Meyer Shank Racing will return to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2025 with Acura, fielding two Grand Touring Prototype cars for the 2025 season.
After a cheating scandal married its 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona victory and led to its Acura contract ending, MSR elected to sit out the 2024 IMSA season. But the team now will be reunited with Acura, which had ended its deal with MSR in 2024 to support Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti’s expansion to two cars.
According to a release form Honda Racing Corporation USA, the manufacturer will “take on a larger operational role as the company further develops its personnel and technology for the hybrid electrified racing era. HRC U.S. associates will race engineer one of the two GTP entries, while Meyer Shank Racing will oversee the second Acura ARX-06.”
“Running our own GTP car is the next, exciting step for our associates at HRC US,” Honda Racing Corporation USA president David Salters said in a release. “We race to develop our people and technology and we are thrilled to be partnering with MSR to race our ARX-06 against some of the world’s best sportscar teams. This is why the next logical step for us is race engineer our own car.”
Honda Racing Corporation USA today confirmed it will partner with championship-winning @MeyerShankRac to field a pair of @Acura ARX-06 entries in the 2025 @IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, starting with the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.
— Honda Racing US (@HondaRacing_US) June 27, 2024
📰 Read More:… pic.twitter.com/kTlcgDtuhO
It’s a multiyear deal with MSR, which will make its return with the 2025 season opener at Daytona International Speedway. The team will field its ARX-06 entries out of its Etna, Ohio, shop where it also prepares its two Dallara-Hondas in the NTT IndyCar Series.
MSR initially aligned with Acura and Honda in the 2021 season, moving up to IMSA’s premier prototype category.
“First, on behalf of everyone at Meyer Shank Racing, I want to express our gratitude to David Salters and everyone at HRC and Acura for giving us this opportunity,” Mike Shank, co-owner of Meyer Shank Racing with Jim Meyer, said in a release. “We are supremely grateful to have earned this new opportunity and everyone on the team is looking forward to day one in our new relationship with Acura, and the new role we’ll be playing in HRC US’s IMSA program.”
HRC said its drivers, sponsors “and other program details will be shared at a later date.”
🚨 We're excited to announce a multi-year agreement with HRC to return to IMSA competition starting in 2025.
— Meyer Shank Racing (@MeyerShankRac) June 27, 2024
In conjunction with HRC we will run a pair of Acura ARX-06s set to debut at the Rolex 24 Hour At Daytona in January.
Read: https://t.co/aSUNlFVop2 pic.twitter.com/FtVjiADLpm
WTR Andretti had switched from Cadillac to Acura in 2021 and then expanded to a second ARX-06 this year.
In a statement, team principal Wayne Taylor said “we are looking forward to announcing our plans for 2025 in the very near future.
“We have had a successful run with HRC and Acura these past four years,” Taylor said. “When it came to renewal, we listened and took their future plans into serious consideration, but in the end, felt we needed to go in a different direction moving forward. With three key races left in the season, our plan is to continue to focus on winning more podiums and races for Acura and to end the year strong.”
The team, whose driver lineup includes Louis Deletraz, Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, earned its first victory since aligning with Andretti Global at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. WTR Andretti also won at Detroit. Multiple media outlets have reported that WTR Andretti will return to Cadillac.
“I would like to sincerely thank Wayne Taylor, the WTR with Andretti team and its talented drivers,” Salters said. “We have shared some brilliant and successful times together; and we look forward to finishing 2024 with more top-level racing.”
After building a sports car powerhouse, Shank was unable to defend his two-year Rolex 24 at Daytona victory streak in 2024 — missing the IMSA season opener for the first time in 20 years.
MSR won the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona in the ballyhooed debut of hybrid engines in the Grand Touring Prototype category but was hammered by a massive penalty six weeks later. The team had manipulated the transmission of tire pressure information from its Acura ARX-06 during the victory by drivers Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves.
Though allowed to keep the win, its trophy and Rolex watches, MSR was fined $50,000, stripped of its prize money and docked 200 points. The penalty also cost MSR its IMSA GTP contract with Honda Racing Corp., which declined to renew the team. Honda, which issued a tersely worded statement last year condemning MSR’s actions, discovered the malfeasance at Daytona and self-reported the incident to IMSA.