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Compass to Forgo Sprint Cup Finale at VIR; Focus on Indy 8H

Compass Racing to skip final round of IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup; sets focus on U.S. leg of Intercontinental GT Challenge…

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Compass Racing will forgo next weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup season finale at Virginia International Raceway to instead put full focus on the upcoming Indianapolis 8 Hour according to team principal Karl Thomson.

The California-based team, which fields Acura NSX GT3 Evos in both the WeatherTech Championship and Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, is amid a busy cross-country schedule between the two series, with six consecutive weekends when factoring in the VIR round.

Thomson said the decision to skip VIR has been made to be better prepared for the joint GTWC America/Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the team is expected to field a largely new lineup to SRO America competition.

“The Indy 8 Hour is an important race for us, it’s an important race for SRO and is an important race for Honda,” Thomson told Sportscar365. “Being part of that global championship is something we’re excited about.

“But the reality is that we need time to prep a car for an eight-hour race and with back-to-back-to-back events, it just made sense to sit VIR out.

“Long Beach was the final IMSA race for us this season. We love the Sprint Cup championship. We’re keen to continue next year and we’re working hard with our partners and drivers to make that happen.”

Compass’ decision to skip VIR has enabled its season-long driver Mario Farnbacher to sub for Marc Miller at Gradient Racing for the Michelin GT Challenge.

While having been an IMSA Sprint Cup-only entrant for the past three seasons, Thomson said Compass could look to do more within the series in 2022.

“We’re always keen to doing the enduros and it’s a matter of putting all of the pieces together to make it work,” he said.

“For example, if we go to Daytona, we want to go and do it to win. We’ve got the cars.

“In 2022 we’ll continue with the NSXs. We love the platform and are really pleased with the support we’re getting out of HPD. As we’ve shown this year, it’s a really good car.”

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John

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