Mario Farnbacher runs second-fastest in pro-driver qualifying session
Till Bechtolsheimer and Jeff Kingsley post top-10 efforts in their qualifying runs
Lime Rock, CT. (July 16, 2021) – Mario Farnbacher and Till Bechtolsheimer led the way for Acura today at Lime Rock Park, in qualifying for Saturday’s Northeast Grand Prix, a GT-only round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Piloting his Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo, Farnbacher battled with Jack Hawksworth for maximum championship points in the “pro” driver qualifying, but ended the 15-minute session second in the GTD class, by the narrow margin of just 0.048 seconds.
In the first half of IMSA’s unique GTD qualifying format, for Bronze and Silver-rated drivers, Till Bechtolsheimer headed the Acura effort, qualifying ninth in the Gradient Racing Acura he will share with Marc Miller. Farnbacher’s co-driver, Jeff Kingsley, will start 10th; with the Magnus Racing with Archangel duo of Andy Lally and John Potter starting 13th.
IMSA Northeast Grand Prix Honda GTD Qualifying Results/Starting Positions
9th GTD – #66 Till Bechtolsheimer, Marc Miller, Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
10th GTD – #76 Jeff Kingsley, Mario Farnbacher, Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
13th GTD – #44 John Potter, Andy Lally, Magnus Racing with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo
Quote
Mario Farnbacher (#66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo): Earned second-place qualifying points in his session; co-driver Jeff Kingsley will start 10th: “We made big progress with the car throughout the day. We made some big changes to the car [after the first practice], but unfortunately the second practice was interrupted [by rain, lightning], so it was difficult to compare. There were some big question marks for us heading into qualifying, but were able to do a good lap [second fastest]. We’ll take the championship points and prepare for tomorrow.”
Fast Facts
Saturday’s two-hour, 40-minute Northeast Grand Prix is the first of two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship stand-alone events for the production-based GTLM and GTD classes. The second GT-only race will take place at Virginia International Raceway in October.
IMSA’s Prototype category is not a part of the IMSA weekend at Lime Rock, but the Acura ARX-05s will return to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the following round, August 6-8 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Where to Watch the Northeast Grand Prix
Same-day television coverage from Lime Rock Park begins at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 17, on the NBC Sports Network. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available NBC Sports Gold TrackPass, on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App with NBCSN authentication.
Fans can listen in to audio commentary via IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and Sirius XM Radio [Sirius 216, XM 202, SiriusXM Online 992]; and follow the race live via in-car cameras, IMSA Radio and timing & scoring available worldwide on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile device App.
Acura Motorsports social media content and video links from Lime Rock Park can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).