T.E. McHale (310) 783-3169
Dan Layton (314) 614-9763
Acura Wins in the Motor City
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Andy Lally and Katherine Legge score first win for Acura NSX GT3
Michael Shank Racing pair dominates Detroit Grand Prix sprint run
Jeff Segal and Ozz Negri challenge for podium, finish fifth
DETROIT, Mich. (June 3, 2017) – A strong qualifying performance and fast opening stint from
Katherine Legge, followed by a quick pit stop by the Michael Shank Racing team and successful
closing run by co-driver Andy Lally, netted the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
victory for the Acura NSX GT3 in international sports car racing Saturday on the Belle Isle Park
temporary street circuit in Detroit, Michigan.
Starting second in the GTD category after posting the best qualifying performance of the season
for the NSX GT3, Legge completed a strong opening drive in the #93 Acura, pulling away from
the rest of the field between encounters with slower traffic.
A caution just past the 30-minute mark resulted in most teams heading to pit lane for their single
stop and driver change in the 100-minute contest. When Legge pitted the #93 Acura, her
Michael Shank Racing team elected to change only two tires during the stop, enabling co-driver
Lally to resume in the lead.
When the green flag waved with just over an hour remaining, Lally held off a challenge from the
Ferrari of Alesandro Balzan, then pulled away in the closing laps to take the checkers just over
two and a half seconds clear of the GTD field.
Acura and the MSR team came close to a double-podium result in Detroit. The #86 Acura NSX
GT3 of Jeff Segal and Oswaldo “Ozz” Negri ran as high as third before late-race contact from a
following GTD car sent Segal briefly off-line, costing him two positions.
Starting at the rear of the 15-car GTD field after a crash in practice on Friday, Negri moved the
#86 car up to 12th prior to pitting and handing off to co-driver Segal. In another dramatic strategy
call, the MSR team elected to make the stop for driver and fuel only, saving time in pit lane by
keeping the same tires on the #86 NSX and gaining six positions in the process.
Segal then moved up three more positions early in his run, and attempted to hold on to third
place in the closing laps. But, with just over two laps remaining, contact from the following
Lamborghini of Madison Snow briefly sent Segal off-line, and he fell back to fifth at the checkers.
Still, the 1/5 finish for Acura and the Michael Shank Racing team today is the best combined
result for the NSX GT-3 since it debuted in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona International
Speedway in January.
Competing in the GTD class of the WeatherTech championship, the NSX GT3s race against
premium automotive brands including Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus,
Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.
Developed from the production Acura NSX, the NSX GT3 utilizes the production NSX’s ultra-rigid
and lightweight multi-material body with aluminum-intensive space frame, which is produced at
the Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio, exclusive worldwide manufacturing facility for the
NSX. The 3.5-liter racing engine uses the same design specifications as the production Acura
NSX, including the block, heads, valve train, crankshaft, pistons and dry-sump lubrication
system. A six-speed, sequential-shift racing gearbox delivers power to the rear wheels.
Video recaps from this weekend’s activities at Detroit, including today’s Acura victory and two Verizon
IndyCar Series races, are being posted on the "Honda Racing/HPD" YouTube channel. Produced by
the Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found in the HPD Trackside Video
Playlist at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.
After the second of two, temporary street circuit sprint races on the 2017 schedule, the
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to endurance events on classic road courses for
the remainder of the season. The series resumes July 3 with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at
Watkins Glen International Raceway in upstate New York, the third round of the series-within-a-series
Tequila Patron North American Endurance Championship.
Andy Lally (Driver, Michael Shank Racing #93 Acura NSX GT3) GTD race winner at Detroit:
“I’m pretty happy. Acura did an amazing job. Michael Shank Racing has done a great job all year.
Everyone from HPD have been full-tilt on this program. We’ve had quite an up-and-down year.
We’ve had some things go wrong at bad times, but today, everything went right. I’m so happy for
these guys. Katherine [Legge] did an amazing job. She helped me get faster this weekend. I was
junk [at the start of the weekend], but I found some things she was doing and applied it to what I
was doing. Our engineers did a great job, we just put our heads down and drove the car. Hats off
to Katherine for putting us in the right position to come out in front. She did an amazing job. I told
the guys, ‘we have a really well-balanced car.’ You’re going to [abuse] the back tires here. But
you can balance the car with the throttle, so having a neutral car is huge. That was what was
critical for us here. Remember, this is [just] the fifth race for Acura in IMSA, so to come in first
shows how critical the development of the car is, and how far we’ve progressed in a short time.”
Katherine Legge (Driver, Michael Shank Racing #93 Acura NSX GT3) GTD race winner at
Detroit: “It’s a testament to the team, to everyone at Michael Shank Racing, Acura and HPD.
They gave us a car that was capable of winning. This is a brand-new car, and the program has
come so far in six months. The team has really been working hard to improve the car between
each race. We’ve been strong, [finishing in the] points [in previous races], but today, we put it all
together. Today was the longest hour of my life, watching Andy [Lally] drive. I was telepathically
talking to him. It was harder to watch [him] than actually drive. ‘Thank you’ to everyone who has
given us a chance to put together this car and this ride. In 2013, I drove with HPD in the Indy
500, and it started our relationship. I wanted to be part of their program. So it is really special [to
have] everything working out. The [#86 team car] was running third, and we were going to be first
and third until they got pushed out by another car. I felt so bad for Ozz [Negri] and Jeff [Segal].
We felt crushed for them. We were really hoping to be on the podium with them today. We were
so looking forward for their finish.”
Michael Shank (Owner, Michael Shank Racing) on today’s victory: “I'm just so grateful that our
team gets the win for the Acura brand today. You could almost feel it around this place, everyone
was really, really calm before the race, it was almost too quiet! We are really making
advancements on the car and I am just so thrilled for the team. Everyone from the drivers, to the
crew guys, to the engineers, everyone did what they needed to today."
Art St. Cyr (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s first victory for the
Acura NSX GT3: “They always say the first win is the hardest, and this one was no exception.
Thinking back to all the hard work of Honda Performance Development, Honda R&D Japan,
Honda R&D in Ohio and the Performance Manufacturing Center [where the NSX is built], this is
truly a group win. Congratulations to Mike Shank and everyone at Michael Shank Racing,
including Katherine and Andy, our winning drivers. This is one to enjoy, and the hopefully the
first of many to come.”