The Acura Meyer Shank Racing team’s IMSA GTP comeback in the 2025 Rolex 24 Hours didn’t quite produce the ultimate fairytale result for those involved. But a second-place finish for its No. 60 Acura ARX-06, which crossed the finish line just 1.3 seconds behind the winning Penske Porsche, ensured they left the Daytona paddock last night with their heads held high.
It was never going to be an easy trip to Florida to kick off the 2025 season for the Ohio-based outfit. After a year-long pause for its IMSA program, it found itself thrown in at the deep end with an expanded two-car effort, a larger workforce, a freshened-up driver roster and the prospect of IMSA’s blue-riband 24-hour race to kick things off.
But the signs were there, even before the Roar Before The 24 test got underway 10 days ago, that the team may produce something special. Team owner Mike Shank was as bullish as ever that the team would hit the ground running before either of its cars had turned a wheel. “We expect to come back on the podium,” he told RACER. “Maybe we don’t win, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t be challenging for the podium places.”
As it turned out, after 24 hours of racing and 781 laps of the Daytona International Speedway, he and his team matched Shank’s lofty expectations with a truly strong performance, particularly after the final restart. Tom Blomqvist, the only driver on the lead lap not wearing Porsche Penske overalls by the end, pushed himself and his car to the limit.
With time expiring, he caught and passed the No. 6 Porsche -–which was struggling for grip after being on the wrong end of a split tire strategy between the two factory 963s – before setting his sights on the lead car. The Briton couldn’t quite find a way to mount a serious challenge to Felipe Nasr in the winning Porsche, but kept it close and piled the pressure on.
Blomqvist, though, didn’t appear crushed by disappointment in the post-race presser. Instead, knowing he and the team had nothing more to give in the final stint, he was more than satisfied with second.
“In the race, we actually struggled a lot for pace,” he admitted. “We came into the race relatively confident, but for whatever reason we just struggled a lot to keep our rear tires under us.
The No.60 Acura had few answers to the pace of the Porsches over long runs early in the race, but the car came alive in the final stint. James Gilbert/Motorsport Images
“Even from lap one, you already knew it was going to be a tough stint. We kind of struggled, to be honest, for the whole race. The Porsches were extremely strong. We were good, maybe the first few laps and then they would just pull away – especially on the double-stints, they had a lot more pace – and when the traffic came they had such an advantage. We struggled so much for traction and they would just carve through it much better than us.
“But in the last stint, the car was just better. I didn’t think I was going to have anything for them, but you never give up, and I think I gave it all I had. To be honest, that was the best we probably could have done today.”
His efforts secured a fine podium finish for himself and his teammates Colin Braun, Felix Rosenqvist and Scott Dixon and, remarkably, added to his outstanding personal record of two wins and two second-place finishes in four Rolex 24 starts.
On the other side of the Acura MSR pit structure, it was a different story. The No. 93 finished eighth in class – 15th overall and 40 laps down – after suffering a rear suspension failure overnight. However, the result sheet tells an important story in this case. Acura MSR’s push to field two cars in 2025 and, therefore, give itself two shots at glory at each race this season appears to have already paid off.
“I think to come away with a second, that close to winning the race and executing well as a whole group, is great, “ Braun said. “The 93 car had good pace. They had that suspension issue, but they did a super good job, too.
“I think considering all the other GTP teams have been together for a few years here and we’ve reassembled and added people, I think we have a lot of blue sky, a lot of potential to tidy up a few things here and there and continue to be stronger and stronger. So it was a heck of a first race.
“When we all went to the first test in November when we got the cars, I think if you would have said we’d come here and finish second, we’d all have been signing up for that.”
“We learnt a lot of lessons from this race,” Blomqvist added, “but to be honest, we’re super happy with second because at one point we thought it was going to be a real long day.”
