Farnbacher Taking Petit Le Mans Momentum to Indy Title Decider

Photo: Chris Green/Racers Edge

After taking the Acura NSX GT3 to arguably its biggest victory to date last weekend, Mario Farnbacher said he’s looking at carrying that momentum to Racers Edge Motorsports in his and Ashton Harrison’s quest for the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am drivers’ championship.

Farnbacher and Harrison head into Saturday’s double points-paying Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS third in the Pro-Am championship race, 15 points behind leaders Jan Heylen and Charlie Luck of Wright Motorsports and only one point behind CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Motorsports’ Colin Braun and George Kurtz.

With a maximum of 50 points up for grabs for the class win, Farnbacher believes they are in a must-win scenario to secure the GTWC America Pro-Am crown.

“We need to go for the win,” Farnbacher told Sportscar365. “We need to put the pressure on the Porsche and also the Mercedes.

“We need to go all-in, like we did at Petit and keep the pressure up and see where we end up.”

When asked if his GTD win in last weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans with fellow Acura squad Gradient Racing could carry any momentum into the Racers Edge program this weekend, Farnbacher indicated there are different factors at play at The Brickyard.

“For sure there’s some momentum with it but it does not change my approach in any way,” he said. “It’s good to have it in the pocket; it was a great team effort in Petit.

“This is a completely different environment so you have to approach it a little bit different compared to an IMSA weekend.

“I’m really looking forward to it and trying to take a positive attitude to this program as well and push for it as much as we can and see where we are in the end of it.

“There’s no lack of competition for sure, also with the European guys now here.

“It will be interesting but now during the Free Practice sessions, it’s really hard to see and say who is on which pace and who is pushing with which tires, who has new tires… whatever.

“Ultimately, we’ll see more-or-less in qualifying and the race where you are.”

Farnbacher and Harrison enter the event as the reigning Silver Cup class winners after teaming with Matt McMurry in a Compass Racing-run Acura NSX GT3 Evo in what was HPD Academy graduate Harrison’s first GT3 race.

Nielsen in Supporting Role for Racers Edge’s Title Hopes

Two-time IMSA GTD champion Christina Nielsen has been drafted into complete the Racers Edge’s lineup weekend, in what marks her first start in the Acura since 2019.

“Right now I’m just getting back up to speed and getting comfortable,” she told Sportscar365. “The guys have good experience with the car; they’ve been driving this for a number of years now.

“Mario has been driving it for quite a few years; Ashton started here last year as part of the [HPD] Academy.

“I would say it’s a pretty experienced bunch that I’m with. They know what they’re doing.

“For me it’s just like jumping in and hopefully adding to a good result in the end. They’re in the championship hunt and it’s been us and the Porsche and Mercedes.

“We’ll take it an hour at a time and do our best.”

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