Acura Team Penske Runs Sixth, Seventh At Sebring 240

•Acura Team Penske runs sixth overall with Dane Cameron, Juan Pablo Montoya

•Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor recover from early-race issue to finish seventh

July 19, 2020 — SEBRING, Fla. A pair of late-race pit stops dropped the Acura Team Penske ARX-05s to sixth and seventh at the end of Saturday night's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship two-hour, 40-minute event at Sebring International Raceway, while Gradient Racing demonstrated steady improvement with a seventh-place result in GTD.

Acura Team Penske

In the premier Daytona Prototype International category, Juan Pablo Montoya qualified second, just two-tenths of a second off the pole time in his #6 Acura ARX-05, while teammate Helio Castroneves started his ARX-05 from sixth.

However, both Acura Team Penske entries required four stops for fuel during the two-hour, 40-minute contest, one more pit stop than most of their competitors. After running fourth in the early laps, then moving up to third, Montoya handed over the #6 Acura to co-driver Dane Cameron mid-race, who soldiered on to a sixth-place finish.

Acura NSX GT3 Evo Teams

In the always-competitive GTD category, the Gradient Racing duo of Marc Miller and Till Bechtolscheimer demonstrated continued improvement with their Acura NSX GT3 Evo, combining for a seventh-place finish at Sebring, after running 10th in the team's 2020 debut two weeks earlier at Daytona.

Starting eight in class, IMSA rookie Bechtolsheimer gained a position during the opening lap and ran as high as fifth in a consistent first stint. Veteran Miller took over the driving duties at the first pit stop, resuming in eighth place, then gaining one position for a seventh-place finish.

This weekend's race at Sebring is part of the Sprint Cup Championship, for shorter races on the 2020 schedule, and is not part of the overall WeatherTech SpotsCar Championship. As a result, the two-car Meyer Shank team of Acura NSX GT3 Evo's were not present, but both will return for the next round at Road America.

Next

The resumed 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next moves north, to historic and scenic Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on August 2.

Acura Motorsports social media content and video links from Sebring International Raceway will be available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD). Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, the YouTube videos can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.

Quotes

Juan Pablo Montoya (#6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05) finished sixth: 'We knew it was going to be a difficult weekend. We had very nice pace in qualifying, and I was really happy with the lap I put down in the session. Based on the last few races, with where we were with our fuel capacity, we knew it was going to be a tough night in having to save fuel, and that is exactly what it was. Now we will just have to see what comes out of this race before we get to Road America, but Acura Team Penske is building fast racecars. When you have to make an extra pit stop versus the other competitors there isn't much you can do.'

Helio Castroneves (#7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05) finished seventh: 'Obviously, we started well, but had an issue with the turbo charger boost and power on the No. 7 Acura. I was going through the gears and could feel the car just wasn't pulling. The guys did a phenomenal job in fixing it repairing a loose connection, and we were able to get our lap back. It was frustrating because we did everything we could to keep up but the others were too strong tonight. Hopefully the series can see what we are up against and we will be more competitive at Road America. It was still a great job by everyone at Acura Team Penske.'

Photo credit: Acura
posted on conceptcarz.com

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