The Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC) has two large annual gatherings, one before IMSA’s Rolex 24 at Daytona and the second prior to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. During the first meeting, held at Daytona International Speedway, site of the Rolex 24, RRDC reveals its Phil Hill and Bob Akin awards, for those that exemplify the legacy of America’s first Formula One champion and one of the country’s finest road racers.
During the second, April meeting, RRDC celebrates an outstanding racer; last year it was Jackie Stewart who received the praise and honors in Long Beach. This year’s celebration will be for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach itself, acknowledging its 50th event since the September 1975 Formula 5000 event that previewed the first FIA Formula One World Championship race exactly six months later.
This past Wednesday evening, Mike Shank, co-owner of Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) earned RRDC’s 2024 Phil Hill Award. Shank has two-car teams that compete in both IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. The Phil Hill Award, presented every year since 1993 to a person whom the RRDC confirms has rendered outstanding service to road racing; the recipient can be a driver, entrant or outstanding member of a sanctioning body. Shank meets two of those three criteria.
Shank began his motorsports career in 1989, behind the wheel of both SCCA’s Toyota Atlantic C2 Championship – he won the 1996 championship – and in the Indy Racing League, where Shank drove a single race with Nienhouse Motorsports in 1997. After hanging up his professional helmet, he became a team owner in the Champ Car Toyota Atlantic Championship and in 2004 joined GRAND-AM’s Rolex Sports Car Series. He earned Toyota Atlantic’s Team Owner of the Year award twice in four years of competition.
Shank reached his first round of high-level road-racing success winning the 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2012, where he ran a Ford/Riley Daytona Prototype. His drivers were the late Justin Wilson, current NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger, Oswaldo “Ozz” Negri and John Pew. The team repeated ten years on to earn the 60th – and then the 61st – Rolex 24 at Daytona overall wins, this time under the IMSA WeatherTech umbrella, with drivers Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud.
In 2017, Shank managed Acura Motorsports’ debut as an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team in the GTD class, giving the Acura NSX GT3 its first victory and pole position. For those efforts he received the 2017 Rolex Bob Snodgrass Award of Excellence, presented each year by The Gorsline Company. The winning continued in IMSA for Shank, who by that time had Jim Meyer as a co-owner of the team. They finished second in the 2019 GTD championship, which was then called the United SportsCar Championship.
The year after their second Daytona victory, MSR won for a third time, but there were tire pressure data issues with that victory and, in 2024, MSR did not compete in IMSA competition. While the team and its drivers were allowed to keep the win, they were fined and their race engineer was expelled. MSR and Acura are back together this year with a two-car squad and qualified second with the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 for Saturday’s start of the 24-hour race.
Shank attempted to be a part of INDYCAR when the series changed chassis to what was known as DW12, the chassis developed by the late Dan Wheldon. He couldn’t get affiliations with the sole engine supplier at the time, Honda, and had to keep his eyes on the GRAND-AM landscape for the time being. That changed in 2017, when he debuted at the Indianapolis 500 with driver Jack Harvey. Both rookies, they impressed many at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; crew chief Adam Rovazzini earned 2017’s Clint Brawner Award.
When Team Penske jettisoned three-time Indy 500 winner Castroneves, MSR picked him up and together they earned the 2021 Indianapolis 500 victory, allowing the Brazilian to join the exclusive four-time winner’s club comprised of A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears. Shank currently operates a two-car INDYCAR team with Castroneves driving at Indy only.
The Phil Hill Award recognizes the tenacity and outstanding service to road racing. Recognizing MSR’s 350 sports car starts, three championships, three Rolex 24 victories and a pair of Petit Le Mans wins, RRDC president Bobby Rahal expressed his pleasure with this award: “We’ve had a lot of great recipients of the Phil Hill award over the years, and this year’s honoree is no different. When you think about who should get this award, you think of somebody who does it all and did it on his terms,” Rahal reminded. “Frankly,” he added, “it was pretty easy to decide this year. We have a lot of respect for Mike Shank and all he’s done over the years. Congrats, man. I think you are a worthy recipient of this great award.”
“Everything I did in racing, I did just to survive and try to advance to where I wanted to be,” Shank said as he admitted he was overwhelmed by the recognition. “To be recognized by the RRDC with the Phil Hill Award is beyond words.”
The 2024 Bob Akin Award, a prize considered the apogee for amateur, vintage, historic or semi-professional drivers, is selected by Akin’s son Bobby, RRDC members Brian Redman and Judy Stropus. It must be approved by Rahal, RRDC’s president. The distinctive Steuben Glass-designed trophy, made in Corning, NY near Watkins Glen International, was conceived by RRDC in 2003 to honor the memory of longtime RRDC member and past president, Bob Akin, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a 2002 testing accident.
This year’s award was destined for Patrick Long, who has driven Porsche cars nearly his entire career. A Porsche Brand Ambassador and competition advisor for Porsche Motorsport, Patrick Long heads the company’s North American young driver development program, using his nearly 20 years of international experience and knowledge as a Porsche factory driver with the sports car stars of tomorrow.
Long’s ties with Porsche began at the century change, when his talents in single-seaters came to the attention of Porsche’s scouts. Initially recruited as a Porsche Junior, Long found himself on the Works roster soon after competing initially for The Racer’s Group in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) endurance competitions and the Rolex Sports Car Series in 2004. Long has competed in every generation of 911 GT3 Cup, R and RSR Porsches, claiming class wins for Porsche at the four big endurance classics, coming second in class in IMSA and winning the Blancpain GT World Challenge America.
Patrick Long has success in the World Endurance Championship and has twice reached the top step at the 24 Hours of Le Mans; he’s won his class at both the Bathurst 12 Hours and the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Bobby Akin noted the ease in making this decision to honor Long: “This year’s recipient of the RRDC Bob Akin Award has a legendary pedigree, with wins and multiple championships,” he said. “His tenure with Porsche spanned over a decade, but that’s not why he was chosen. Like my father, our winner has a true passion for driving and the people involved in motorsport. You’ll still find him in historic events, often driving one of my dad’s old 935s, just because he loves it.
“And he also had a desire to go the extra mile to make the experience better, not just for himself but for everyone,” Akin said. “He actually called and asked me to send him the artwork for my dad’s original Coca-Cola driving suits, and he had a suit made just for his vintage racing in the Coke car. He also spends time working with young drivers and always takes time to provide advice, counsel, mentorship and guidance for people who are just getting started.
“What he and his team on the business side have put together, including [fellow] Akin Award winner Jeff Zwart, in crating Luftgekuhlt,” a celebration of air-cooled Porsche and Volkswagen cars, “has transcended the car culture as a global phenomenon that brings people of all ages together to celebrate cars in a truly spectacular way. To me,” Akin concluded, “the most important criteria of the Akin Award is being a good guy. I have known our winner for the better part of 20 years and have had the pleasure of watching his evolution as a driver and businessman. He is truly a good human!”
In receiving the award, Long admitted he was “super honored and humbled. When Bobby told me I’d be receiving this award, I felt a sense of relief and a sense of pride that the last four years have been a reset button for me. It’s been about being present, being conscious, being a leader and a family man, and everything that my ability didn’t allow me to do when I was a Works driver, because I was just completely on edge and would do anything to put it on pole or bring a car across the finish line. My pledge going forward is to think about who Bob Akin was as a character and to make myself available to the next generation, and to lead my team in business and my family as Bob Akin would have done.”
By Anne Proffit
Past RRDC Phil Hill Award Winners include:
1993 John Bishop
1994 Juan Manuel Fangio II
1995 Leo Mehl
1996 Charlie Slater
1997 Danny Sullivan
1998 Rob Dyson
1999 Bob Fergus
2000 Elliott Forbes Robinson
2001 Bill France
2002 Jim Downing
2003 Derek Bell
2004 Brian Redman
2005 Jim France
2006 Roger Werner
2007 Skip Barber
2008 Roger Penske
2009 Bob Bondurant
2010 Nick Craw
2011 Rick Mears
2012 George Follmer
2013 Peter Brock
2014 Hurley Haywood
2015 Vic Elford
2016 Scott Pruett
2017 Chip Ganassi
2018 David Hobbs
2019 Bobby Rahal
2020 Jack Roush
2021 Scott Atherton
2022 Mark Raffauf
2023 Bob Riley
Past RRDC Bob Akin Award honorees:
2003 – Sam Posey
2004 – Charlie Gibson
2005 – John Fitch
2006 – Jim Haynes
2007 – Cameron Argetsinger
2008 – Jim Downing
2009 – Steven J. Earle
2010 – Augie Pabst
2011 – Don Knowles
2012 – Miles Collier
2013 – Peter Sachs
2014 – Bill Warner
2015 – Judy Stropus
2016 – Murray Smith
2017 – Archie Urciuoli
2018 – Jeff Zwart
2019 – Rob Dyson
2020 – Jeremy Shaw
2021 – Awardee Not Selected
2022 – John Fergus
2023 – Tom Davey
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