Mansfield, Ohio (16 May 2021) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) closed out a big weekend of racing after first competing in the INDYCAR round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday which was then followed up by Sunday’s IMSA Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio. Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla closed out the weekend sixth with the No. 60 SiriusXM / AutoNation Acura ARX-05.
Although having qualified third on Saturday, Cameron took the green flag from sixth after the team made an engine change on Saturday evening. Cameron had a strong first stint and picked off the cars ahead until he reached third before lap 20.
The first round of pit stops commenced on Lap 33 and it quickly became apparent that the No. 60 Acura was losing significant time on pit lane for what was thought to be a fuel rig issue.
Pla returned on track to close out the remaining two hours of the race. Despite all of Pla’s efforts to move up the running order, the No. 60 didn’t have the race pace to move up any higher than fifth. With a long final stint, Pla pushed to the finish but was forced to make a final stop for a splash of fuel just minutes before the checkered flag on the way to a sixth place result.
“We made more progress with the car and we were a lot more consistent through the weekend,” said Cameron. “The car was the best it had been all weekend in the race. We still have work to do, so we will just look ahead to the next one.”
“I think the car improved from where it was during both practice sessions earlier in the weekend, but we just couldn’t place the car where we needed it to be in the race,” said Pla. “I know the team was working hard to figure out a good strategy to put us back in contention, but we just ran out of time and then had to pit at the end there. We’ll take what we learned from this weekend and take it to Belle Isle.”
The next round of IMSA action will return on the Streets of Belle Isle where both MSR’s IMSA and INDYCAR programs will compete on the June 11-12 weekend.