{"id":275413,"date":"2026-04-19T09:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275413\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T09:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:54:15","slug":"long-beach-more-than-just-another-win-for-acura-meyer-shank-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275413\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach More Than Just Another Win For Acura Meyer Shank Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Acura and Meyer Shank Racing had already won their fair share of championships and major endurance races in IMSA, whether separately or in unison. But for so many years, Long Beach was the one that Acura wanted to win, and not solely because Honda\u2019s luxury division has been the title sponsor of the race since 2019\u2026although, if you ask Renger van der Zande, it certainly was a big motivator. \u201cIt\u2019s the event of the year for Acura,\u201d van der Zande said going into the week. \u201cAnd we\u2019re trying to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in 2026, they achieved their goal, with a quick car, two quick drivers, and a little bit of good fortune in the race. Van der Zande and Nick Yelloly won from pole in their blue and orange #93 Acura ARX-06 to snap a painful winless drought at Long Beach for the Honda Motor Company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the Acura Grand Prix, for Acura, as an Acura driver\u2026I think that\u2019s what makes it very, very special,\u201d said the Dutchman, whose third Long Beach IMSA win feels like the sweetest of the trio.<\/p>\n

Before Saturday\u2019s win for van der Zande and Yelloly, Honda\u2019s last IMSA win at Long Beach came back in 2013, predating the merger of the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am into today\u2019s IMSA. The 2013 ALMS Long Beach race was the scene of Pickett Racing\u2019s HPD-badged ARX-03 going back-to-back at Long Beach.<\/p>\n

And Acura, the luxury brand launched 40 years ago in the nearby city of Torrance, California (site of Honda\u2019s US headquarters), hadn\u2019t won since 2009 when Simon Pagenaud and the late Gil de Ferran won together in their ARX-02.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got brought to this programme almost to win this one, I would say,\u201d van der Zande said of himself and Yelloly. In that case, they did very, very well.<\/p>\n

The win got the #93 Acura\u2019s season back on track after two disappointing results to start the 2026 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season: Fifth at Daytona, sixth at Sebring, two races filled with regrettable misfortunes, and with frustration over Porsche Penske Motorsport\u2019s dominance becoming hard to constrain. But in just 100 minutes, van der Zande and Yelloly got back to their winning ways in IMSA GTP.<\/p>\n

Together, they led 53 out of the race\u2019s 70 laps \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t all as straightforward as it could have appeared at a glance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all relatively smooth sailing until it wasn\u2019t,\u201d joked Yelloly, a first-time winner at Long Beach. He coughed up the lead early on in the race when negotiating slower GTD traffic. As Orey Fidani and his 13 Autosport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R pulled to the left, Yelloly got stuck behind the Corvette, which allowed Jack Aitken in the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R to pass him on the right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went one way, thinking the guy had seen me, and he clearly hadn\u2019t. I think he panicked when he\u2019d seen Jack go to the left a little bit and slammed the brakes. So I gave him a little nudge, and unfortunately, that wasn\u2019t what we\u2019d planned on doing,\u201d admitted the Englishman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tried to then stay as close as I could with quite a big fuel target, and see how it played out in the pit stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Cadillac seemed to have the upper hand, a bizarre sequence played out to Acura\u2019s benefit. Philipp Eng of BMW M Team WRT and Laurin Heinrich of JDC-Miller MotorSports had been battling hard for position. Eng\u2019s defence bled over the edge of fairness, and just after Yelloly dove to pit lane for the #93 Acura\u2019s routine pit stop, Eng ended up in the tyre barrier at turn eight and brought out a full course yellow just when Acura needed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we fell on the right side of that yellow, which was great for us. And then, yeah, it was a nail-biting finish, but I knew the man behind the wheel could do the job,\u201d he added, gesturing towards his co-driver.<\/p>\n

But even after Van der Zande cycled to the front of the GTP field, the job was far from done. Aitken\u2019s co-driver, Frederik Vesti, kept him honest towards the end. Four times, van der Zande needed a good restart to keep Vesti and his red Cadillac in the rear view.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a great battle, but for sure, they had a bit of an upper hand on the pace,\u201d van der Zande remarked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to keep the rears (tyres) alive a little bit. Our car generally has a bit of oversteer and more tyre degradation on the rear than the other brands have. So I think we seem to be very, very fast in qualifying and then lack a bit of racing pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Zande has never been afraid to take a calculated risk for a win, but he needed to do that many times to stay ahead in the race. \u201cI think the car came alive a little bit just before the traffic, I kind of was managing the pace, just feeling where the grip was and all that. I knew my time in traffic where I could make a gap \u2013 and it happened like that,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be lucky in a way, for sure. But I think the risks I took in traffic was high to get a gap. When I was through traffic, the yellow came, so it was not very good. And then yellow, after yellow, after yellow!<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the restarts were quite easy, I would say, to maintain the front. But then when the #31 got the tyre temperatures in the car, that\u2019s when I needed to worry a little. I was managing it, but on a street track, it\u2019s so hard to overtake,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This was a great win for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, but of course, factoring in the bigger picture going into this year\u2019s Grand Prix of Long Beach certainly made it a more poignant moment in the IMSA season.<\/p>\n

Friday saw the revelation spread that Acura and Honda\u2019s future in IMSA may be in doubt due to factors beyond the control of the hard-working mechanics, engineers, drivers, and staff behind the programme. But neither winning driver cared to get wrapped up in the speculation \u2013 instead, making the correct choice to just enjoy the moment, and use it as fuel for the rest of the season, whether this is or isn\u2019t the \u2018last dance\u2019 for the Acura GTP programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning races is the best solution to a lot of things,\u201d van der Zande said in response to a question about the team\u2019s future. \u201cAnd yeah, we\u2019re just having the time of our life. My family is here. Nick is a great teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great team, and we\u2019re trying to win races\u2026and that\u2019s what we just did. So (we\u2019re) enjoying the moment a lot!\u201d<\/p>\n

Images \u00a9 IMSA<\/p>\n

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