Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) was having a near perfect weekend but came up a mere 0.861-seconds short to finish second in Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
The team did claim top honors in the Michelin Endurance Cup Round, having scored the most points at the midway point and finish.
The No. 60 MSR Acura ARX-05 DPi of Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis swept the Watkins Glen weekend by winning pole and leading both practices. The pair continued to show pace by topping the morning warm-up on Sunday.
Following six hours of hard fought racing, Blomqvist and Jarvis combined to lead 77 laps, and never ran lower than second in the six hour event which saw five caution periods.
The six hour classic got off to an incident-filled start with four lengthy caution periods slowing down the first two hours of the race. Taking on the first two and a half hour stint, Blomqvist put the No. 60 Acura in the lead for 25 laps prior to handing the car off to Jarvis on lap 69.
Jarvis returned on track to a long green flag run – for nearly two hours without a caution period – which saw him lead the field for 52 laps before returning the controls back to Blomqvist for the final segment of the race.
With an hour and a half remaining, the race was red flagged for weather with Blomqvist leading. With the clock ticking down, the race was resumed for a 20-minute sprint to the finish.
Leading the field through the restart, Blomqvist relinquished the lead after an aggressive pass by the No. 10 Acura which made contact with the side of Blomqvist’s No. 60 Acura. Blomqvist made numerous attempts at the lead over the front running car throughout the remaining laps, but came up short at the checkered flag to finish second.
MSR will be back in action next weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as the team looks to regain the championship lead. The team is at a 17-point deficit trailing the No. 10 Acura 2399 to 2382 points.
Team Quotes:
Tom Blomqvist:
“It’s definitely a tough way to finish the race especially after we were so strong all weekend. They’ve [No. 10 Acura] had an advantage all week on sector speeds. They did something slightly different to us on the set-up, running less wing, so they were quick in sector one. It just meant we were vulnerable in our starts. Every other restart I did what I could to defend and that time [the final restart] he was just a little bit closer. They were also way less on fuel, so they weighed like 15-20 kilos lighter than us which also helped them on straight line speeds. Luck was on their side today, but we had a perfect race. I mean, the team did a fantastic job for such a long race. We’ve had the quickest car all weekend long, and things didn’t fall our way. Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed, especially for the guys that have been working hard all week. Thankfully, not long until the next one.”
Oliver Jarvis:
“We had a great weekend with strong pace in every session and that continued in the race. The team did a great job with execution on the stops and strategy, and it was great to be out front for so much of this race, but unfortunately it all came up short today. It’s frustrating to lose out late in the race like that, but we’ve got another chance in just one week at CTMP so hopefully we can get back on top there.”
Source. Sunday Group
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