| Ryan Eversley and Aidan Read Will Drive the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing AcuraIn the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup Races April 5, 2022By Godwin KellyIMSA Wire Service  DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – What started as a humorous comment on Twitter between friends has turned into a new IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team looking to build into a full-blown race program for 2023. Rick Ware Racing, which operates teams in NASCAR and IndyCar competition, has added an entry in this year’s IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup races, beginning this week at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Veteran Ryan Eversley and Australian Aidan Read will campaign the No. 51 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 with sponsorship from Nurtec ODT. Ware’s team made its WeatherTech Championship debut in 2021, partnering with Eurasia to enter a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) in the Rolex 24 At Daytona. With Ware’s son Cody and fellow NASCAR regular Austin Dillon part of the lineup, the car finished fourth in its class. Eversley met Rick Ware then and stayed connected. Half-jokingly, Eversley prodded Ware on social media to give him a shot in a Cup Series car. “This whole program came together in a fun way, through Twitter,” said Eversley. The tweet worked, with Eversley joining RWR for the Cup Series race last summer at Road America. “That was really neat and the Nurtec folks were so happy with some of the interviews I did and our on-track performance. Rick said, ‘How can we get Acura, who is my partner, and us together?’” Ware was intrigued with the possibility of adding another racing series to the RWR stable. “Ryan and I continued to have conversations about running fulltime in IMSA for 2022,” Ware said. “It’s been a long journey, but I can’t think of a better driver to jump start our IMSA program.”Ware purchased an Acura NSX GT3 and brought it to the team’s Mooresville, North Carolina, shop. He brought in the Eurasia crew from the Philippines to prepare and operate the car for the Sprint Cup season since they’ve been idled by travel restrictions due to the global pandemic. “They can’t race too much because it’s really hard to get in and out of the country,” said Eversley, an IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge regular in recent years who will be making his first WeatherTech Championship start since 2018 on Saturday. “They needed an opportunity and Rick needed a crew and they had a great experience in the past. They are over here for the next six months doing the IMSA series. They rented a house and got them all set up here. “Having them come over here for the next six months and being able to send money home to their families is keeping that team alive and keeping these people moving forward in life. It’s a pretty neat scenario in unfortunate circumstances.” The No. 51 Acura will compete in the eight Sprint Cup races this year. Like some other WeatherTech Championship teams that have begun with a similar strategy, Ware and Eversley hope to elevate the program to a full-season GTD entry in 2023 with more in the years to come. “It’s depending on Nurtec and how happy they are with what we are doing,” Eversley said. “I think the fan reaction is going to be part of that. The car looks super awesome. “I think the idea was go see how the Sprint Cup goes, then come back next year for a full assault, then continue into 2024 if there’s another avenue we can take together.” The No. 51 RWR Acura is among 15 GTD cars for Saturday’s 100-minute race, to go along with six Daytona Prototype international (DPi) entries and six in GTD PRO. Practice and qualifying take place Friday on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street course. The race airs live at 5 p.m. ET Saturday on USA Network, Peacock and IMSA Radio. |
