RealTime Racing Acuras Carry Growing Momentum to Long Beach
• RTR Acura TLXs earned first top-10 results of 2016 at St. Petersburg
• Team returns to site of double top-10 finish in 2015
• RealTime Racing seeking first Long Beach win
TORRANCE, Calif, (April 13, 2016) – The RealTime Racing Acuras have a rare one-and-done weekend at this weekend’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, as the Pirelli World Challenge series contests just a single race, instead of the normal two, at the nation’s most famous street circuit.
The single race gives the RTR squad just one chance to build on the momentum earned with a pair of top-10 runs in St. Petersburg last month, including a season-best sixth-place effort by Ryan Eversley. But if the team performs like it did a year ago, one race should be all the team needs to continue improving its results.
“I’m optimistic for our return to Long Beach,” Eversley said. “We finished in the top 10 here last year on my debut at this circuit, and I think our car is much better than last season. With only one race this weekend, you can take a few more chances knowing that the car will have 4-5 days before its next race.”
Last year’s race seemingly was all about taking chances, as the event on the tight 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit was rife with on-track incidents, resulting in most of the 50-minute event being run under the yellow caution banner. Eversley carried the #43 RealTime Racing Acura TLX GT to a sixth-place run, while team owner Peter Cunningham gained a remarkable 21 positions from his starting spot to finish ninth, marking the team’s best dual finish of the season.
The Grand Prix of Long Beach is the oldest and most prestigious street race in the United States, annually drawing nearly 200,000 spectators. Started in 1975, the street circuit has hosted Formula 1, IndyCar and Formula 500 in its 40 years, and the action-packed weekend has also featured World Challenge competition for each of the last 10 seasons.
“Long Beach is the longest running and most successful street circuit in North America,” said Cunningham. “The huge Southern California crowd is passionate and always supportive! And it’s great to compete so close to Honda’s [national] headquarters [in Torrance, CA] with many associates to cheer us on!”
This weekend will be the first in Long Beach for the rear-wheel-drive version of the Acura TLX GT after it spent last year as an all-wheel-drive machine. An extensive preseason program has led to a good start to the season, and the team anticipates more improvement this weekend.
“Everyone on the team is quickly adapting to the new 2016 configuration,” said Senior Program Engineer Lee Niffenegger of Honda Performance Development. “After showing some very good speed at St. Petersburg, we are looking forward to showing this pace again at Long Beach.”
Pirelli World Challenge qualifying takes place Saturday at 11:40 a.m. ET with Sunday’s race getting underway at 1 p.m. ET. The 50-minute race can be viewed live on the Internet at www.world-challengeTV.com. The same-day race broadcast can be seen Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on the CBS Sports Network.
Developed from the production Acura TLX by HPD and RealTime Racing, the Acura TLX GT features HPD chassis and aerodynamic performance parts approved for Pirelli World Challenge competition. It is powered by a direct-injected, twin-turbocharged V6 engine, developed by HPD from the production Acura TLX.
Video News Releases from this weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge event at Long Beach are being posted on a specially created “Honda Racing/HPD Trackside” YouTube channel produced by the Carolinas Production Group. CPG will be providing video highlights packages following Honda Racing/HPD events during 2016. The video packages can be found at https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.