RealTime Racing Acuras Prepped For Laguna Seca Endurance Event
• Acura squad expands to six drivers for its first endurance event
• Eight-hour event features RTR’s Pirelli World Challenge Acura NSX GT3s
• Dane Cameron and Jules Gounon join RTR driver lineup
TORRANCE, Calif, (October 11, 2017) – The Acura NSX GT3s of RealTime Racing and Honda Performance Development spent the recently-completed Pirelli World Challenge season trying to show how fast they could go. Now, with the PWC season complete, the team will go out this weekend attempting to show how far its Acuras can go.
RealTime will cap its 2017 debut campaign in the NSX GT3s by running its first endurance race Sunday, competing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge California 8 Hours at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The eight-hour event will be a stark contrast to the team’s standard events, that take little more than an hour from pre-race to checkered flag.
“This race marks our final event in the debut season for the NSX GT3 in North America, but also marks the first-ever ‘international’ event for the car as part of the InterContinental GT series,” said NSX GT3 Project Leader Lee Niffenegger of Honda Performance Development. “Everyone is excited for this unique event and looking to put together a strong result to close out the season. This will help launch the NSX GT3 into a new phase of competition as a worldwide customer car.”
The team’s customary SprintX lineup of Ryan Eversley and Tom Dyer will be joined by Dane Cameron in the #43 Acura NSX, while Peter Kox and Mark Wilkins will welcome 24 hours of Spa winner Jules Gounon as part of the driver roster in the #93 sister car. Cameron will be part of the new Acura DPi effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Challenge in 2018.
“We haven’t done an endurance race in the three years I’ve been with RealTime, but I know how capable our team is and I think we’ll be able to go for a podium this weekend at the Eight Hour,’” opined Eversley. “Having Dane and Jules come in and join us makes our lineups even stronger, so I’m excited to see what we can do this weekend in our Acuras.”
The new lineup in the #43 Acura will have a retro look for the eight-hour event, featuring an orange and white paint scheme that pays homage to RealTime Racing owner/driver Peter Cunningham’s 2002 title-winning Acura NSX.
“We are very excited to have the No. 43 presented in a tribute paint scheme to RealTime’s championship-winning, first-generation NSX,” said Cunningham. “The last time we’ve seen anything like this was in 2002, 15 years ago! I think the fans will enjoy it too, and that it will bring us good fortune this weekend.”
The team has a long legacy of success at MRLS, as Cunningham and his RTR stablemates have taken Acuras to six wins on the challenging course near Monterey, California. Kox, who scored the team’s lone GT3 victory this year, also has fond memories of the track and is looking forward to a return.
“Laguna has been always good to me and I have won a couple of races there,” Kox said. “It will be an interesting challenge. I look forward to this race, but I am not looking forward to this already being the last race of the season.”
Qualifying for the weekend’s event starts Saturday morning at 10:45 p.m. Eastern, followed by Super Pole qualifying at 1:40 p.m. The eight-hour event gets the green flag Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage of the California 8 Hours will start at 12 p.m. ET on the CBS Sports Network.
The Acura NSX GT3 race car 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.