelloly led the opening 26 laps on the tight nine-turn, 1.645-mile in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06, with van der Zande returning to the fray in fourth position following the team’s lone pit stop as the race ran for over 50 laps under green flag conditions. Running third after his competitors made their stops, van der Zande bided his time, following a competitor to take second position with 14:30 remaining. When the top two were mired in heavy traffic with less than four minutes on the clock, van der Zande made a brilliant move to the inside in Turn 1 to take the lead.
From that point, van der Zande pulled away, winning by 0.947-seconds. It was the second podium of the year for the No. 93 AcuraARX-06, with the team taking third in the classic 12 Hours of Sebring.
In addition to the team’s triumph in Detroit, the day also marked Helio Castroneves’ first win as minority partner of the team – the same place where he also scored his first career INDYCAR SERIES victory 25 years ago.
Tom Blomqvist started the sister No. 60 Acura ARX-06 in second, and did the undercut by pitting from second 26 minutes into the event to turn the GTP class car over to Colin Braun. Braun ran sixth following the completion of pit stops. His car bogged down briefly when he was passed in traffic with 47 minutes remaining in an otherwise trouble-free run. Braun recovered to finish sixth.
Following a brief yellow in the opening two minutes, the remainder of the event ran with only one additional caution for debris with 36 minutes left on the clock.
After two weekends off, the WeatherTech Championship returns to action with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, June 22.
Meyer Shank Racing Team Quotes:
Renger van der Zande: “Victory in Detroit. I love this place now even more. I loved Belle Isle and now winning here is topping it all off. The HRC and MSR guys did a great job and we finally had a competitive car and that pays off in this series because you can start attacking, defending or you can race your strategy a little bit. Nick (Yelloly) did a fantastic job in qualifying but also today. He nailed the first section of the race and gave me a car that was in a great position. First victory for us and it feels so good.”
Nick Yelloly: “Obviously very happy to get the win. We had a good start and a good opening stint. We lost a couple of positions there in the middle because of pit stop rotation – which we definitely need to have a look at. But Renger did a hell of a job; the two overtakes that he did were very decisive and made the difference today. I think as fuel came off our car, it came alive. Perfect way to Acura, HRC and Meyer Shank to get back on the top step.”
Colin Braun: “Super pumped for the 93 guys and Acura. It was obviously the goal of this whole group to get a win. Super proud of this whole team effort, a lot people within Acura and Meyer Shank who work really hard on this program. On the 60 car we had a solid race, we did a bit of a split strategy and I think we maximized what we had today for sure. Tom did a great job. We had a good driver change and out lap and solid race in the end.”
Tom Blomqvist: “Fantastic job for the 93 guys for getting the win there. That was the goal for all of us at MSR and HRC. Renger did a fantastic job at the end there to score the victory for the guys. For us our race was kind of toast. Unfortunately we weren’t really able to do much, but sometimes thats how it goes. We’ll move on and hopefully make amends at the next one.”