K-PAX with Flying Lizard Withdraws from Miller Motorsports Park

K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports has withdrawn its pair of McLaren 650S GT3s during the Pirelli World Challenge weekend at Miller Motorsports Park, citing boost issues at the track outside Salt Lake City.

Specific adjustments were made by World Challenge series officials for the track that’s located at an elevation over 4,400 feet.

The higher elevation required series officials to adjust the Balance of Performance specifically for turbocharged cars competing this weekend, lowering each car’s allowable boost to equalize the turbo cars against their naturally aspirated competitors.

The BoP regulations put in place for this event demanded that the K-PAX with Flying Lizard McLarens run a maximum turbo boost level that is unachievable, regardless of engine tuning, with the homologated turbo and engine package the McLaren 650S GT3 was designed and built with.

“McLaren GT have been concerned about the boost correction methods used in Pirelli World Challenge,” said Andrew Kirkaldy, Managing Director of McLaren GT.

“This has been communicated to the series and we have asked for changes prior to Miller. When the Miller BoP was released, it was clear that we could not achieve the boost levels and we have been in almost daily contact with our technical staff and Pirelli World Challenge personnel to try and find a solution for K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports to race.

“Unfortunately despite our best efforts we could not find a solution that was acceptable to Pirelli World Challenge.”

“I am a big fan of this series and have been racing here since 2007,” added K-PAX Racing Team Owner Jim Haughey. “We have won multiple championships in Pirelli World Challenge and it is a very unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in today.”

The team has declined to comment on its status in World Challenge for the final two weekends at Sonoma and Monterey.

Meanwhile World Challenge has issued a statement to its teams, drivers and stakeholders from competition director Marcus Haselgrove.

A portion of that statement includes Haselgrove noting the 2015 series rulebook issued in January includes boost adjustments carried over from 2014:

“In summary, the 2015 Rule book issued in January of 2015 carries forward a modified version of the 2014 boost altitude adjustment for all forced induction cars. Those teams include Cadillac, Bentley, Acura,Nissan and McLaren. All teams but McLaren were able to work though the technical issues related to compliance with the Jan 2015 altitude adjustment parameters,” the statement said.