Tom Blomqvist has done this before, but not with a clock running down on the whole program. His 1m14.674s lap around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday put the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian ARX-06 on pole for Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, one of only two IMSA starts the ARX-06 program has left before Acura steps away from GTP racing at season’s end.
It’s Blomqvist’s seventh career IMSA pole and the 25th for Meyer Shank Racing in the WeatherTech Championship. His co-driver Colin Braun still has not taken a race win this year, and the electrified ARX-06 has not won at Indianapolis. Last year, in what was then a six-hour format at the Brickyard, Blomqvist and Braun brought home third. Sunday’s sprint is a different equation, and pole gives them the cleanest path to changing that record.
The sister #93, with Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande, qualified fifth. The pair already has one win this season, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, and the #93 needs more points to stay in the championship fight. Yelloly has stood on the IMS podium before, but a win Sunday would matter more than a podium at this stage of the table.
The #93 is also running the program’s commemorative ‘Thank You’ livery for Indianapolis and the season finale at Petit Le Mans, marking 10 years and 33 IMSA victories, 44 pole positions, 14 championships, and three Rolex 24 at Daytona wins. That the program is ending with legitimate championship hardware on track, rather than coasting to the finish, is at least worth noting.
It is also worth noting that IMSA sports car racing has not been back to Indianapolis since 2014. Saturday’s session was Blomqvist and Meyer Shank making the most of a venue the series has not visited in over a decade, and Blomqvist has made a habit of qualifying well when the pressure is highest. He started P2 at Watkins Glen in July under similar circumstances.
Acura has announced it will pause the GTP program after 2026. If Sunday’s race goes the way pole position often sets up, Blomqvist and Braun could give the ARX-06 its first Indianapolis win in its final shot at one.
Source: Acura. Images courtesy of Acura.
