TOOELE, Utah, Aug. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Peter Kox and
Mark Wilkins combined to score the
first win for the new Acura NSX GT3 in Pirelli World Challenge
Competition in a hard-fought SprintX opening round of a
doubleheader race weekend at Utah Motorsports Campus.
Starting from the pole, Kox led the opening segment of the
hour-long contest, but the #93 RealTime Racing Acura slipped to
second behind the Ferrari of Daniel
Mancinelli and Niccolo Schiro
during the mid-race round of pit stops. But a quick half-spin
by Schiro saw Wilkins move the Acura back into the lead as the race
hit the 40-minute mark.
Wilkins and Schiro continued to battle through the closing laps,
but the Ferrari was never able to complete a pass, and Wilkins took
his Acura to the checkers by 0.228-seconds.
"This feels wonderful. It was quite [close] at the end, but the
Acura performed really well," Kox said at the finish. "I had a good
start, and I just concentrated on my own race and tried to conserve
the car as well as I could for Mark
[Wilkins], so he had a good car to finish it off. We lost
some time in the pit stop, but luckily it fell back into our hands,
Mark withstood the pressure and we have a fantastic result."
Wilkins recounted the closing laps. "I just thought 'one corner
at a time and get the most out of the car'. We did that today.
Peter did a great job in qualifying and he put us in a position to
get this win and did a great job in his drive and handed over a
clean car at the front. I was looking forward to the white flag
[indicating the start of the final lap]. I knew I could just plug
away and not make any mistakes. I think we capitalized on
that. I was a bit nervous, to be honest. I just wanted to stay
out of trouble and do the best job I could. It's great to get the
first victory in World Challenge for the NSX GT3. It feels
fantastic. Thanks to Peter [Cunningham, team owner] and RealTime
for the opportunity."
The win is the first for the new NSX GT3 in the Pirelli World
Challenge, and the third for Acura in its inaugural year of
international GT3 competition. In addition to today's victory,
Michael Shank Racing has scored two endurance-race wins in the IMSA
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with drivers Andy Lally and Katherine
Legge.
In the second #43 RealTime Racing NSX GT3, Ryan Eversley started fourth and soon began a
long battle with the Porsche of Pat
Long, eventually gaining third place. However, a delay
during the driver change at the single pit stop resulted in
co-driver Tom Dyer resuming in
fifth. While he was able to regain much of the ground lost
during the long pit stop, Dyer was unable to improve his position
in the closing laps and finished fifth.
"One of the belts got trapped behind me in the seat. It was
unfortunate," Dyer said of the long pit stop. "We were fighting a
little bit of understeer, and it kept growing. I was concerned
about the left front tire, too. It was feeling a little odd, but
everything made it to the finish."
"The RealTime guys brought two really good race cars. We were
fast in every session and we knew we'd be strong," Eversley said.
"The biggest thing about today is the Acura NSX GT3 has now won in
the IMSA series and in World Challenge. Hopefully, people
will want to buy these cars and race them next year. We're all
really happy at RealTime to get the win, and we'll try it again
tomorrow."
"After our first official on track session [here] one year ago,
it came full circle today. The NSX GT3 has now shown it can
race for the win in both endurance and sprint racing," said NSX GT3
Project Leader Lee Niffenegger of
Honda Performance Development. "Huge congratulations to
everyone at RealTime Racing and our Acura Motorsports engineers for
all the hard work to get to this point. Peter had a great lap
in qualifying to secure the first World Challenge pole for the NSX
GT3, and held P1 throughout his stint. Mark then delivered a
cool and calm performance to hold off the charging Ferrari to take
our first World Challenge win. The first one is always the
hardest, and now we can try for more as the season continues."
The RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 team will have only a short
time to savor today's victory, as the second round of the weekend
doubleheader takes place tomorrow at Utah Motorsports Campus in
Tooele, Utah.
The Acura NSX GT3 racecar utilizes the production NSX's
lightweight multi-material body with aluminum-intensive space
frame, and is powered by a 3.5-liter, 75-degree, twin-turbocharged
DOHC V-6 engine. The engine uses the same design specifications as
the production 2017 Acura NSX, including the block, heads, valve
train, crankshaft, pistons and dry-sump lubrication system. The
engine is paired with a 6-speed, sequential-shift racing gearbox,
delivering power to the rear wheels. The Acura NSX is produced at
the Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio.
Video recaps from this weekend's Acura Pirelli World Challenge
racing activities at the Utah Motorsports Campus are being posted
on the "Honda Racing/HPD" YouTube channel. Produced by the
Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found in the
2017 HPD Trackside Video Playlist at:
https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.
Pirelli World Challenge
Circuit: Utah Motorsports
Campus (3.02-mile road course), Lexington, Ohio
Weather: Partly cloudy, hot, 91 degrees F
Saturday
Round 8 Results Saturday:
Pos
|
Drivers
|
Team
|
Car
|
Status
|
1
|
Peter Kox/Mark
Wilkins
|
RealTime
Racing
|
Acura NSX
GT3
|
32 laps
|
2
|
Daniel
Mancinelli/Niccolo
Schiro
|
TR3
Racing
|
Ferrari 488 GT3
|
+0.228
seconds
|
3
|
Patrick Long/Jorg
Bergmeister
|
Wright
Motorsports
|
Porsche 911
GT3R
|
|
4
|
Johnny
O'Connell/Ricky Taylor
|
Cadillac
Racing
|
Cadillac ATS
V-R
|
|
5
|
Ryan Eversley/Tom
Dyer
|
RealTime
Racing
|
Acura NSX
GT3
|
|
6
|
Alvo Parente/Ben
Barnicoat
|
K-PAX
Racing
|
McLaren 650S
GT3
|
|
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SOURCE Acura Motorsports