Second Racers Edge Acura Returns for COTA

Photo: Gavin Baker/SRO

Racers Edge Motorsports will return to a two-car operation in this weekend’s penultimate round of the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season at Circuit of The Americas.

The team’s No. 80 Acura NSX GT3 Evo, which has missed the last two events due to travel-related restrictions for Canadian driver Martin Barkey, will see Ziad Ghandour team up with Kyle Marcelli.

Ghandour, who took part in the season-opening COTA weekend and the Sonoma round with TR3 Racing, will be making his debut with the Jon Mirachi-led Racers Edge squad.

It has resulted in a return to a seven-car field for the weekend.

Other driver changes include Jan Heylen subbing for the Le Mans-bound Max Root in the No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and Alec Udell teaming up with Russell Ward in the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Ward, who shared the Silver class Mercedes with Indy Dontje at Road America although Dontje is unavailable this weekend due to his commitments in ADAC GT Masters.

DXDT Racing’s George Kurtz and Colin Braun head into the weekend with a one-point lead over Rodrigo Baptista and Martin Fuentes, of Squadra Corse, in the fight for the GT3 Pro-Am class championship.

GT Sports Club Grid Grows

Six cars, meanwhile, are entered in GT Sports Club America, marking the series’ largest field to date.

GMG Racing team principal James Sofronas is set to make his American series debut in the No. 14 Audi R8 LMS ultra, which is one of three GT3-spec cars entered.

Mark Issa, who won last time out at Road America, returns in a TR3 Ferrari along with Sonoma winner Jason Daskalos, also in a previous-gen Audi GT3.

The field is completed by Porsche 911 GT2 Clubsport RS entries for Jason Hall (Nolasprt), Jason Bell (GMG) and championship leader Ryan Gates (311RS Motorsport).

John Dagys

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