Racers Edge Motorsports Claims SRO Pro/Am Title

Living on the Edge

Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher, with third driver assistance from Christina Nielsen, took their Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 to a third-place Pro/Am class finish in Saturday’s season-ending Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS.

The podium finish secured both the SRO Fanatec GT World Challenge Presented by AWS Pro/Am Drivers’ and Teams’ championships for Harrison, Farnbacher and Racers Edge; and became the seventh and eighth major North American road racing championships won this year by Acura, it’s teams and drivers.

Starting seventh, Farnbacher ran with the overall leaders for much of the opening hour, but was assessed a drive-through penalty for contact with another competitor near the 30-minute mark. Running some of the race’s fastest laps, he recovered much of the track position lost by the penalty before handing over to Harrison, who would alternate driving duties with two-time GTD champion Nielsen through the middle portion of the race as the pair moved up to fourth in Pro/Am.

In the final hours, Farnbacher gained one more position, and the third-place finish was enough to secure the Pro/Am crown by eight points (217-209) over Wright Motorsports with drivers Jan Heylen and Charlie Luck.

With newly-crowned Michelin Pilot Challenger TCR champion Taylor Hagler added to the driver lineup for this weekend, the #43 RealTime Racing Acura moved from the rear of the starting field [result of a penalty incurred at the previous race] to the Pro/Am class lead in the hands of Michael Cooper, who ran a double-stint to start the race.

However, a drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane just past the three-hour mark saw the RealTime NSX fall down the Pro/Am class order, and the team was additionally delayed when Hagler had a late-race off-course excursion, which led to an extended pit stop for repairs. The team retired the car with a damaged splitter in the final minutes, but was credited with an eighth-place finish in Pro/Am.

In addition to this weekend’s championship, Acura, its teams and drivers swept all six major titles in the 2022 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, including the overall Manufacturer, Driver and Team; and the same categories in the Michelin Endurance Cup.

This weekend’s eight-hour endurance race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway closed out the 2022 SRO Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS championship season. The 2023 season gets underway February 24-26 at NOLA Motorsports Park, just outside New Orleans, LA.