COMPASS ACURA WINS GTWCA RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS

Originally published on Sportscar365.

The No. 77 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Ashton Harrison and Matt McMurry won the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS portion of the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.

The Pro-Am class entry completed the three-hour mark ahead of the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura duo of Taylor Hagler and Dakota Dickerson. Harrison, in her GT3 race debut, completed the opening stint in the Compass Acura before handing over to McMurry for a single stint, prior to the HPD GT3 Academy driver climbing back behind the wheel of the entry. She finished 40 seconds clear of the Racers Edge Acura.K-PAX Racing’s Pro class No. 6 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Giovanni Venturini and Corey Lewis clinched its second place finish in the Pro class championship with a third place outright result among the series’ registered competitors. They were running 10th, 11th and 12th overall at the time, respectively. 

It was an incident-filled opening stanza for the 11 GTWC America-registered entries, with multiple accidents, punctures and retirements marring the season-long competitors’ fortunes. Both K-PAX Lamborghinis encountered punctures while the No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of George Kurtz went to the garage with electrical issues stemming from a left-front puncture of his own. A three-way accident involving the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes of Philip Ellis, Erin Vogel’s No. 19 DXDT Mercedes and the Ryan Dalziel-driven No. 63 DXDT entry resulted in retirements for the Nos. 33 and 19 cars. The incident erased any hopes of Russell Ward surpassing the Turner Motorsport duo of Robby Foley and Michael Dinan in the Pro class championship. The Turner car did not start the race due to a non-COVID-19 illness for Dinan.The No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen and Fred Poordad, which clinched the Pro-Am class championship prior to the weekend, also went behind the wall with suspension damage from contact. Inception Racing’s McLaren 720S GT3, which was also running for GTWC America points, brought out the race’s first full course caution when Brendon Iribe drove into a gravel trap.The car then sustained braking-related issues with multiple spins and incidents afterwards.

The result clinches third place in the GTWCA Pro-Am championship for McMurry.