K-PAX Appealing Post-Super Pole Penalty

Photo: Kevin Pecks/SRO

K-PAX Racing has appealed SRO Motorsports Group’s decision to strip its Lamborghini of pole position for the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, with the American squad claiming its car has been in full FIA technical compliance.

The team’s No. 6 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Andrea Caldarelli, Marco Mapelli and Jordan Pepper was given a ten-position grid penalty and loss of all lap times in Super Pole, plus a €25,000 ($25,566 USD) fine due to the engine parameters not being in line with the SRO’s Balance of Performance test collected figures.

It was also found that the air filters were not in compliance with the ones utilized in the SRO’s BoP test, although the stewards acknowledged that the car was legal per Lamborghini’s operating manual.

Speaking with Sportscar365, K-PAX Racing team manager Thomas Blam confirmed the car ran without a mesh screen over the air filter, per the FIA regulations.

It’s understood all three Emil Frey Racing Lamborghinis, which were also examined following Super Pole, were utilizing a mesh screen that was unknown to K-PAX at the time.

“We’ve run without a mesh in the United States, legally, and we’re legal to the FIA standards and we’re legal from what we were told to do from Lamborghini,” Blam explained.

“Lamborghini sent this out and [said] you must run it this way.

“What we mentioned to the stewards when we had our moment to speak with them is that K-PAX is the entrant, the car is legal by FIA standards, it’s legal from Lamborghini’s side so there’s zero way we should have known that one: the BoP test was done with this mesh and two: there’s no documentation from the SRO to the teams that Lamborghini teams should run the mesh in SRO competition.

“We’ve gone through tech where they’ve taken pictures of [the car] in the United States. Even the way the penalty is worded, it doesn’t say we’re out of compliance.

“Their whole thing is that the BoP was done a certain way and we ran it a different way even though our way is the way it’s supposed to run by the FIA and the manufacturer.”

Blam confirmed they are appealing the ruling and may not start the race.

“We haven’t made up our mind if we’re withdrawing or not,” he said. “Right now it looks like we’ll probably start the race.

“From our side as a team, we’ve spent years crafting a reputation of a team that plays by the rules.

“The most upsetting part from our side is that around the world people are now going to think that the only reason we were on pole was because of something that was out of our control because our car is FIA legal.

“It’s FIA legal and it’s the way these cars are supposed to be run.

“We were not given any indication that the SRO thought we needed to put a mesh over the air filter.”

It’s understood that all other Lamborghinis in the field, besides the Emil Frey entries, were not running the mesh screen in 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