senor honda

[h=2]Shank - "Our doors are open for business"[/h] Tuesday, 11 July 2017


By Marshall Pruett / Images by Lumen Digital

When Michael Shank signed a one-year deal to run Acura's GT Daytona program in 2017, he put pen to paper with the hope a second contract would follow to field Acura's Daytona Prototype international effort in 2018.
As today's confirmation revealed, that contract went to Roger Penske.
For Shank, whose team has turned Acura's brand-new NSX GT3 into a two-time race winner and GTD championship contender on its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut, there are genuine concerns about what the future may hold for his Ohio-based outfit.
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If there's any solace to be taken, Shank is one of the sport's great dreamers and a proven survivor. He's taken MSR to Le Mans, the Indy 500, won in Atlantics and captured wins from the Rolex 24 at Daytona to Petit Le Mans.

There's a big question mark on what Shank's peerless group will be doing in IMSA next year, but from his perspective, losing the Acura DPi opportunity doesn't mean MSR won't make it back to its preferred form of sports car competition.

"We spent 13 seasons in prototypes, and had a shot at earning that contract, so we're obviously disappointed it didn't happen," Shank told RACER.

"But we've also worked with Honda now for three years, very successfully, and I believe we've shown them our capabilities. And not only them, but the racing world as well.

"We can win big races, we can go to France or Indy and do big things that are new or different, and lead, as we did in both instances. The bottom line is we're more interested in making sure our relationships with Honda and Acura and HPD are positive going forward, but I don't know what our future holds. One thing we know for sure is that we want to get back to prototype racing. Our doors are open for business."
As a factory team in the GTD class where factories aren't meant to play, Acura and HPD were given a one-year grace period to introduce the NSX GT3, develop and race it with MSR, and move out of the category so independent teams could buy and run the cars on their own next season.
Unsure of whether the Acura DPi program would come his way, Shank says MSR's extracurricular activities have had a specific intent and message to deliver.

"One of the reasons we went and did the Indy 500 this year was to further demonstrate we could do high-level things, that we have the depth of talent with our people, and everything that a manufacturer would want to do more IndyCar racing with us, to hire us to put together and run their new DPi program," he added.
"My priorities are with Acura and Honda right now, and we're working on something going forward, but it couldn't look like what it is now as a factory team."
Once MSR completes its NSX GT3 contract, it will be a free agent heading into 2018. Winning more races and a championship for Acura is the top priority through Petit Le Mans in October while searching for the next MSR program – if running a privateer NSX GT3 deal doesn't come to fruition – is under way.



"As a business that only does racing, we feed our families by going racing and the way to continue doing that is to work with factories, so that's what we're aiming to do as we complete this contract," he said.


"We don't want to be forgotten in DPi because Roger got the deal, and look, it's Roger Penske we're talking about. He's one of the best in the business, but one thing he doesn't have is my people, and that's always going to give me an edge.



"I don't know what it will be, but I'd like nothing more than to go up against the best DPi has to offer and show them we're a team to be reckoned with. I'm going to keep my head down and work on getting into one of the prototype cars in the future."