Acura ahead of BMW at S12, behind BMW in rankings
With a fifth and seventh-place finishes for both Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06s and a sixth-place finish for the #24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8, BMW keeps third place in Manufacturers standings ahead of Acura who narrows the gap.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. #60 Acura ARX-06 ahead of #24 BMW M Hybrid V8
#24 BMW’s Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde lost P3 in drivers and teams standings to #6 Porsche’s Estre and Vanthoor.
#60 Acura ARX-06 comes back from late-race penalty to finish fourth
It was a long day for the Acura Meyer Shank Racing pair of ARX-06s, as both the #60 and #93 machines saw strong runs hampered by late-race pit lane penalties in the Twelve Hours of Sebring, ultimately scoring fourth and sixth place finishes, respectively.
The #60 started on the front row in the hands of Tom Blomqvist. Blomqvist and co-drivers Colin Braun and Scott Dixon ran much of the race in the top five before a penalty with just over an hour of running left shuffled them to the rear of the field. A caution in the final hour bunched up the field and allowed the #60 to move up to fifth at the line.
The #60 would be further promoted to fourth following post-race technical inspection.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06. Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon.
Tom Blomqvist (#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished fourth: “A bit of an eventful day, as it seems to have been so far this season. Just so many small issues that put us on the back foot going into the last hour or so. We did well to recover there at the end. We were basically last [of the lead-lap cars], so we managed to work our way back up to P5 at the flag. But we needed more laps, because I think we had a lot of pace at the end. A lot of lessons to be learned and we’ll keep chipping away, P4 isn’t a bad result.”
Colin Braun (#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished fourth: "All in all, to end up P4 is certainly a decent result. It was a bit of a challenging day. I felt like we had a strong Acura at times and we fought all day. Everyone did a great job on strategy and Scott and Tom drove really well. We have to clean a few things up for the next one, but in the end to come away with a P4 is something to be proud of. We got some decent points and lots to build on going into the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach."
Scott Dixon (#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished fourth: "It was an interesting day, lots of ups and downs. Honestly, we didn't have too many problems, until we did have one towards the end of the race. We were really fighting for third place; the leaders were just in a different zip code."
BMW M Team WRT fifth
BMW M Motorsport experienced an eventful 12 Hours of Sebring (USA) in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. In the second round of the season, BMW M Team WRT finished sixth in the GTP class (classified fifth following Cadillac #10 disqualification). Sheldon van der Linde (RSA), Robin Frijns (NED) and Dries Vanthoor (BEL) completed 343 laps and crossed the line 13.723 seconds behind the winning #7 Porsche. Starting from eighth on the grid, the trio in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 was in contention for podium positions for long periods. After a turbulent closing phase, however, van der Linde ultimately brought the car home in sixth place.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. #24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT
Sheldon van der Linde (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT, 6th place GTP): “I think a P6 is the maximum we could have got out of the car today. We struggled a lot in qualifying to get the car to work. The same issue we had in Daytona, but we proved that we have a much better race car over a longer distance. I’m kind of happy to have fought back from P8 on the grid, but at the same time disappointed with not being able to get on the podium when we were third and fourth for a while. It's still good points for the championship. I think these results are important on days where the car is maybe not the best, but we're still scoring points in the top six. So thanks a lot to the team. Execution was phenomenal today, but we just need to find pace in the car.”
#93 Phillips 66 Acura ARX-06 sixth
The sister #93 Phillips 66 Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly and Alex Palou also ran well during the race—looking to be in the hunt for a podium before a late-race penalty also hampered their charge. The #93 would finish seventh at the checkered flag—sixth after post-race technical inspection.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06. Nick Yelloly, Renger van der Zande, Alex Palou.
Nick Yelloly (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished sixth: "Sixth for our ARX-06 and fourth for the sister car. Thankfully the sister Acura managed to get ahead of the BMW and that means we get more manufacturer points. Unfortunately, it fell apart a little bit in the pits when we got our penalty when we were in a pretty good position on track. We'll be looking to clean it up for Acura's home Grand Prix in Long Beach."
Renger van der Zande (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished sixth: "We clearly didn't have the pace for the win. But, at the same time we didn't help ourselves to execute well. When it really mattered, we made mistakes in pit lane. Everything before that penalty was going pretty well. We were cycling through to third place at times and that's where the pace of the car was. All we can do is learn a lot from it and do better next time."
Alex Palou (#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06) Finished sixth: "It was a tough day for us. I think we definitely had the pace for at least a podium finish today. We were able to run in the top three for a good portion of the race. But unfortunately, with the penalty, we didn't have the chance to fight for a podium finish. Super thankful for Meyer Shank Racing and Honda to have the opportunity to run in these endurance races, and I'm already looking forward to being back for the next one." Source: Honda
#25 BMW M Hybrid V8 incident
The second BMW M Team WRT driver line-up – Philipp Eng (AUT), Marco Wittmann (GER) and Kevin Magnussen (DEN) – suffered an early setback at Sebring International Raceway. Wittmann was at the wheel of the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 had nowhere to go after a sketchy rejoin from the GTD #70 Inception Racing Ferrari. The resulting repairs cost the team more than half an hour and many laps. As a consequence, the trio of BMW M works drivers was unable to finish higher than 11th place.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. #25 BMW M Hybrid V8
Marco Wittmann (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT, 11th place GTP): “It was a very difficult weekend for us – nothing really came together. For us in the #25, things didn’t go our way: the Ferrari in the GTD class ahead of us spun. There was a gap, I went for it, and at that exact moment he tried to get going again and hit me at the rear left. That meant we had to come in for repairs. I can only thank the team and the mechanics, as they got the car back on track in a very short time. After that, it was basically about finishing the race and learning as much as possible. But we also have to be honest – we didn’t have the pace this weekend. That’s something we now need to analyse so we can come back stronger in Long Beach." Source: BMW
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