IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: TIRERACK.COM BATTLE ON THE BRICKS

September 20, 2025

Tom Blomqvist

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by our overall and GTP Motul Pole Award winner at the Tirerack.com Battle on the Bricks, Tom Blomqvist. Tom's best lap was 1:14.569 seconds, his sixth career IMSA pole. His last pole came at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2023. The 21st pole position for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, the team's fourth consecutive pole. Never before had the team had two in a row prior to this streak. All 12 GTP cars within .997 seconds.

Tom, congratulations. You guys have been fast all weekend so far. Tell us how you managed to maintain that momentum and how it sets you guys up for tomorrow.

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, I think ultimately, it's kind of been an accumulation of things really over the past events. The new people we've got in the team, we've really -- I would say we've made good gains with our car. Just understanding it, pushing it more to its limits, trying to get a better understanding of what it needs to go fast, and then being able to adapt it a little bit better to other tracks.

I think that's learning from some of the errors or things that didn't really work for us in the past, and yeah, I think it's been kind of -- it's a work in progress, really. Having an extra car you kind of speed up your learning process, especially when it's under one roof there.

I'm really grateful. The team has done a fantastic job. Obviously we hit the ground running this weekend. Kyle was great from the start and just was able to really convert in qualifying. It wasn't a super clean session. I was a bit -- felt like I was in a bad spot on the track, but nonetheless, I managed to eke that lap out and it was enough.

Q. Unloading off the trailer, leading both practice sessions, it's not easy to win poles in IMSA, but how much did that help going into this? Obviously if you're down, you have a lot of work to do.

TOM BLOMQVIST: No, it's made our weekend obviously a lot easier. It means when we roll off the truck, the car is already in a good window. You don't have to take big swings at it. It's just kind of fine tuning.

And then from a driver's perspective, you know what you've got. You're not making any big changes. You're not really guessing. It's a lot easier to go out there and attack from the word go. You have a lot more confidence in the car. You know it's going to stick.

It's just easier to put it together really. I think that's just more of a testament to what we've done over the last events. We've really kind of found a few things that have worked for us, and we've kind of been building on that and learning with that philosophy, or whatever.

And just the work we do before the event, the simulation work the engineers do to go on the simulator as well for us. It's a lot of work that goes into trying to make these cars fast. They're quite complicated things.

It's obviously a pleasure to have a fast one and be able to put it on pole.

Q. Your time in open wheel here wasn't one you want to remember, but how great is it going back to the sports car side of things, P1, P1, P1, how awesome is that for you personally?

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, last time I was here, it was not the most enjoyable day. Obviously I have a lot of confidence in these cars. I know they work for me. I'm able to extract the most out of them. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get it to that point in INDYCAR, but nonetheless I'm super happy and I have no real regrets, and also, yeah, it's nice to be able to still get the job done.

Not that that lack of confidence was gone, but yeah, I enjoy these cars. I enjoy this team. It's always good fun.

Q. Obviously your Acura appears to have the single lap pace. The results say so. But how was the Acura on longer runs out there?

TOM BLOMQVIST: I'd say it's difficult to say. Obviously practice, you're not really -- you don't have the opportunity to really, unless you want to sacrifice -- you have to compromise, right? We kind of do as much work as possible to get an understanding of where the car is going to be over a long run.

I think ultimately our car is fast, and obviously will be a few more little tweaks for the race to make things a little bit better for a longer run, but won't be too many big changes. When the car is fastest, generally should be pretty good over the distance as well.

But yeah, we'll definitely do a bit of number crunching tonight, see what we think we need tomorrow, and then hopefully the weather plays its part and makes our lives a little bit easier.

Q. The entire class within a second out there; that's going to get interesting. With everyone this close, could it be as simple as maybe somebody slips somewhere that could determine who wins this?

TOM BLOMQVIST: It's a six-hour race tomorrow, and as you've seen in IMSA, the strategy is super important. A lot can happen in an IMSA race. You need to make sure you make the right calls at the right time and be on the right side of the strategy. It's very easy to have something not go your way, maybe get a little bit unlucky or just make a bad call, and it puts you out of the race.

Qualifying is obviously nice. It's nice to sleep on it. It's good for the guys. But ultimately tomorrow with it being a six-hour race it's a little bit less important, but will be nice to hopefully stay at the sharp end, and it does make your life a little bit easier.

Q. BMW was very fast early in the season and you have four straight poles now. Cadillac is two, three, four, Porsches all strong in the race. Can you comment on the pace of development in the GTP class and the intensity of the competition between the manufacturers?

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, it's obviously extremely intense. I think Acura and HRC, they did a fantastic job with our car. I think in '23 we had a really good car from the get-go. We had one of the best, if not the best, that rolled off with this new formula.

The others definitely caught up and have done a really good job developing and getting better and better. But we're still learning as well. Obviously the software side of things is a constant development. The car itself is a little bit more fixed.

But nonetheless, it's just trying different things, different philosophies, see what works, see how you get the most out of it. Obviously there's a lot of people -- obviously we have the guys at the track, we've also got a lot of people back at base who are also working extremely hard, and all the manufacturers do.

There's obviously a lot of resources being poured into these programs, and yeah, you see how much of a step, I think, Porsche has actually made from last year to this year, they've stepped up even more. They're always extremely competitive in the race. Their race pace is generally phenomenal, and they don't really make many mistakes. Good calls, good strategy calls.

BMW has obviously found a lot of pace. They had a few things maybe not go their way early in the year, some mistakes, and you just see, when they had a quick car they didn't really capitalize. Obviously that's what we're trying to do now.

We just need to make the most of it.

Q. Tom, specifically the ARX team seems to be pretty quick at this track. Where is the advantage specifically?

TOM BLOMQVIST: I mean, we actually thought this was a bit of a bad track for us. In the past we've never really figured it out. So the guys put a lot of energy and effort into trying to come up with something else that makes maybe more sense and let's give it a go, and that's kind of what we came here with.

We came here with something very different to what we've run in the past. Yeah, it just worked from the get-go. So obviously that gives you a lot of confidence in the engineering capability that we have and the tools and all the analysis they do to try and find speed. Yeah, I'm super happy about that. I'm pumped about that, when we get to the next track and even going into next year. I think, honestly, we've just improved a lot.

Q. As Chris mentioned, one of the most difficult moments of your career took place at this track. From an emotional standpoint, how does it feel to score a pole here?

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, I mean, I guess it wasn't a fun day at all. It feels a little bit different just because I don't -- it's such a different event. It's not like I'm coming back here and I've got a new INDYCAR career and I've done it there. That would obviously be a completely different ballgame.

Yeah, it's special. Obviously this is a pretty incredible place. I didn't spend a lot of time here in the past year. I haven't actually been back since that day. So yeah, it is nice to be back and put it on pole position.