Acura Can Catch Porsche in IMSA WeatherTech Manufacturer's Chase
It remains to be seen if IMSA officials have in fact balanced the performance.
Hopefully, there will be a straight fight for the manufacturer title between Porsche and Acura, which trails by 90 points.
After two straight victories by the Acura MSR team in the WeatherTech Championship, the interregnum is over for the Porsche Penske Motorsport team.
Having been hobbled by the Balance of Performance (BoP), the Porsche team will have a chance to stand atop the podium again on Sunday after the sprint race at Road America. Urs Keratle, the director for Porsche's 963 program, said that simulations have shown the team will 'be able to compete with the others. The reality we will see in qualifying and the race.'
The subtraction of weight (nine kilograms) and a 5.2% increase in Stage 2 power for the Porsches in the BoP prior to Road America reflects the current sports car racing season's pattern in both the World Endurance Championship and IMSA. The best performing cars and their teams have been heavily penalized midway in the season by BoP to open the door to other manufacturers.
Now that the others have won, look for a return to a less draconian BoP for the Ferrari 499P in the WEC and Porsche in IMSA.
Cadillac and its Jota team won its first WEC race in Round 5 in Brazil, where officials made it very unlikely for the Ferraris, winners of four straight races, to compete for victory.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
Porsche 2,182
Acura 2,092
Cadillac 1,974
BMW 1,962
Aston Martin 1,439
In IMSA, each of the two Acuras entered by Jim Meyers and Michael Shank won in Detroit and Watkins Glen in part because of the BoP hampering the Porsches. Cadillac scored three podiums in those two events. Keratle suggested Porsche Penske was unable to control its own destiny. 'We are prepared to be competitive in the races if it's very well in our hands,' he said.
Who stands atop the podium at Wisconsin's picturesque Elkhart Lake circuit and then celebrates at the Siebkens resort will have a significant impact on the driver and manufacturer championships for the IMSA GTP season, which has two endurance races remaining after the Motul SportsCar Grand Prix.
It remains to be seen if IMSA officials have in fact balanced the performance and a straight fight for the manufacturer title will evolve between Porsche and Acura, which trails by 90 points. On the driver side, the four straight victories by Porsche Penske to open the season put its drivers in an almost unassailable position. Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, drivers of the No. 6 Porsche 963, lead teammates Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr by 12 points after the latter two's poor result at the Glen.
Acura MSR drivers Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly, winners in Detroit, trail the Porsche drivers by 262 points in third place.
There's more to come in the manufacturers' contest after the Glen victory, said David Salters, president of Honda Racing Corporation USA. The combination of the Meyers-Shank team and engineers from the HRC factory is beginning to pay dividends. Along with driver Tom Blomqvist, they successfully executed a challenging fuel strategy to grab the victory at the Glen from the Cadillac of Action Express Racing before celebrating at the Seneca Lodge.
'We are six races into the season and we're starting to show what we're made of,' said Salters. 'It was a great weekend, but we must keep pushing.'
The Acura MSR squad gained 112 points in the factory title chase with its victories. The team likely needs to win at least two of the three remaining races to overcome the 90-point gap to Porsche Penske. Where Porsche Penske has no team orders, Acura MSR can employ split strategies and concentrate on just getting one car into Victory Lane.
Blomqvist, who co-drove with Colin Braun on board the No. 60 ARX-06 at the Glen, is reconciled to his team now concentrating on the manufacturers title.
'We still stand a chance in the manufacturers, which is definitely a big goal of Acura's,' said Blomqvist. 'So, we haven't given up there, having won the last two events. Obviously, only one of the team's cars gets points for that. I think ultimately that's probably what we're going to focus on more than the drivers' title. Let's see.'
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