Meyer Shank Racing is preparing for its first double header event as it has racing duties in both the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and NTT IndyCar Series, with both races taking place on the same day.
The Ohio-based team is stepping up to a full-time campaign in IndyCar with driver Jack Harvey while also fielding a pair of Acura NSX GT3 Evos to defend its GT Daytona crown in IMSA.
The team will be operating with separate crews for each of the two races, but team owner Mike Shank will have a packed schedule. Shank will be attending the GMR Grand Prix, which takes place at 12:00pm ET before making the nearly one thousand mile journey to the Daytona International Speedway for the Weathertech 240 at Daytona.
The second round of the Indycar season is held on Indianapolis Motorsport Speedway’s road course. Jack Harvey will be making his second start of the season in the #60 Honda-powered machine after finishing sixteenth in the season-opening GENESYS 300 at Texas Motorsport Speedway.
Harvey experienced a season highlight at the event in 2019, qualifying third and maintaining third place in a rain-affected race, finishing on the podium behind Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon.
“The GP was obviously the highlight of our year last season with our first INDYCAR podium, not only for me as a driver but for everyone at Meyer Shank Racing,” said Harvey. “Naturally we’re hoping to replicate another great weekend and if we can really string it together, we’d really like to end up on the top step.”
In Florida, the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship is set to get its season back underway, returning to racing for the first time since January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. The team is coming into the season as defending champions in the GT Daytona class and fields two Acura NSX GT3 Evos.
Mario Farnbacher defends his 2019 crown in the #86 car, partnering with Matt McMurry. While Farnbacher is the reigning GTD champion, Farnbacher defends the LMP2 crown, which he captured with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. The pairing had a disappointing start to the season, finishing tenth in class and several laps down on the class-winning Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini.
“I’m pretty happy to go back racing again,” said Farnbacher. “I arrived to the States on Monday the 15th for the two weeks of quarantine. I’m feeling really good and super healthy, I’m excited to get back behind the wheel of the Acura NSX GT3 with Matt [McMurry] and Meyer Shank Racing. It’s like we’ve had a second off season and I’ve definitely been going through some racing withdrawals.
I’m super happy to be back and to represent HPD, MSR, and Acura in Daytona. Hopefully we’ll have some redemption after not having the best Rolex 24.”
Farnbacher’s co-driver McMurry spent the months since the season opener focusing on his school work, with the 22-year-old finishing his aerospace engineering degree at the University of California.
“I’ve been busy at home finishing my last quarter at the University of California, Irvine,” McMurry said. “Two weeks ago I turned in my final project for my aerospace engineering degree where I had to design two commercial airliners from scratch. I’m happy to be done, and excited to get my diploma in the mail soon!”
“Through college, I was mostly involved in the automotive aspects of aerospace engineering,” he added. “Really the degree is mostly mechanical engineering and the final year focused on aerospace. Automotive engineering and race engineering have always been an interest of mine.
“Long term plans, I’m still focusing on racing. Now that I’m finally done with school, I can sort of focus all my efforts on racing, which is kind of a nice feeling. That’s the plan right now.”
