Acura Team Penske Podium Streak Continues At Road America

•Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya finish second in Road Race Showcase

•Sixth consecutive podium result for the Acura Team Penske duo in 2019

•Acura, teams and drivers continue to lead Prototype and GTD points standings

A thrilling finish to Sunday's Road America Road Race Showcase saw Dane Cameron challenge for the victory through the final laps of the two-hour, 40-minute contest. Although he came up 22-hundredths of a second short at the finish, the second place result added to the Drivers' Championship points lead for Cameron and co-driver Juan Pablo Montoya, while Acura also extended its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship battle.

In GTD, a fifth-place finish for the Meyer Shank Racing pairing of Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher saw them take a healthy, 26-point championship lead with three races remaining, while Acura also leads the highly-competitive GTD Manufacturers' Championship.

Acura Team Penske ARX-05

After pacing all three practice sessions and starting from the pole, Cameron led the opening stint of today's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event. After Cameron handed off to co-driver Montoya at the first scheduled pit stop, the #6 Acura ARX-05 battled the pair of Mazda prototypes through the middle portion of the contest, as tire wear and fuel mileage dictated pit strategy.

Returning behind the wheel for the final third of the race, Cameron closed on the rear wing of leader Harry Tincknell's Mazda with two laps to go. The pair made light contact as they battled for the win, with Cameron unable to complete a pass in the final corners. Still, the second-place finish was the sixth consecutive podium result for Cameron and Montoya, including wins at Mid-Ohio and Detroit. The pair now has an unofficial seven-point lead in the Drivers' Championship (239-232) over Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani, who finished fourth today. Acura holds a five-point lead in the Manufacturers' Championship with 262 points to 257 for Cadillac.

Teammates Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor had a more troubled run, as debris on track became wedged under the #7 Acura ARX-05 at the one-hour mark. The duo recovered from the resulting long stop to finish fifth.

Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo

Championship leaders Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher took their #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura to a fifth-place run in GTD, after a race-long battle with the new McLaren entry of Paul Holton and Matt Plumb ended in favor of the MSR duo.

In the #57 Acura NSX GT3 Evo, Bia Figueiredo started eighth and ran as high as sixth in her opening stint. However, after the first round of pit stops, a multi-car collision just past the one-hour mark sent co-driver Katherine Legge to the pits for repairs, resulting in a disappointing 13th place finish.

After seven of 10 races for the GTD field, Hindman and Farnbacher hold a significant, 26-point lead in the Drivers' Championship (209-183) over Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley; while Acura owns a two-point margin over Lamborghini in the Manufacturers' title contest.

Same-day television coverage from Road America begins at 7 p.m. EDT on the NBC Sports Network. Social media content and video links from this weekend's Road America Road Race Showcase, are available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing HPD) channels. Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, The videos can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.

Next

The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship now heads to Virginia International Raceway near Alton, Va., for the second of two GT class-only races in the 2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the August 25 Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.

Quotes

Dane Cameron (#6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05) finished second, sixth consecutive podium finish of 2019: 'Another good points day for Acura Team Penske and another podium finish. It's hard to be too disappointed with that. It was pretty hard work today, but everyone at Acura Team Penske and HPD is doing a fantastic job. Our car is awesome right now. All things being equal, maybe we can get back to winning a few more of these races. But for now, big picture-wise, obviously we gained a few more points towards the championship and that's really what it's all about.'

Trent Hindman (#86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo) finished fifth in GTD : 'I think this was a pretty telling day in terms of the championship for the Meyer Shank Racing team. We maximized every possible factor and brought home a fantastic top-five result. We had an awesome race strategy from the MSR pitbox, great work over the pit wall by the guys – where we made up quite a few positions – and then co-driver Mario Farnbacher obviously in the last stint just had his 'elbows out' big time and really fought hard for every position. Big thanks to everyone at MSR, HPD and Acura. We're pretty happy to get out of here with a pretty healthy lead in the championship.'

Ted Klaus (President, Honda Performance Development): on today's podium results, and Acura maintaining championship leads in both DPi and GTD: 'It was gratifying to see, in spite of not winning either category DPi or GTD at either Canadian Tire Motorsports Park or Road America, that we've left these last two events with the points lead in every category drivers' and manufacturers' in both classes, and in some cases have expanded our advantage. That speaks to the strength and consistency which both Meyer Shank Racing and Acura Team Penske have displayed throughout the season. While we were on the wrong end of the finishing order today, there was a great crowd on hand and they were treated to a thrilling finish.'

Photo credit: Acura
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