Long Beach, Calif. (15 April 2023) – An incident on the opening lap made for a long day for Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) with Curb-Agajanian in Saturday’s 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, placing sixth in the first sprint event of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Tom Blomqvist started on the front row in the No. 60 Acura, but was collected seconds after the green flag when the third-place car spun after a banzai move. That car bounced into the path of Blomqvist, who was nudged while trying to take evasive action.
The resulting spin cost the team a lap, putting Blomqvist at the back of the 25-car field and seventh in the GTP class, and brought out the first of two caution periods in the 100-minute race. Blomqvist regained the lead lap when the other GTP class cars pitted near the halfway point, and was running fifth when he finally pitted with 37-minutes remaining.
Colin Braun took over the No. 60 MSR Acura in seventh, one lap down, but the former Long Beach class winner was able to gain one position in his final sprint to the finish with the race ending under caution.
Meyer Shank Racing will have nearly month long break before heading to the west coast for the next round of IMSA competition at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 14th. MSR has had a strong history at WRLS, scoring three victories in 2016, 2018 and 2020 – two of which were from pole. MSR also scored and additional five podium finishes at the 2.238-mile road course.
Meyer Shank Racing Team Quotes:
Tom Blomqvist:
“What a disaster. Unfortunately I got hit at the start. (Sebastien) Bourdais tried to be the hero in the first corner, I don’t know what kind of grip he thought he was going to have, we know how these tires can be so treacherous. I stayed out of his way, but trying to dodge him, someone ran into the back of me. Then we went a lap down and the race was typical and I couldn’t really do anything from there. It’s a shame because the car was strong this weekend and it should have been an easy one for Acura. I feel sorry for all the boys and girls who put so much effort on these cars to make them quick. It’s a shame we couldn’t reward them at their home Grand Prix.”
Colin Braun:
“Obviously it was a disappointing day. We had a car that could have contended for the win, so I’m bummed out for Acura and HPD that we couldn’t get that done. But that’s racing these days, sometimes you have things go your way and sometimes you don’t. On the positive side, the Meyer Shank guys had good strtagey and we adapted well to it, when it didn’t go out way. We did everything we could to put ourselves in a position to get back into the fight – unfortunately we had no yellows and we didn’t get a chance to do that. The takeaway for us is that we have really fast race cars. We just have to keep chipping away and get a little bit of luck on our side. I’m proud of everyone this weekend and we’ll reset for Laguna.”