Montoya to race IMSA enduros with Meyer Shank
Meyer Shank Racing has completed its 2021 driver line-up with the announcement that Juan Pablo Montoya will join the squad for IMSA’s four endurance rounds.
With Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla already named as MSR’s fulltime drivers in the #60 Acura ARX-05 for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and AJ Allmendinger taking up his traditional role as MSR’s ‘extra’ in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, the third driver for the four Michelin Endurance Cup rounds was the last slot to fill for the Ohio-based team.
Montoya, a two-time Indy 500 winner and the 1999 Indy car champion, was considered the ideal choice, given his past three seasons racing for Penske in the Acura ARX-05, with which he and Cameron clinched the 2019 IMSA Prototype title.
Montoya, who will be racing full-time in WEC’s LMP2 category with DragonSpeed, said: “I’m really excited to be joining Meyer Shank Racing next year. I’ve always seen Mike [Shank] around the track and we had a really simple, straightforward conversation to get this deal put together for next year.”
“Dane and I have a really great relationship that has also turned into a friendship. We both really understand each other and know what we need from each other to be competitive. I’m looking forward to continuing the relationship with him.
“I’m also looking forward to driving with Olivier and AJ. I know AJ from back when I ran NASCAR and we banged wheels more than once!
“I’ve won at Daytona several times, but we have yet to score a victory with the Acura. It would be great to get that first victory and I know that with the lineup that Mike has put together we’re capable of doing that.”
MSR won the 2012 Rolex 24 Hours, and also won its last outing in the Prototype category, the 2016 Petit Le Mans, before spending the last four seasons running the Acura NSX program in IMSA’s GT Daytona category.
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