MSR exploring options with Heinricher

Meyer Shank Racing is exploring options for Heinricher Racing to continue its association with the IMSA GT Daytona team next season. With the unexpected loss of Caterpillar, which trimmed its multi-year sponsorship deal to conclude at the end of 2019, Jackie Heinricher’s all-female effort run by MSR will have a different look if it returns.

Following Tuesday’s news of Katherine Legge, Christina Nielsen, and Bia Figueiredo departing the MSR/Heinricher No. 57 Acura NSX GT3 program for a new opportunity with GEAR/Grasser Racing’s No. 19 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, a significant year-to-year change is in store for the reigning WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD title winners. Along with staying in GTD, Heinricher is also known to have an interest in IMSA's LMP2 class.

“We all read this week about the program that Katherine and Christina put together with Grasser in their Lamborghini program, and I'm totally fine with it,” Shank said. “I think it's great those ladies get to put an effort together. We weren't able to put a deal together in a timely fashion. There's no animosity, there's no bad feelings. We all support each other on this thing. And sometimes this happens in racing. I can tell you that Jackie Heinricher and I are still working on some way to keep her program together and I'm hoping within five to 10 days here we'll have something pretty cool to announce, but we're not quite there yet.

“I appreciate what Jackie's been able to do, and what she put together last year was pretty phenomenal. Didn't work out like we thought it would for next year and the next year after that, but you know, it's racing and I've seen a lot of things happen in our sport.”

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MSR recently confirmed the full-time pairing of Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry in the No. 86 Acura NSX GT3. Shank says the No. 57 will be on the grid next year, even though he’s not ready to announce its line-up.

“No matter what, I've got two cars running,” he added. “How that second car is going to totally look is not completely settled, but it's half-settled. But it will happen. It will happen for sure.”