Harrison: “Job is Still the Same” Despite Move to Pro Class

Ashton Harrison says she and co-driver Mario Farnbacher need to target overall victories in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS as the Pro-Am title-winning pairing step up to the Pro class.

Harrison and Farnbacher will be piloting the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 in the five-car top class, facing opposition from the likes of BimmerWorld, MDK Motorsports and Conquest Racing.

Last year, the duo took four Pro-Am class victories to beat Wright Motorsports pairing Jan Heylen and Charlie Luck to the title by five points.

With the step up to the top class comes a renewed focus for Harrison, who is now aiming to achieve a similar level of success fighting in the battle for overall wins.

“To be honest I feel really good,” Harrison told Sportscar365. “We had a really good NOLA test and it’s good to get the team back together.

“You have to get your mind back right about how the series plays their rules. It was a really really good productive test.

“I feel like my driving has gotten a lot better and even though we won the championship and we had our heartaches but we had a lot of wins last year, I’m not content.

“I’m never content. Anytime we win a race, it’s like, ‘That was today, we have tomorrow.’

“Same with this season coming up. We were in Pro-Am and now we’re in Pro, but the job is still the same.

“I feel like that we were a solid top five car most weekends and we were racing with the pros on a lot of these tracks, so I just step my game up.

“Now we have no other choice, we need to win overall. That’s my goal at least.”

Harrison, who recently competed in both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, revealed that Racers Edge acquired a second Acura chassis in preparation for dual campaigns in SRO America and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

In addition to her GTWC America effort, Harrison has also committed to the full Michelin Endurance Cup campaign and could add further outings in the WeatherTech Sprint Cup as well.

“The IMSA car is a car that we won our championship in last year and then we have a new car that was a different team’s car that we bought to run SRO in,” Harrison explained. “Which is good, we needed that for the running two seasons.

“It was a new chassis to us, so really at the NOLA test we were able to really dial it in and get it where we want it and then going into the season we made some upgrades to it.

“I feel like the seat time [at Sebring] is good even though the tires are vastly different.

“The balance is what I need and what Mario and I need [is] very similar.

“So it’s nice and I think that gives me a competitive advantage because I’m always in the same car, I’m not switching back and forth.”

Harrison also commented on co-driver Farnbacher, explaining that the bond between the two is a boost to their form on track.

“Mario is typical Mario,” she said. “He just gets in and I’ll be like ‘I’m gonna take a bathroom break.’

“I come back and he’s like, ‘the car’s good’ [after] he’s done like three and a half laps or something.’

“That’s why I like working with him. He’s just so fun to hang out with.

“It’s probably known in the paddock like just the [stuff] that we get ourselves into.

“But I think that’s what makes us a good team and that’s what makes us a good pairing at Racers Edge with Acura.

“We just know how to play around but also when to be serious. This is a job and we want to win. We want to be good.”

With a season of racing in the GT3 series under her belt, as well as outings in multiple major endurance races, Harrison is looking to continue her and Farnbacher’s form, despite the class change.

“My ambitions are to win another championship,” she said. “I think that we could have a shot, but my goal is to go back to back, but also just to be competitive.

“I want to be up front with where we belong.”

John Dagys contributed to this report