Compass Acura Wins GTWC America Portion of Indy 8H

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

The No. 77 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Ashton Harrison and Matt McMurry have 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. 

While the No. 3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini was running third overall at the three-hour mark, the team elected to withdraw the entry from scoring GTWC America points prior to the race.

Jordan Pepper and Andrea Caldarelli previously locked up the Pro class championship last time out at Sebring International Raceway.

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 No. 91 Rearden Racing Lamborghini of Jeff Burton and Vesko Kozarov, which was classified fourth and third in Pro-Am, as well as the Madison Snow and Jason Harward-driven No. 88 Zelus Lamborghini have completed their race duties.

Both cars were only registered to complete the GTWC America portion of the race.

The Compass and Racers Edge Acuras, meanwhile, continue to race on but now registered in the Silver Cup class with the addition of Mario Farnbacher and Jacob Abel to the lineups, respectively.

RESULTS: Indianapolis

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