Meyer Shank Racing saw a podium finish on the streets of Long Beach slip away in the closing moments on Saturday, placing fourth in the Acura Grand Prix.
Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist were in the fight for a podium finish for the entire 100-minutes in the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Acura ARX-05 DPi, only to be nosed out by a mere 0.966-seconds at the checkered flag.
Running third with the clock running out, Jarvis countered an ambitious move by another DPi that forced both cars wide in the final hairpin corner. The tangle allowed the fifth place running car through for third before Jarvis was able to recover and relaunch down the front stretch. But his recovery run on the final lap came up just short to place him fourth at the finish line.
Blomqvist qualified third on the tight 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary course on the city streets. Running third for the opening five laps, he moved up to second for the next 17 laps, challenging for the lead on several occasions.
Jarvis took over at the midway point. After the opening 58-minutes were run under green, the final stretch run saw three cautions and set up some dramatic restarts. Jarvis held third throughout his stint – up until the final two laps. Unofficially, Blomqvist and Jarvis are third in the DPi standings, only 32 points out of the lead.
“I’m pretty disappointed, because we did everything right this weekend,” said Blomqvist. “We really made a good step with the car and we were really competitive. My first stint was good, though I made a bad call with the traffic, but we were running third quite comfortably with no drama and the car was working well. We lost a bit of pace there at the end and unfortunately, it got a bit close with Olly (Jarvis) and the others and we lost out on third. When you’re running third for most of the race, a podium would have been nice – but it’s very promising for the upcoming events.”
“I’m disappointed how the race ended,” said Jarvis. “The guys gave us a really fast race car all weekend long and it’s a shame to not get that podium finish that I know we all deserved. To look at the positive, I think our pace will bode well looking ahead to the next few sprint races that we have coming up.”
Next up for MSR in the WeatherTech SportCar Championship is Round 4, the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship presented by Motul at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 1. The team has a strong record of success at the iconic Monterey peninsula circuit and will look to return to the top step of the podium.
Source. Sunday Group
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