SAUKVILLE, Wis. – RealTime Racing announces it will enter the brand new TCR category of the Pirelli World Challenge with a pair of Honda Civic Type R TCRs.
Eleven of RealTime’s 14 World Challenge Drivers’ Championships have come in the Touring Car divisions, starting with two for the Honda Prelude Si in 1993 – 1996. A switch to the Acura Integra Type R in 1997 – 2002 netted five more, and again with the Acura TSX in 2005 – 2009 for an additional four titles. This winning Touring Car tradition will now hopefully continue with the Honda Civic Type R TCR.
“RealTime has a long history of success in production-based cars, so we are looking forward to joining what looks to be serious competition as the TCR cars go head-to-head in America for the first time this season,” team owner Peter Cunningham said. “After developing and racing the Acura NSX GT3, we had hoped to continue with a customer program in GT, but when the opportunity with the Honda Civic Type R presented itself, the move made sense. Certainly, there remains the possibility of an NSX customer program in the future, but we are very happy to join the fray of this growing worldwide category.”
Ryan Eversley returns for his fourth season with RealTime. He will drive the No. 43 Honda Civic Type R TCR. The driver for the second entry will be announced in the coming days. A third car will be available as a customer program.
“I’m very happy to continue my relationship with RealTime Racing and Honda Performance Development,” Eversley said. “If you look at RealTime’s history, they’ve had tremendous success with front-wheel drive touring cars, so being able to race one for them is what I’ve dreamed about when I started out as a racecar driver. It’s very exciting.”
RealTime will shakedown its pair of Honda Civic Type R TCRs in the days prior to the season opener, which takes place March 23 – 25 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The Pirelli World Challenge TCR season is made up of 12 races over six weekends. Races are 40 minutes in length and employ one rolling start and one standing start. The Honda Civic Type R TCR will be up against such cars as the Audi RS3 LMS, Hyundai i30 N TCR and Volkswagen GTI TCR.
“I think this season will be extremely challenging considering the Touring Car efforts that have been announced recently, but if any team can win in a front-wheel-based class, it’s RealTime,” Eversley added. “I don’t expect it to be easy, but I expect us to be in the fight for a championship.”
RealTime’s PWC TCR campaign is supported by American Honda, Honda Performance Development, Redline Synthetic Oil, Sparco and RACER. A reveal of the official RealTime livery will be unveiled shortly.
The full World Challenge TCR season will be streamed live on world-challenge.com
Source: http://world-challenge.com
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