Acura Teams Head North To Canada
• Acura Team Penske builds momentum on first race win, string of podium finishes
• Meyer Shank Racing, Katherine Legge continue GTD title challenge
• IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship begins stretch drive at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
TORRANCE, Calif. (July 5, 2018) – Following another set of podium finishes in both Prototype and GTD competition last weekend, Acura teams and drivers head to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park outside of Toronto, Canada, for a return to the series’ typical two hour, 40-minute race format as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship enters the stretch drive of the 2018 season.
Much like Watkins Glen International Raceway, site of last weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, CTMP is a fast, flowing European-style road course, well suited to both the Acura ARX-05 prototypes and Acura NSX GT3s taking part in Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix.
“Since Acura Team Penske’s breakthrough 1-2 finish at Mid-Ohio in May, our ARX-05 prototypes have added more podium finishes at every stop on the IMSA schedule, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron contending for the victory at Watkins Glen,” said Art St. Cyr, president of Honda Performance Development and Acura Motorsports. “In GTD, Meyer Shank Racing and Katherine Legge continue to close in on the championship leaders after their second-place finish last weekend. It’s an exciting time for everyone at Acura Motorsports, and we hope to build on our multiple recent successes this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.”
Acura Team Penske
After leading a race high 124 of 202 laps and finishing third at Watkins Glen, the Acura Team Penske duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron comes to CTMP third in the Drivers’ Championship standings, with 156 points each, to 169 points for championship leader Felipe Albuquerque. Cameron and Montoya have recorded podium finishes in each of the last three races to hoist themselves into title contention.
Teammates Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor recorded the first victory for the new Acura ARX-05 prototype at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in May, and followed that with a second-place result in Detroit. Delayed to a 12th-place finish at Watkins Glen by a gearbox issue, the pair comes to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park ranked sixth in the championship, 20 points out of the lead.
Acura Team Penske has seen steadily improving results in the inaugural season for the new ARX-05 prototype, after breaking through for its first victory in May at Mid-Ohio. In addition, the Acura ARX-05 has led in all seven races this season, and has recorded two poles, with Montoya qualifying fastest at Long Beach and Castroneves at Mid-Ohio.
The four drivers sharing Acura Team Penske’s two ARX-05 prototypes – Cameron and Montoya in the #6 Acura, and Castroneves and Taylor in the #7 – account for four Rolex 24 overall victories, two WeatherTech Championship titles, five Indianapolis 500 wins and seven Formula One trophies. After six of 10 races, Acura currently stands second in the Prototype Manufacturers’ Championship, nine points out of the lead.