Acura NSX GT3 Teams Split 2019 SRO GT Championship Titles
• Real Time Racing Acura NSX GT3 wins GT team championship crown
• Acura NSX GT3 Evo racers won at all seven GT weekends of 2019
• Racer’s Edge Motorsports duo wins driver’s championship in Acura NSX GT3
LAS VEGAS, NV (Oct. 20, 2019) – The trio of teams campaigning the Acura NSX GT3 Evo in this year’s SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America spent much of the season swapping the top spot in the Pro/Am division, so it was only fitting that when the dust cleared in Saturday’s season finale, two Acura teams were sharing championships.
Despite missing three of the year’s 14 races, RealTime Racing used a five-race win streak to claim the GT Series Pro/Am Teams’ Championship; while the Racer’s Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo, with Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli at the wheel for all 14 rounds, captured three class victories and 10 podiums to win the GT Pro/Am drivers’ crown.
RealTime’s Mike Hedlund and Dane Cameron extended their winning streak to five consecutive GT races in Saturday’s opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but did so about an hour after the race. The #43 Acura NSX GT3 crossed the line second in Pro/Am, but was promoted to the top spot when Wright Motorsports was given a post-race time penalty by race officials for contact. Hedlund and Cameron then sealed the GT teams’ title in the nightcap – as the Blancpain series ran both GT races on Saturday for the only time all year – fighting off that same Wright Motorsports Porsche to finish second in Pro/Am.
Meanwhile the Racer’s Edge duo of Kyle Marcelli and Martin Barkey found themselves on the opposite end of the steward’s thought process in Saturday’s opener, falling from fourth to sixth after the race due to a 40-second time penalty for avoidable contact near the end of the 90-minute contest. Undaunted, the #80 Acura NSX GT3 Evo held their fellow Acura NSX runners from Gradient Racing at bay in the finale, besting them by 0.275 seconds to finish fourth and claim the driver’s crown for season-long co-drivers Marcelli and Barkey.
The Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Till Bectholsheimer and Marc Miller claimed a second-place finish for its fourth podium of the season in the opener, before ending its 2019 campaign with a fifth-place finish in the second race. The result put Gradient in fourth in the final team standings as Acura NSX teams claimed three of the top four spots in the Pro/AM final standings.
Next
This weekend’s races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway concludes the 2019 SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America championship. The 2020 season gets underway February 27-March 1 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Social media content and video links from this weekend’s activities at Las Vegas are available on Facebook at (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).
Quotes
Kyle Marcelli (#80 Racer’s Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo) Pro/Am class champion with co-driver Martin Barkey: “This was my first year in the Acura NSX and it was an amazing car to drive. The RealTime guys set the bar high for us all year and to chase them and come away with the championship in an fantastic feeling.”
Dane Cameron (#43 RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo) led RealTime Racing to GT Teams’ Championship with five wins in 2019: “The championship wasn’t really something we had in mind when we got started, but now it’s starting to get real and it will come down to the last weekend and we know that anything can happen. We’ll just keep digging and see what happens.
John Whiteman (Manager, Commercial Motorsports, Honda Performance Development) on Acura’s championship-winning season in Blancpain GT World Challenge America competition: “We are very pleased with the success and growth of our Acura NSX GT3 Evo customer program. The Drivers’ and Teams’ championships, with all three of our teams scoring Pro/Am victories this year, show the competitive capability of the NSX GT3 for a variety of drivers. We want to thank Gradient Racing, RealTime Racing, and Racers Edge Motorsports for their hard work this year, and congratulate them for their success.”