Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian revealed their full-season driving pairing for the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Friday (Nov. 18). Tom Blomqvist was previously announced as returning to the team for his second full-time season. He will be joined by Colin Braun, who will move back up to the top class in the series for the first time since 2019. They will be joined at Daytona by NTT IndyCar Series series regulars Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud.
“I am incredibly excited to be joining Meyer Shank Racing for the 2023 season,” Braun said in a press release. “MSR were tough competitors back in my Grand-Am days and setting the Daytona speed record with them was really special. Seeing what Mike [Shank] has built from the outside has always been impressive. You can see the passion the entire team has for racing and their drive to win is really motivating.
Braun will replace Oliver Jarvis in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06. Jarvis plans to race in 2023 for United Autosports in the FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Blomqvist and Josh Pierson.
Braun comes to the team after spending most of the past decade with CORE autosport. The Rock Hill, S.C.-based organization announced last week that they are shutting down.
All but four of Braun’s starts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since the merger of the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am have been in CORE Autosport equipment. In 79 IMSA starts, Braun has 15 class victories and has won three championships. With teammate Jon Bennett, Braun won the 2014 and 2015 PC class championships and just wrapped up this year’s LMP3 championship in October at Michelin Raceway.
In IMSA’s top flite, Braun has two full seasons of experience. In 2018, he came within only a few minutes of winning the title in an ORECA 07-Gibson before falling back in the closing minutes of the Motul Petit Le Mans and finishing second in points. 2019 in a Nissan DPi was not quite as successful as he and Bennett ended up 10th in points.
Bennett revealed recently to SportsCar365.com that Braun getting the Shank deal is one of the major reasons why he chose to close CORE Autosport. The team was going to continue in LMP3 until Braun got the call.
Prior to his time with CORE autosport, Braun attempted to race in NASCAR. He ran full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for two years (2008 and 2009). In 53 starts, mostly for then-Roush Racing, Braun scored one career victory at Michigan…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…