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K-PAX Sources Second Spare Bentley Chassis for CTMP

K-PAX sources spare Bentley Continental GT3 in Malaysia for this weekend’s PWC race at CTMP…

Photo: Brian Cleary/PWC

K-PAX Racing has sourced an additional spare Bentley Continental GT3 for this weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, in the aftermath of Alvaro Parente’s weekend-ending accident at Virginia International Raceway last month.

Parente, who was uninjured in the opening-lap accident in Race 1 of the SprintX weekend, will be on his third different Bentley chassis this season following a heavy crash in the season-opening round at St. Pete that forced the team to go to its spare car.

The California-based team has since air-freighted a chassis from Malaysia, understood to have been previously used by Absoulte Racing, for this weekend.

“The No. 9 car was too damaged to repair in time for this race, and we were concerned about how we would even make it,” K-PAX program manager Darren Law said. “We have to thank Jim Haughey [K-PAX team owner] for his belief in this team and Bentley GT for their support in locating another car.

“We have since flown a spare car from Malaysia, and the K-PAX Racing crew has been working full-time going through the car and getting it prepared.

“This is such a great team. These guys have put in a lot of hours this season, but we are happy to say the car will be ready to go.”

Parente, who is coming off a runner-up class finish in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Mid-Ohio earlier this month, said he’s looking forward to this weekend at CTMP, where he podiumed last year with the team.

“My main concern is making sure everything is working properly, and we’ll go from there,” he said.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us. I’m hoping it’s a really good track for us, and I’m thinking positively for this track.

“It has really fast corners, though the middle-sector is quite slow. We’ll see what we can do.”

Despite the weekend-ending crash for the No. 9 Bentley, the team is coming off its first overall victory of the season at VIR, with Rodrigo Baptista and Maxime Soulet combining for top honors in the No. 3 car in Race 1.

Baptista, who remains classified as a GTA driver, returns to solo driving duties in this weekend’s pair of 50-minute races.

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

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