As of now, Tom Blomqvist’s sports car career may not have been long, but there’s no doubt the last two years competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s top class have been intense. On the cusp of his final race, for now, as a full-time sports car racer before he moves to Meyer Shank Racing’s NTT IndyCar Series team, he took a moment to reflect on the ride it’s been.
“Last year was definitely, generalized, a huge career highlight for me,” he said. “It’s been a while since I’ve felt that way. You know, when I started my career in racing I got off to a really good start in my first full year. I won straightaway — British Formula Renault Championship, 2010; I was 16 years old. I thought, ‘This stuff’s gonna be easy. Formula 1 come at me,’ sort of thing. I was obviously very young, naïve and it didn’t really materialize. You struggle for budget and you grow older, and you realize that there’s a lot more to the sport than just being a young, talented racing driver. But last year, I felt like I kind of found that sort of enjoyment, that love for the sport again. Not only that, the team giving me so much support and trust and faith in my ability to deliver them good results, personally felt very rewarding.”
Like most drivers, the British-born son of Swedish rally great Stig Blomqvist started in single-seaters before he moved to sports car racing with BMW in DTM. Several seasons with BMW followed, including a nearly full season in the WeatherTech Championship GTLM category for BMW Team RLL, with four seasons in Formula E filling the off-season. When he came into Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian’s Acura ARX-05 DPi for 2022, his effect was felt immediately. Winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Oliver Jarvis, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud, Blomqvist and Jarvis embarked on a season-long battle with fellow Acura team Wayne Taylor Racing that culminated in an epic battle at Motul Petit Le Mans. Blomqvist, Jarvis and Castroneves claimed the victory and the championship for the team.
“Last year couldn’t have got off to a better start,” Blomqvist continued. “I mean, just joined this new team with these legends and we won the biggest race of the year straightaway. I couldn’t even watch the end of the race. That feeling was pretty incredible, and I felt like I played a huge part in that race. But I think what topped it, to be honest, was we were battling year long with with the No. 10 car. That season was so tense between us, and we came to this last race super close with the points.
“That last stint of [Petit] last year was Filipe and I just going at it. I remember…we’re just going through traffic like idiots almost. It was definitely a lot of controlled aggression; it was really intense. To get that victory in the race, and ultimately the championship with it…I haven’t found a high like it in my career. It was really cool, really special to see what it meant to everyone here at the team.”
Paired with Colin Braun for 2023, Blomqvist and company repeated last year’s Daytona victory as the new era of GTP opened, but the team was found after the fact to have been manipulating the tire pressure data and had 200 points docked. It put them in a hole they wouldn’t be able to climb out of, despite Blomqvist and Braun having a solid run during the summer with third in the Six Hours of the Glen, winning at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and following it with second at Road America. The pair enter the finale 127 points out of the championship lead. Add back the 200 points they lost from Daytona, though, and it’s a relative runaway for the championship.
Beyond the loss of points, the fallout from Daytona includes MSR sitting on the sidelines in the WeatherTech Championship next season, as Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global expands to two Acuras ARX-06s for 2024.
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It’s unlikely that Blomqvist begins his IndyCar career as a sports car racing champion. While he’s looking forward to his time at the top end of the single-seater ladder, he hopes he’s not done with sports cars. For one thing, he’d like a Sebring victory to go with Daytona and Petit Le Mans. Ultimately, Blomqvist, who has also been racing an LMP2 entry in WEC, thoroughly enjoys it.
“I really love sports car racing,” he said. “There is a little bit more of a relaxed environment about it. There’s a lot more compromise that goes into it because you are sharing your car. Not everyone likes the same car, the same setup, so you really have to work well together. There’s just a good camaraderie between the teams, and I think that’s really special.
“I love getting out there and just driving for hours and hours in a race. In an IndyCar race, you drive two hours and it’s all pretty intense, and it’s done. Here, I do two hours, have a few hours out and I get back in and you kind of follow this journey through the race. As the race goes on the track’s changing, the car’s changing, the balance changes as the track changes, and you’re just constantly adapting and I love that. I’m definitely gonna miss that element. Hopefully I’ll be doing some races, because that’s been a huge part of my career to date. I don’t want to fully go away from that.”
Blomqvist has already had a taste of IndyCar competition, filling in for the injured Simon Pagenaud. He recently completed the Indy 500 Rookie Orientation Program in preparation for his first time – he’s never even watched the 500 in person, although he remembers watching on television as his now-teammate Helio Castroneves climbed the fence – next May,
“It was a fantastic day. I really enjoyed it,” he said of his first laps at Indy. “It’s so different. Apart from it being a race car, there’s not really much else I can compare it to — the sensations on the body, with the car… That whole braking phase of a corner is gone, right? That whole art form that you had developed over your career is different and it’s now a new thing I have to learn…but I’m really excited for that.”
Team co-owner Mike Shank had high praise for Blomqvist following the Daytona win in January, noting he knew he was their guy right away when he tested him the first time at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Now Shank has given him the IndyCar opportunity alongside Felix Rosenqvist and, at the Indy 500, Castroneves. Whatever happens in IndyCar, Blomqvist will look back on the two years in prototypes fondly while looking forward to more.
“It’s been a fantastic journey,” Blomqvist said. “I’ve really, thoroughly enjoyed it. With the team, it’s been so much fun. I’ve really enjoyed my racing and my driving and the team putting that trust in me. This year with Colin we’ve done a great, great job. He’s been fantastic. It’s just been so enjoyable to come to the track. I think that’s one thing I’ve learned over my career — it’s so important to feel that feel that way when when you’re racing.”