Meyer Shank Racing pauses IMSA program for 2027

As Acura pauses its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP program in 2027, Meyer Shank Racing will also pause its activities in IMSA next year.

“We’re definitely paused,” said team owner and founder Michael Shank “And we’re going to be paused until the right opportunity comes to us.”

It’s the second time in four years that Shank and his team will put its sports car racing program on pause. MSR spent 2024 on the sidelines as a consequence of its post-race penalties handed down after the 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Despite multiple offers to continue next year, and the options to return to race in GT3 cars or take the team to LMP2, Shank will instead use 2027 to build towards the launch of the new IndyCar chassis and the launch of a third car with a Honda manufacturer charter.

“[Offers] were there, two or three, but nothing that was really to report about with enough interest, to be honest with you,” he admitted.

Shank did not shut the door on a return to sports car racing, leaving the door open to return to IMSA as soon as 2028, but said that he would only want to return as part of a manufacturer program similar to the outgoing arrangement with Acura in GTP. “I want to do it the right way, at this point in my life,” Shank stated.

“If we wanted to stay in sports cars, we could find a way. We could find somebody that’s supporting the program who wants to drive our car. We could go run GTD if we wanted, I’ve had a couple meetings with P2 folks.

“But at the end of the day, I feel like we’ve paid our dues in IMSA, and I think we deserve to be at the top end. That’s where we live. And if we’re not here – at this point in my life, deep into my 50s – I just don’t want to do it. I want to stick with an OEM partner, and I want to do it at the highest level we can.”

Shank also stressed the need for the series to keep the costs to participate under control, echoing the sentiments of the now-departed president of Honda Racing Corporation USA, David Salters.

“We’re spending too much money, and we need to get that under control,” Shank said. “I know John [Doonan, IMSA President] and Mr. [Jim] France are working on that, but we’re outside of where we need to be financially. I think a lot of companies, especially after taking EV charges, are thinking about every penny nowadays. That’s where we’re at now.

“I think they’ve taken steps, the new [unified top-class prototype] car that’s coming in 2030 could help a lot. What John’s done for testing next year – it all helps, right? But we need relief now, and we talk about it all the time. I’m trying to be helpful on that with John, I want to be additive.”

“You need to make sure you wake up to what the realities are right now. I’m not saying that [IMSA] is asleep, I’m just saying this is real, and we need to get a hold of it pretty quick.”

As MSR prepares to launch its third IndyCar team, the organization will also expand its shop in Pataskala, Ohio to better accommodate any new programs that the team wishes to add in the future, whether it’s a return to IMSA, or going into Indy NXT.

“I’m hoping that it’s only paused, and if it’s not, it’s not. But the best news is, all my people [in IMSA] are going to be under the roof, so we can still pivot and do a program if it comes,” he said.

MSR will leave IMSA, for now at least, with many accolades and many more happy memories: Three WeatherTech SportsCar Championship titles (two in GTD in 2019 and 2020, one in the former top class DPi in 2022), and 21 total IMSA victories including three overall wins at the Rolex 24 (2012, 2022, 2023) – accumulated by 75 drivers between Grand-Am and the unified era of IMSA.

In looking back, Shank said, “Certainly the highs are the championships and the wins, and especially doing really cool stuff like the first race where we won in the GTP era. Also in 2022, the year before that, we won the championship – and I’ve got to tell you, I’m really proud of that because we weren’t as competitive as we should have been our first year in DPi after the [Acura NSX] GT3 program.

“Obviously the thing that happened at Daytona [in 2023] is not a lot of fun. That would be the low light, and it really put a stutter-step in our program on all bases. It hurt. But we’ve moved on now and retained a lot of the same people, a lot of my guys and girls that we’ve had for 20 years now that work there, and I really value that.

He also showed appreciation for his time working with Salters at HRC US. “What I appreciate over time here is how much faith he put in us. We absolutely couldn’t have done it without him,” Shank said of Salters.

“What happened in ’23 for us, the bad part was not his fault. And I paid for it. And I think he respected that I took my lumps, we moved on, and came back strong.”

Shank will be targeting at least one more victory, including the chance to win the Motul Petit Le Mans for a fourth time; in doing so, MSR would replicate the way it went out in 2023 when the team won Petit Le Mans before putting the program on pause for 2024.

“We had a big party for the team last night and I said that we have to go out on top. Whatever we’ve got to do, one of the cars needs to be at the top of the podium – so I promise you, they’ll leave it all out there,” Shank declared.