Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian revealed their full-time driver lineups for the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season Tuesday morning (Oct. 15). It will be a mix of the old and the new for the Ohio-based team.
“We’re really looking forward to getting back to work in IMSA and we’re excited to expand our relationship with HRC and Acura to run two GTPs next year,” team owner Mike Shank said in a press release. “Putting Tom [Blomqvist] and Colin [Braun] back in the drivers seat just made sense. The two of them had an incredible season in ’23 and I think that’s just cracking the surface on what they can accomplish together. And then with the addition of Renger [van der Zande] and Nick [Yelloly], they both have extensive prototype experience and have shown a lot of strength the last few seasons, so I think they will be a big asset to the team.”
The No. 60 Acura ARX-06 will have Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun driving for the full season. They were full-time teammates with MSR in 2023 and came within a whiff of the championship despite a huge penalty in Daytona.
Blomqvist was supposed to spend the full 2024 season racing for MSR in INDYCAR. However, after a first-lap crash in the Indianapolis 500, he was released. In addition, he served as a third driver for Action Express Racing for four races with a best finish of second in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
With MSR focusing on INDYCAR for 2024, Braun fell back on his second gig. He was supposed to have a full season split between WeatherTech’s LMP2 class for CrowdStrike Racing by APR and Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS for CrowdStrike Racing by Riley. Both programs saw Braun teaming up with George Kurtz.
Both programs ended up being curtailed for the year after the massive Windows IT outage that was caused by a CrowdStrike security update on July 19. Kurtz, as CEO of CrowdStrike, had to step away from racing in order to deal with the fallout. For now, it appears that CrowdStrike Racing by APR will be back on the grid in 2025 as the team has been granted an entry for the 2025 season.
The new No. 93 Acura will be shared by a couple of newcomers to the team in Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly. Van der Zande comes to the team after spending the past four years driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is fresh off of overall victory in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
“I’m super excited to be joining a new team and a new brand,” van der Zande said. “I want to thank Mike Shank, Jim Meyer and everyone at HRC for giving me this opportunity, but I also have to thank Cadillac for everything they have done for me the last seven years. Cadillac and Chip Ganassi Racing have become my racing family. Although it’s hard for me to leave, it’s time for a new chapter that I am really looking forward to. I’ve been racing against Acura for the last seven years and they’ve always been a fierce competitor. I’m excited to now be on their side and tap into their resources and see what we can do behind the wheel together next season.
Yelloly makes the move to MSR after being a factory driver for BMW for the past six years. In that time, Yelloly won the ADAC Ravenol 24H Nurburgring and the 24 Hours of Spa. He also has one victory for BMW M Team RLL in their GTP car, the BMW M Hybrid V8.
Drivers for the Michelin Endurance Cup events and additional drivers for the Rolex 24 at Daytona were not announced. They will be revealed at a later time.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
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