Yelloly, van der Zande return to Detroit as defending champs and potential free agents

Acura Meyer Shank Racing drivers Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly return to Detroit not only as the defending champions of the IMSA street race, but also as two high-profile pending free agents in the world of sports car racing.

As Meyer Shank Racing itself is evaluating its IMSA future following Acura’s upcoming hiatus from GTP, all four of its full-time drivers – van der Zande, Yelloly, Tom Blomqvist, and Colin Braun – will be garnering interest from many teams for their services in 2027, and that interest isn’t just within the IMSA paddock. Following the arrival of Genesis Magma Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Ford Racing and McLaren United AS are set to join the WEC Hypercar class in 2027.

Van der Zande, a regular in IMSA since 2013 and a race winner for 13 consecutive seasons going back to 2014, said last week: “It’s nice that Acura has informed us so early, because they could have left it late as well, and they didn’t. They’re very honest people. So I can only thank them for that.

“Everybody’s talking to me, a lot of manufacturers are showing their interest to have me on board. But there needs to be seats that are opening up, and it being so early, I think more is happening around Le Mans. I think that’s the time when we can really say which direction we’re going. I feel I’m a very experienced prototype driver in the LMDh or GTP, so it could be IMSA, it could be WEC.”

“Obviously, the last 13 years I’ve done more IMSA than WEC or European racing, so I guess the people look at me as an IMSA driver – but at the same time, those cars running all around the world is good fun as well. Right now, it’s a lot of talking.”

Van der Zande is set to start his ninth 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving in the LMP2 Pro/Am class for Luxembourg-based DKR Engineering alongside IMSA regulars John Farano and Sebastian Alvarez. The 40-year-old Dutch driver ran most of the 2018/19 WEC season for DragonSpeed in a privateer BR Engineering LMP1 car, and in 2021 for Inter Europol Competition in LMP2. His last WEC outing outside of Le Mans came at the 2023 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, when he suffered a heavy crash at Eau Rouge while driving a Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R.

“And at the same time, focusing on the racing we’re doing here in IMSA, because we still have big aims with Acura to win, and I think we have a good chance of doing that. That’s an opportunity that I want to grab first,” he added.

Yelloly and van der Zande are currently fifth in the IMSA GTP Drivers’ Championship, with a win at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, and top-five finishes at Daytona and Laguna Seca. Their win at Detroit was the first for the No. 93 MSR Acura ARX-06, which was added last year when Meyer Shank Racing returned to IMSA, fielding both factory Acuras – including the No. 93 car, which is engineered by staff from Honda Racing Corporation USA (HRC US).

Yelloly is set to defend his LMP2 class win at Le Mans with Inter Europol Competition, and also drives for the Polish team in the European Le Mans Series alongside his IMSA commitments. “Fortunately, I’m already in a couple of other paddocks. My management team will be on the phone, and they’ll be doing most of the work for me,” Yelloly said to RACER during the most recent IMSA round at Laguna Seca.

“I love racing out here [in IMSA]. I really enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve also had the chance to race in Europe, so I like the different styles of racing. But I’ve raced out here, full-time, it’ll be four years. So I kind of feel like it’s my second home.

“I’ve really, really enjoyed my time. We were developing the car – I wouldn’t say from scratch, because obviously they had the experience in 2023 from the MSR side – but on our side of the garage, engineering team-wise, we were building up together. I was getting to know the car, my teammates, and all the systems. And I felt that in the middle of last year, we really started to get on top of that, which is great. We rolled into this year, just on that same high from the end of the last year, and we seem to be going out almost every time and being abole to put a good weekend together.”

In the aftermath of Acura announcing its IMSA hiatus to devote more marketing power and resources towards IndyCar, HRC President David Salters admitted that a customer ARX-06 program in the upcoming Asian Le Mans Series Hypercar class could be an option; if offered, Yelloly said he’d be open to another run in the car. “I’d be more than happy to drive it,” he said.

“I know a couple of tracks out there from racing in Asia a lot in 2019, so I’d be more than happy to go out there and help whoever may take that on. But let’s see how that goes. I wish for Acura and everyone involved that it does happen for them, so they can keep on racing it.”