The No. 60 Acura Team Looks to Build on Season-Opening Rolex 24 Victory
By Jeff Olson
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In physics, momentum is defined as the quantity of motion of a moving body measured as a product of its mass and velocity.
In racing, the definition of momentum isn’t quite as clear.
Winning doesn’t always beget more winning. One victory doesn’t necessarily determine the quantity of motion. Or any motion whatsoever.
Still, there’s something about winning the first race of the season – especially when it’s as important as the Rolex 24 At Daytona – that leads us to believe there’s something to momentum as more than just a vague notion. Just ask Oliver Jarvis.
“There definitely is such a thing as momentum,” he says. “But as hard as it is to get, it can easily be lost.”
He should know. Jarvis and his Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian teammates are riding a positive wave from their win Jan. 30 at the Rolex 24 into the next race. As they prepare for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on March 19, the plan is to prove that winning is contagious.
“Once you get that win, it takes a little bit of pressure off,” Jarvis said. “It shows everybody on the outside as well as within the team that you’re capable of winning. With that reduced pressure and that monkey off the back, that helps with this momentum. You go on to the next race with more confidence. You don’t have to be as cautious, let’s say. You’ve got that win in your bank.”
So far, the bank is full. With two new fulltime drivers in Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist, MSR has achieved the ultimate. In their first race in the No. 60 MSR Acura ARX-05, along with co-drivers Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud, they prevailed while trying to master the details of a car that’s new to them.
“We’re still learning,” Jarvis said. “To show up at Daytona and achieve the win was more than we ever could have imagined. Now we need to build on that and follow it up with more positive results.”
The trick to further success is more seat time in the Acura. Jarvis came to MSR from Mazda’s Daytona Prototype international (DPi) program, which bowed out at the end of the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The differences are slight, he says, but significant.
“It’s the way to extract those last couple of tenths that’s very different between the cars – whether you need to hold a little bit of brake pressure to keep some weight on the front or whether you need to release the brakes quicker,” Jarvis said. “These little details at the moment I’m still having to think about and be very conscious of. When you get to know a car, it becomes subconscious and more natural. You intuitively know how to extract the last few tenths.”
Wins create more wins. It’s a concept with which Jarvis is familiar. In the first three years with Mazda Motorsports, Jarvis enjoyed only one victory. In last year’s farewell season, though, Mazda posted six podium finishes in 10 races, with victories in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.
“It took us two years to win a race, and then we started winning,” he said. “I think a big thing was getting that first win. MSR had a tough year at times last year and were strong at the end of the year, but they never quite got that win.”
One win down, more to come. That’s the MSR mantra in the afterglow of the Rolex 24 victory.
“It’s just the start of the job we aim to do this year,” Jarvis said. “Yes, we got a win. That’s great, and it certainly was a goal. To achieve that is fantastic, but we want to win a few more before the end of the year and be in the fight for the championship. To do that with the competition we have and the level being so high, you’ve got to be on top of your game every race.”