K-PAX Exploring Full-Season IGTC Program for 2023

Photo: SRO

K-PAX Racing could undertake a full-season Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli program next year although have unanswered questions in regards to scheduling, car eligibility and class structure in the globe-trotting GT3 series according to program manager Darren Law.

The recently clinched 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS champions, which took part in this year’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, is again representing Lamborghini for IGTC points in this weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.

An expansion to include the three other rounds on the IGTC calendar next year — the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, Kyalami 9 Hour and Gulf 12 Hours — is a possibility, although a return to GTWC America remains a “priority.”

“For K-PAX Racing, Jim Haughey has always wanted to try and do a season in Intercontinental,” Law told Sportscar365.

“We spent 2020 in Europe in the Endurance Cup. It was kind of a taste of running over there and we’ve done Spa a couple of times now.

“One of the issues that we have for next season is that Kyalami conflicts with the SRO America [season-opener] at NOLA. That’s an issue because we’re also considering running here.

“Trying to split the crew, the cars and equipment and that kind of stuff really makes it a difficult situation for us.

“The other thing is that you’d have Bathurst, then two weeks later is Kyalami. We cannot ship cars, equipment, and all of that stuff. You’d need two sets of everything, which really puts a damper on the program.

“We’re trying to look at that, trying to work through it, talking to Lamborghini, looking at what options we have.”

Law said he will be having meetings this weekend with SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel, as well as SRO America President and CEO Greg Gill, to get further clarity on the possibility of undertaking both series next year.

“The ideal scenario for us would be to have a program here and a program there,” Law said. “But I don’t know if we can swing that with the way things are laid out.

“We’ve had discussions with Stephane and Greg Gill. In fact Stephane is coming here this weekend so we have a meeting with him to discuss it further.

“The other issue that’s of concern is that Lambo is coming out with a brand-new Evo2. Ferrari is coming out with a brand-new car. All these new cars are coming out but the BoP test is in March. So what do we run?

“It also depends [on the class structure].

“Will [IGTC] have a Pro, a Pro-Am? How does IGTC look? There’s still a lot of things that are unanswered right now.”

Law said they could opt for a similar program to this year where the team takes part in a limited number of IGTC events.

“Jim really wants to run Spa again so that’s a high priority,” he said. “That’s probably the most important race in that series. If we can run the rest of the series or certain races within the series, then we’ll look at that as well.

“Realistically if we run in the U.S., we could run two cars in Europe if we’re having to split it. Part of that would depend on customers, if we had an Intercontinental customer.

“But there’s so many scenarios. It’s possible but it’s a lot of logistics and a lot of organization.”

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