RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 Squad Scores Five Top-10s in Texas

RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 Squad Scores Five Top-10s in Texas
• Ryan Eversley and Tom Dyer earn top-nine finishes in each of the weekend’s three races
• Peter Kox and Mark Wilkins score top-eight finishes in final two races
• Team within reach of top-five finish in season standings heading into Sonoma finale

AUSTIN, Texas (September 3, 2017) – The RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 team had one of its most consistent weekends of the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge season, scoring five top-10 finishes on a Labor Day holiday event that featured three PWC races.

Austin’s Circuit of the Americas not only hosted the penultimate PWC race weekend of the year, it also hosted the postponed fourth round of the SprintX championship, which was rained out in Canada back in May.

The team of Ryan Eversley and Tom Dyer took its Acura NSX GT3s to top-nine finishes in each of the three races, while the duo of Peter Kox and Mark Wilkins overcame a problem in the opening race to earn top-eight results in the final two events.

“This weekend was a great example of making the best of what you are given and maximizing the result,” said NSX GT3 Project Leader Lee Niffenegger. “RTR came away with five top-tens in three races by staying consistent and keeping out of trouble. In addition to the good points haul, the cars came out in one piece, due to the great driving displayed by Mark, Peter, Ryan, and Tom in avoiding what could have been catastrophic incidents.”

Friday’s event was the only real hiccup for the RTR Acuras over the weekend, as a loose hood pin on the #93 of Kox and Wilkins caused early pit stops and affected the airflow on the car. In the end, with two races left to run in the warm temperatures, the team decided that discretion was the better part of valor and retired the car.

“One side of the hood didn’t clip in correctly. The wind got underneath and broke the hood right off,” reported Wilkins. “We tried to run it a little bit, but it started overheating because of the change in airflow, so the call was made to preserve the car for the other two races.”

The #43 Acura NSX of Eversley and Dyer came home in ninth place on Friday and had a strong start on Saturday before incurring a penalty for being too fast on the driver change – per regulations specified in the PWC SprintX format. Eversley brought the car to the pits in fifth place, but the penalty meant that Dyer had to battle to bring home a ninth-place result. Meanwhile, the #93 rebounded from Friday’s malady and finished seventh.

“We started ninth and came out of Turn One in fifth. I was able to bring the car in, in a good position for Tom to take over,” said Eversley. “He went out and was running great, and then we realized we were 0.044-seconds too fast on the driver change. But Tom did a nice job and we were happy with the finishes considering where our car was over the weekend.”

Sunday’s event was the best of the weekend for the Acura NSX GT3 teams as both ran in the top-eight for most of the race. Eversley passed the Cadillac of Ricky Taylor late in the race to secure a weekend-best sixth-place run, while Kox and Wilkins finished eighth.

While the team felt fortunate to finish sixth after a trying weekend, it wasn’t until after the checkered flag that it saw just how fortunate the RealTime squad had actually been. Dyer was clipped by the Wright Motorsports Porsche during a strong start on which he had gained seven spots. But the contact had bent the bodywork toward the wheel, which had been slowly digging into the tire, which ultimately went flat on the cool-down lap.

“We caught a break there for sure,” Dyer said. “It would have been a shame to see the team lose the ground we had gained over the weekend with a flat tire. Kudos to the Pirellis for providing a strong tire for us to race on.”

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 NSX is produced at the Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio.