K-PAX’s Caldarelli, Pepper Sweep Watkins Glen Weekend

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

K-PAX Racing has claimed another sweep of the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS weekend with a dominant run by Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper, who picked up their seventh victory of the season.

The Lamborghini factory driver turned a pole-winning lap into a controlling opening stint in Sunday’s 90-minute contest, bridging out into a lead over the No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jan Heylen.

While Heylen’s co-driver Fred Poordad briefly emerged as the overall leader following the round of pit stops, Pepper quickly retook the lead from the Pro-Am class Porsche to cruise to the finish.

Pepper crossed the line 1.941 seconds ahead of the sister No. 6 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Corey Lewis, who made a late-race charge through the running order of Pro-Am class entries.

It came after the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 was assessed a drive-through penalty for a pit stop infraction that dropped the Robby Foley and Michael Dinan-driven Pro class entry from 2nd to outside of the top-ten overall at the time.

Dinan, meanwhile, drove back to a fourth place finish.

Compass Racing claimed its second Pro-Am class victory of the season, courtesy of an impressive closing drive by Michael Di Meo, who took the No. 77 Acura NSX GT3 Evo to a third place overall finish alongside co-driver Matt McMurry.

Di Meo passed Poordad for the class lead with 14 minutes to go and stretched into a commanding class lead. 

Poordad held off a hard-charging Taylor Hagler in Saturday’s class-winning No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura as well as the No. 9 TR3 Racing Lamborghini of Martin Fuentes, who got around Hagler for third in class on the second-to-final lap.

The No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Jean-Claude Saada and Conrad Grunewald picked up Am class honors after the No. 10 TR3 entry did not start Sunday’s race.

Eleven of the 14 race starters took the checkered flag, with the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes of Mikael Grenier stopping on track on the opening lap with a brake disc issue.

Both the No. 12 Ian Lacy Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and No. 91 Rearden Racing Lamborghini were also retirements.

A broken splitter saw the No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes lose more than ten laps behind the wall for repairs, although the Ryan Dalziel and David Askew-driven entry returned to action for a 11th place overall finish.

RESULTS: Race 2

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