IMSA: Acura & Team Penske to Part Ways After 2020

Honda’s American brand Acura has announced it will end its exclusive partnership with Team Penske in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the end of the 2020 season.

The famous American team struck a 3-year deal with Acura to build and run a pair of Acura ARX-05s in IMSA’s premier category, DPi, from 2018.

However on the eve of DPi cars being allowed to participate in Europe at Le Mans with the new LM Hypercar and LMDh cars, Acura has decided to not continue their partnership with Penske.

It does not necessarily mean that Acura won’t continue to run in the IMSA series in DPi, and no statement was made on whether the ARX-05s will race in 2021, however if they did it would most likely be either a full factory programme or with another partnership, not with Team Penske.

Ted Klaus, the head of Honda Performance Development, said, “On behalf of everyone at Acura and HPD, we’d like to thank Team Penske for their incredible efforts and impressive results racing the ARX-05.

“The success we’ve achieved together during the first two-plus years of the program makes us even more determined to score more victories, defend our championships, and conclude our partnership on the highest of notes.”

The announcement comes after a difficult start for Acura Team Penske in 2020’s truncated season, with neither car having finished on the podium in the opening 3 races, and the No. 7 car not yet finishing higher than 7th out of 8 runners in the DPi class.

Acura Team Penske are also yet to win any of IMSA’s 3 marquee events, the Rolex 24hrs at Daytona, the Sebring 12hrs, and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

The 4th round of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Road Race Showcase at Road America on August 2nd.