Acura Motorsports’ run of consecutive podium finishes continued today at Lime Rock Park, in a GT category-only run for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher extended their GTD championship lead with a second-place result in a near photo-finish, their fourth consecutive podium result of 2019, extending Acura’s lead in the GTD Manufacturers’ Championship after six of 10 races.
Today’s results also saw Acura extend its GTD Manufacturers’ Championship lead to seven, now with 184 points to 177 for nearest competitor Lexus among the nine manufacturers in the category. In the GTD Drivers’ Championship, Farnbacher and Hindman unofficially opened their points lead from 19 to 30, with 183 points to 153 for closest rivals Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley.
Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
After starting from the pole for the third time this season, Hindman led throughout an extended opening stint that saw him run 64 laps before pitting and handing over the driving duties to Farnbacher for the remainder of the two hour, 40-minute contest.
Despite hot and humid conditions, Farnbacher soon closed an 11-second gap to join the Mercedes-AMG of Jeroen Bleekemolen and the Porsche 911 GT3 of Dennis Olsen in a three-way battle for the lead. Following the second and final round of pit stops, the fight for GTD class honors became a two-car contest, with Farnbacher holding a narrow advantage over Olsen.
With just under than four minutes remaining, Farnbacher was briefly balked in traffic, giving Olsen the opening he needed to pass for the lead. Farnbacher made several attempts to regain the advantage in the final two laps, but at the checkers came up just 10 thousandths of a second short to finish second.
In the second MSR Acura, Christina Nielsen started 11th and had moved up to eighth during her own long opening stint. Katherine Legge took over driving duties at the first stop, intending to manage tire wear and maintain position until a short, final pit stop. However, contact with the lapped car of Townsend Bell sent her off course with one hour remaining, and she was forced to pit in the closing laps with a suspected broken damper [shock absorber], ending her race.
Acura Team Penske and Next Event
IMSA’s Prototype category was not a part of the IMSA weekend at Lime Rock Park, which featured the GTD and GTLM classes only. The Acura Team Penske ARX-05s will return to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the next race on the schedule, August 4 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Quotes
Mario Farnbacher (#86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3) started first, finished second; fourth consecutive podium finish this season; extends lead the GTD drivers’ championship with co-driver Trent Hindman; Acura extends lead in GTD Manufacturers’ Championship: “First of all, congrats to the Pfaff Motorsports guys [Dennis Olsen and Zach Robichon]. They waited for the right moment [to make the pass for the class victory] and did an amazing job. I have to thank Meyer Shank Racing and everyone at Acura/HPD for giving us a perfect NSX today. The last couple of laps [fighting for the win]…they were intense. I was freaking out in the car. My drink bottle was empty and I was just fighting the whole time and then the ‘mess up’ came and I had to push like 110 per cent. I almost had him [Olsen] twice, but it didn’t quite work out. But I’m pretty happy with second place, and we extended our championship lead.”
Trent Hindman (#86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3) pole qualifier, finished second; fourth consecutive podium finish this season; extends lead the GTD drivers’ championship with co-driver Mario Farnbacher: “The biggest thing for me was thinking about the championship. Obviously, it’s a little bit disappointing that we didn’t come home with a win, but this guy [Farnbacher] did an unbelievable job all day. Same thing with the Meyer Shank Racing crew. I think we had a fantastic car for the entire race. Big thanks to the MSR guys, Acura and HPD for all their efforts. We’ve got four more opportunities to try to bring home some more wins, and we’re certainly going to go for it.”
