Tom Blomqvist battles hard at Indianapolis

TOM BLOMQVIST BATTLES HARD AT INDIANAPOLIS

Tom Blomqvist and Meyer Shank Racing team battled to a hard fought sixth place finish in Indianapolis after an incident on the opening lap of Sunday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway resulted in a testing afternoon for Tom and the team.

Tom and the team arrived at the circuit on the back of a strong run of form that had seen them secure a victory and two podiums at the previous three rounds of the championship and they were looking to translate this momentum into another successful weekend.

Heading into Saturday's qualifying session, Tom would be elected to qualify behind the wheel of the #60 and he would secure a fantastic third place on the grid for Sunday's race with a time of a 1.13.864.

Tom would take the green flag in the #60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Acura ARX-06 but had to take evasive action in the first turn when a competitor made a banzai move and spun in front of him. With nowhere to go, Blomqvist made light contact, resulting in a damaged nose that cost performance and made for a very long opening stint.

The opening lap contact dropped Blomqvist to 10th overall and eighth in the GTP class. With the pits closed, the team opted to stay out to avoid a stop-and-go penalty. Blomqvist hung on with the ill-handling car, finally pitting under caution with one-hour, 50-minutes remaining.

The team would then work hard to optimise strategy to make up positions and gain ground on the pit stop exchanges. Colin Braun took over the controls in eighth position, and was running seventh when he stopped for fuel and tires with one hour remaining. Braun moved up to fifth during the final exchange of pit stops and ran sixth throughout the final 30 minutes until the fall of the chequered flag.

The championship will come to a close for Tom and the team with the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on 14 October 2023.

Tom Blomqvist:

“These things happen when the 01 tries to win the race in the first corner. He spun in front of me and damaged our car. We lost a lot of positions at the start. I had a lot of damage and it was a really bad stint to start the race. We were on the back foot and tried to make it up on strategy, but it was just disappointing. We’ve got to put it behind us and move on.”

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