After three successful years together, Acura Motorsports and Team Penske have come to a "mutual agreement" to end their partnership at the end of this year's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series.
No further details have been released yet as to what led to this decision, but perhaps the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the automotive world is a likely candidate as …
That IMSA field is starting to look pretty thin....it's a bit concerning! Hopefully Honda wants to keep going, just not paying the Penske price.
Sad, but not really surprised. After a year like 2020, I'd imagine that many (perhaps most?) racing sponsors and corporate partners are having to reevaluate their participation. The Acura excs have some real successes to show for for their investment already, and not much incentive to keep sinking big dollars into the sport.
Something else to possibly consider: Since Mazda's big one-two showing at IMSA's July race, I have received exactly zero contact from the manufacturer announcing that rather impressive feat.
In reply to nderwater : It all might fall back to vintage racing after such a year as 2020...
I hereby decree that IMSA should bolster the field next year by adding a class for $500 crapcans. 
The speed differential might be a problem though.
I know this is farfeched, but lately I can't get this movie out of my head..
I last saw it back in the 80s i think. It's not the end of the world, but it's beginning to feel like carmageddon may soon be upon us. Or, it could be Acura didn't want to foot the bill for Penske's next trip to LeMans https://us.motorsport.com/wec/news/cindric-penske-interest-le-mans/4841644/
Now that Honda is having some F1 success, they might want to focus the budget a bit. They must be spending a pretty long dollar between Indycar and F1, and I think either would give more bang for the buck than IMSA.
Or, Have you seen the new Accord NASCAR cup car?
David S. Wallens said:Something else to possibly consider: Since Mazda's big one-two showing at IMSA's July race, I have received exactly zero contact from the manufacturer announcing that rather impressive feat.
Has Multimatic ever worked with Penske before? Obviously they worked with CGR on the Ford IMSA/Le Mans program. I just don't know where the lines between constructor and race team start and stop.
I love the ARX cars. I hope they can continue in some form or another!
Not great news, but not the end of the world. This would just leave Mazda and Caddy in DPI, but don't forget LMP2 is looking better over the last couple of years.
IT can also leave more money in Honda's pockets for either Indycar and/or a LeMans Hyper car program as well.
It sounds like Acura may continue with a different team running the cars:
https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/cindric-team-penske-acura-couldnt-align-on-future/
And Penske hasn't ruled out staying in sports cars either.
Hey Ford! You already have a working relationship with Penske in NASCAR and Supercars. And a race-proven turbo V6 engine. Good time to bring Ford back to the top class of IMSA and potentially Le Mans in a couple years!
In reply to slowbird :
I'd love that, but Raj Nair was the big push behind the GT, the recent Shelby's, RS and ST vehicles. With him gone the Motorsports cheer leader has left the building. Jim Hackett is far more interested in becoming a mobility company and I can tell you from first hand experience he doesn't 'get' motorsport. I want to be wrong, I really do, but I"m not holding out hope.
Now the good news is Raj is at Multimatic and still has strong ties back into Ford.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, I'm not gonna get my hopes up too high. But it seems like "go slap some Mustang headlights on a prototype and let some team run with it" is less investment than the GT project by a big margin.
Ah ALMS v2.0
Also I can see MSR taking over the Acura prototype program. They've been running the NSXs the last few years and IIRC Shank stated he wanted back into the prototype game.
I've read that Acura wanted customer teams while Penske wanted exclusive use of the ARX-05, and Penske may be talking with Porsche about a new LMDh car.
In reply to j_tso :
Porsche + Penske + LMDh = Le Mans win.
You'll need to log in to post.
