Mike Shank sounded complete for the primary time in simply over a yr. On Monday and Tuesday at Sebring Worldwide Raceway, 12 months and 21 days after its final IMSA motion, Meyer Shank Racing made its return to IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, a sequence it by no means wished to go away, in a non-public check that held nice significance for Shank and co-owner Jim Meyer.
MSR received on its final trip, taking victory at Motul Petit Le Mans on Oct. 14, 2023. After the checkered flag waved, MSR handed off its manufacturing unit Acura ARX-06 hybrid GTPs to Wayne Taylor Racing, ending 20 years of steady participation in Grand Am Rolex Collection and IMSA competitors. However with WTR’s latest departure from Acura on the finish of the newest operating of Petit Le Mans and a reversal of fortune — WTR handing Acuras again to MSR after the race — as Honda Racing Company US re-signed MSR model’s lone producer workforce in 2025, a way of normalcy and order was restored.
“It was actually, actually nice,” Shank informed RACER. “We purposely left it low key; we didn’t invite anyone to come back see it as a result of we simply wished to get our stuff again collectively. It’s the primary outing for the entire group, working collectively, 90 individuals there between HRC and MSR, and we ran by way of a lot stuff.”
The check was the primary of its form for MSR and HRC. In earlier manufacturing unit Acura IMSA DPi and GTP packages, HRC relied on its accomplice groups to run its vehicles with full and devoted engineering staffs provided by the WTRs and MSRs. However underneath the brand new association with MSR, the Ohio-based workforce will provide crew and engineers for its No. 60 ARX-06, and with the No. 93 ARX-06, MSR is liable for the mechanical facet — the crew taking care of all points of getting ready and fielding the automobile — whereas HRC brings its personal engineers to deal with the efficiency facet of working the No. 93.
At Sebring, the blended workforce took its first steps in operating vehicles collectively — together with the shaking down of a brand new ARX-06 chassis — in preparation for subsequent week’s go to to Daytona Worldwide Speedway for a three-day Stability of Efficiency check led by IMSA to set the technical specification for every WeatherTech Championship mannequin for January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.
“One automobile was new, and we have now three operating vehicles presently,” Shank mentioned. “It was only a good day for everybody to get to know one another and get the communication channels going, which is basically good. I used to be simply actually, actually happy with it. You understand, we’re just a few weeks after Petit, simply acquired the vehicles, and it was a Herculean effort to prepare for Sebring, which went rather well. So the concept was that we get this collectively now to be prepared for Daytona check, and hopefully, get again there in January with weapons blazing and having the ability to hit that fairly arduous.”
The MSR workforce was a giant a part of serving to HRC and Acura to organize the ARX-06 for its debut in 2023 and was the producer’s best workforce. Having missed the second season of GTP motion, the place the entire vehicles took main steps ahead, Shank was involved about having a big studying curve to beat when the manufacturing unit deal got here again to MSR, however after two days at Sebring, these fears have been allayed.
“Really, it felt very acquainted,” he mentioned. “We engaged my high 5 – 6 technical individuals who began engaged on the venture 5 – 6 months in the past, and we have been sort of introduced into the loop of the place Acura was at, presently. So after we hit the bottom operating, we had a bunch of techniques in place. It wasn’t as huge of a shock to the system as I suspected it is perhaps. All due credit score to the brand new head of engineering for me, Vincent Forges — a man that’s been with me for 9 years. He actually is simply taking this program on our facet of it and ensuring that we have been able to roll, technically.
“The mixing with HRC, with each vehicles, it’s been actually attention-grabbing. It’s a brand new sort of mannequin and we’re studying as we go. However it doesn’t really feel like we missed an entire yr. I do know that sounds conceited, however we hit the bottom operating. We had a whole lot of on-track time, the vehicles ran high-quality, just about no points. And, man, I used to be tremendous happy with what everyone did.”
