Acura NSX Shows Pace, Penalty Mars Result at VIR


Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 fights at the front of IMSA field
Penalty halts potential strong result

ALTON, Va. (August 28, 2022) – The #51 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 from Rick Ware Racing had an encouraging start to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race Sunday at VIRginia International Raceway, fighting at the front of the field, before a pit lane penalty hampered their promising run. 

Starting a best-ever second in GTD in the hands of Aidan Read, the RWR NSX held station for the first half of the race, with Read maintaining his second-place position until lap 38 of 86 in the GT-only event. 

A miscue while pitting under a full-course cauti0n to hand over to co-driver Ryan Eversley is ultimately what hurt the team’s chances of continuing their promising run when the team inadvertently had too many people working on the car during the stop. The action cost the #51 a drive-through penalty, dropping the team to an eventual ninth-place finish in their final planned run of 2022. 

VIRginia International Raceway Acura Race Results
9th GTD – #51 Aidan Read, Ryan Eversley, Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22

Quote
Ryan Eversley (#51 Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22) finished 9th: “A frustrating way to end the season, with a ninth-place finish with a car that could have been on the podium. I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to Rick Ware Racing and everybody on the #51 program that’s helped us go from a brand-new team to a podium contender. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t our weekend at VIR. During the driver change we had a little miscommunication that eventually led to a drive through [penalty] — the vent hose mechanic, who is not allowed to touch the car, grabbed the drink bottle to stop it from falling off. That caused the problem. In the end, we were going to have to save fuel like crazy anyway, and we were actually able to pick off a few people at the end by doing that better than anybody else. It’s a testament to HPD and Acura for such great fuel mileage, it made our life easy, we did that better than anybody. And big thanks to Matt Harvey for coming on board and engineering our car, to Rick and Lisa Ware and everybody at Nurtec for the opportunity, and to everybody at HPD for supporting it and getting me back in a GTD car.”

Fast Facts
Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute Michelin GT Challenge at VIR was the second of two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship stand-alone events for the GTD Pro and GTD classes. The first GT-only race took place at Lime Rock Park in July.

For 2022, Acura’s IMSA GTD effort in the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup – the eight non-endurance rounds of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – will be headed by Rick Ware Racing’s #51 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.

Next
The full IMSA field next runs October 6-8 for the season ending, 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga.