Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
1:30 p.m. EDT May 5, 2019
NBC Sports Network
Radio Le Mans and IMSA.com
ACURA, HPD AT MID-OHIO
• Acura Motorsports and its performance arm, Honda Performance Development, have recorded seven victories at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, tied for fourth with Road America and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in the overall “success rate” for the manufacturer in North American sports car racing.
• Acura’s initial victory at Mid-Ohio came in 1991, when Parker Johnstone brought his Comptech Racing Acura Spice prototype home first in Camel Lights in a solo drive. Johnstone and co-driver Dan Marvin scored a second Camel Lights class win in 1993.
• In 2009, Acura scored a double American Le Mans Series victory at Mid-Ohio. Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud won LMP1 and overall in their Acura ARX-02a; while Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz won LMP2 in their Acura ARX-01b.
• With HPD supplying customer teams from 2010-16, the company again scored “the double” at Mid-Ohio. Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr claimed the LMP1 and overall honors in their Muscle Milk Pickett Racing ARX-03a (WHAT YEAR WAS THIS?); while Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut finished third overall and won LMP2 in their Level 5 Motorsports ARX-03b.
• Acura returned as a manufacturer to sports prototype competition in 2018, and swept last year’s inaugural Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio. Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor won from the pole in their Acura Team Penske ARX-05; and teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron completed a 1-2 sweep for Acura.
• The Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio is the first “full field” WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event – featuring all three classes of race cars – since the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.
• American Honda operates a dozen corporate, manufacturing and R&D facilities in central Ohio, all within a short drive of Mid-Ohio and employing more than 10,000 associates. Many are expected to be on hand this weekend, as Acura Team Penske seeks to repeat a win for the ARX-05 prototype, while Columbus-based Meyer Shank Racing remains in the thick of the fight for the GTD class win via its pair of Acura NSX GT3 Evo’s.
ACURA TEAM PENSKE
• The Acura ARX-05 is the latest in a line of endurance prototypes to be fielded by the company, dating to 1991, just five years after the launch of the Acura brand. Based on the successful ORECA 07 chassis, the ARX-05 DPi features Acura-specific bodywork and utilizes the race-proven, production-based Acura AR35TT twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine.
• In their most recent outing, earlier this month at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Castroneves started from the pole and finished second, once again partnered with Taylor. Cameron and Montoya rounded out the victory podium in third place.
• After three of 10 races, Castroneves and Taylor are ranked second in the drivers’ championship, just two points out of first place. Teammates Cameron and Montoya are fifth, 15 points back. Acura also is second in the Manufacturers’ Championship, nine points out of first.
• To celebrate IMSA’s 50th year of endurance sports car racing, both Acura Team Penske entries this year feature “throwback” orange and white liveries commemorating the consecutive IMSA Camel Lights Comptech Acura championship seasons of 1991-93.
MEYER SHANK RACING
• After scoring two class wins and seven podium finishes to contend for the GTD title last season, Meyer Shank Racing returns with the new “Evo” edition of the successful Acura NSX GT3 and a two-car effort for 2019.
• Based on information generated from the global NSX GT3 Customer Racing Program, the Acura NSX GT3 Evo features performance gains, improved drivability, a 25 percent increase in engine life and greater component durability. The result is a racing platform designed to appeal to a wide range of professional and amateur drivers.
• For 2019, MSR has entered into a partnership with businesswoman/racer Jackie Heinricher and sponsor Caterpillar to field the #57 Acura NSX GT3 Evo for an all-female driver lineup anchored by the four-time Acura race winner Katherine Legge. Two-time IMSA GTD champion Christina Nielsen will co-drive with Legge at Mid-Ohio. Rising stars Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman return to drive the #93 MSR Acura, and scored a fourth-place finish at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.
WHERE TO WATCH
• Live television coverage from Mid-Ohio begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, May 6, on the NBC Sports network. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on the NBC Sports App with NBCSN authentication.
• Fans can listen in to audio commentary via IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and Sirius XM Radio; and follow the race live via in-car cameras, IMSA Radio and timing & scoring available worldwide on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile device App.
• Video recaps from this weekend’s Acura Motorsports activities at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will be posted on the “Honda Racing/HPD” YouTube channel. Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found in the 2018 HPD Trackside Video Playlist at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.