Parente, Soucek Give K-PAX Bentley Pole Sweep

Photo: K-PAX Racing

Alvaro Parente and Andy Soucek have locked out qualifying for the pair of Blancpain GT World Challenge America races at Virginia International Raceway, putting K-PAX Racing and Bentley at the front in both rounds.

Parente reeled off a best lap of 1:43.614 in his No. 9 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3 to edge out the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long by 0.097 seconds for pole in Race 1.

Rodrigo Baptista qualified third in the sister K-PAX Bentley, followed by defending SprintX champion Miguel Molina in the No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3.

GT3 Pro-Am class pole went to the No. 91 Wright Porsche of Anthony Imperato, who narrowly outpaced the No. 5 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Till Bechtolscheimer by 0.006 seconds.

Cesar Bacarella, meanwhile, will start on the GT3 Am class pole in his No. 07 Squadra Corse Garage Italia Ferrari.

The session came to an early end after an accident by the No. 04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of George Kurtz, who drove the car back to the pits under its own power. 

Soucek Completes Bentley Qualifying Sweep

Bentley factory driver Soucek, meanwhile, laid down a 1:43.363 in Q2 to start on pole for Race 2.

The Spaniard edged out the 61 R. Ferri Motorsports Ferrari of Toni Vilander by 0.195 seconds, with the No. 58 Wright Porsche of Scott Hargrove third overall and in the GT3 Pro class.

Dane Cameron picked up the GT3 Pro-Am class pole in the debuting RealTime Racing Acura, qualifying fourth overall and just 0.035 seconds ahead of Ryan Dalziel in the No. 63 DXDT Mercedes GT3.

Martin Fuentes, meanwhile, picked up GT3 Am pole honors.

The first 90-minute race of the weekend for Blancpain GT America competitors gets underway at 2:10 p.m. EDT, with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page and on gt-world-challenge-america.com.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 1:15 p.m. EDT, live on CBSSN.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1
RESULTS: Qualifying 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