Honda Racing Corporation USA (HRS US) President David Salters provided slightly more insight on Acura’s decision to exit the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the end of the 2026 season.
The announcement by HRC US nearly two weeks ago declared a ‘pause’ on its factory effort in the top flight Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class – which it currently runs an Acura ARX-06 in partnership with Meyer Shank Racing – at the end of this year, as part of a more shifted focus to IndyCar.
“This is not a complete cancellation of our GTP program, but merely a stop for the time being,” Salters told Motorsport.com.
“The Acura GTP program has been successful in both results and development of HRC US in running our own entry. During the GTP program, Acura has scored 11 poles and 8 Wins in competition. However, we felt now was the perfect time to use our large involvement in the IndyCar Series as a way to market the Acura brand. Beyond that, and due to competitive auto industry reasons, we will not be sharing further what has led us to pause the Acura GTP program.”
One of the factors that has become a hot topic in the paddock is the cost behind Evo kits. There are limitations with ‘Joker’ updates to no more than five during the homologation period between 2022-27, and one performance update per year — two total — in 2028-29. Costs for the mandatory hybrid powertrain systems used by each LMDh car, as well as the LMDh chassis “spine” from the four approved constructors (Dallara,Ligier, Multimatic and ORECA) are controlled by IMSA and the ACO.
Would a cost cap bring them back to IMSA?
#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian: Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun
Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images
When asked if a cost cap would help reentry ahead of the anticipated 2030 regulation changes or if the plan is to go on hiatus until that point, Salters was non-committal but did add thoughts on the importance of cost reduction.
“We have not put a firm timeline on any potential re-entry into IMSA GTP competition or other pinnacle prototype sportscar series,” Salters said.
“One potential re-entry point could be when the next generation LMDh cars enter competition in 2030. Also there appears to be two ways to control cost:- the thing we can’t talk about (Balance of Performance) or cost cap.
“Cost cap is expensive to implement, so having no Evos and the thing we can’t talk about (as originally intended) should be the most efficient way to keep costs under control, also should make racing close, good for the fans, and definitely with driver and team skill. EVO and the thing we can’t talk about are in contradiction and destabilize the thing we can’t talk about.”
Salters further added that during what has been hailed as a ‘golden era’ for sports car racing, coming to terms with this decision to halt the program was difficult.
“We massively applaud IMSA, ACO and the FIA for conceiving, building and growing together with the manufacturers the current sportscar ‘golden age,’” Salters said. “We have loved our sportscar racing over the last eight years and building our LMDH/GTP hypercar with Oreca, developing powertrains, control systems, vehicle set-up optimization and hybrid energy management systems has been a delight for our HRC associates. Race engineering and strategizing our GTP car #93 vs world class competition has grown our associates and brought our HRC racing facility closer to the track and shown our challenging spirit.
“We did not come to the decision to pause our GTP program quickly or easily. With that said, we will not be sharing details regarding what has led us to pause the Acura GTP program or when we made this decision.”
What’s next for HRC?
As of now, HRC US has no plans to extend itself to privateer teams in IMSA, but is eyeing potential involvement in the Asian Le Mans Series.
Salters remained concise in what changes he would like to see implemented, but did mention there is “support” in seeing Evo changes going away entirely.
“We have shared how we would like to see the LMDh/GTP formula improved for the future with IMSA leadership,” Salters said.
“Our only comment beyond this is to say that we would support the elimination of Evo changes to the cars as this is how the current formula was originally conceived, and we supported that at the time. We would also like to see cost effective convergence in the future.”
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