Front Row Start for Acura at Mid-Ohio
• Defending race champion Helio Castroneves to start second for Acura Team Penske
• Teammate Dane Cameron qualifies his Acura ARX-05 third
• Changing track conditions hinder Meyer Shank Racing effort in GTD

LEXINGTON, Ohio (May 4, 2019) – Acura Team Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Dane Cameron will start second and third, respectively, in Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge after a hard-fought WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying session today at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Changing weather and track conditions in GTD qualifying, hampered the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo’s.

Acura Team Penske
The Mid-Ohio circuit was almost completely dry when the prototypes began their 15-minute qualifying session. Cameron, Castroneves, Pipo Derani and Oliver Jarvis all took their turns at the top of the order, as the fight for the pole came down to the final minutes.

Midway through his last lap, Castroneves appeared headed for the pole, but came upon the slowing Jarvis as the pair entered Turn 11. As a result, he was unable to improve his time and will start his #7 Acura second, with Ricky Taylor co-driving. Cameron will start his #6 ARX-05 third before handing over the driving duties to co-driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
Following a series of morning rain showers, qualifying began with the GTD category facing a still wet, but rapidly drying race track. Many competitors, including the Meyer Shank Racing duo of Trent Hindman and Christina Nielsen, elected to run the session on grooved, wet-weather tires. At the start of the 15-minute qualifying, that appeared to be the correct choice as both MSR Acura NSX GT3 Evo’s ran near the top of the time charges, with Hindman holding the quick time.

But as the sun shone for the first time today, the track quickly dried and the competitors on dry-weather “slick” tires moved to the top of the chart in the final minutes. As a result, Hindman will start 10th in the #86 Acura he co-drives with Mario Farnbacher, while teammate Nielsen will start 14th in the #57 NSX GT3 Evo she shares with co-driver Katherine Legge.

Quotes
Helio Castroneves (driver, #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05) defending race winner, qualified second: “Acura Team Penske’s been doing a great job all weekend. Our hope was to get the pole position, and on the last lap, we had a good run but the #77 Mazda slowed down in Turn 11, right in front of me, and I lost any gains I had made [earlier in the lap]. So it was frustrating, but tomorrow is another day.”

Trent Hindman (driver, #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3) qualified ninth in GTD: “I feel for our Meyer Shank Racing guys. We all collectively thought [the circuit] would remain wet for qualifying. We all agreed we were making the best call in terms of our tire strategy. But, as Mid-Ohio can do, it’ll throw you for a loop sometimes. The track dried up way faster than we expected. So, we’re going to have some work to do at the start of the race tomorrow. I’ve got no doubts that we’ll be making a charge to the front. We’ve got a really good car in the dry.”