Parente Takes K-PAX McLaren to Pole in Utah

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Alvaro Parente scored his sixth Pirelli World Challenge pole of the season, in a new qualifying track record for the championship leader Saturday at Utah Motorsports Campus.

The McLaren GT factory driver reeled off a quick lap of 1:47.492 in his No. 9 K-PAX Racing McLaren 650S GT3, edging out the No. 8 Cadillac ATS-V.R of Michael Cooper by 0.082 seconds.

As a result, Parente will lead the field to the green for this afternoon’s 50-minute GT/GTA/GT Cup Sprint race.

“Points for pole is great. My direct competitors are very close, which is expected—to see them fighting right up there. It’s going to be a challenging race,” Parente said.

The No. 05 Always Evolving Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Bryan Heitkotter will roll off third, thanks to a 1:47.632 lap time, with Patrick Long and Jon Fogarty completing the top-five in GT.

Frankie Montecalvo scored pole in GTA, thanks to a 1:48.612 lap time in his No. 66 DIME Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

Montecalvo qualified 13th overall, ahead of both Johnny O’Connell and Kyle Marcelli.

In GT Cup, Alec Udell will start from the top spot in his No. 17 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Udell’s 1:52.568 was nearly a half-second quicker than the No. 56 Wright Motorsports Porsche of McKay Snow, who ended up second.

Race 1 for Sprint gets underway at 4 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET) with live coverage on MotorTrend on Demand and World-Challenge.com.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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