K-PAX Enters 24H Spa With Factory-Supported Lamborghini

Photo: Bob Chapman/Autosport Image

K-PAX Racing will enter this year’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa with a factory-supported Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, marking the team’s return to Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS competition.

The reigning GTWC America championship-winning squad will field a Pro class Lamborghini for factory aces Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli plus K-PAX-contracted driver Jordan Pepper.

It will mark the team’s return to Europe since contesting the 2020 GTWC Europe season with a pair of Bentley Continental GT3s.

Program manager Darren Law revealed to Sportscar365 that a full season Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli program had been in the works prior to the postponement of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour to May, which made it unfeasible amid the team’s continued GTWC America campaign.

“Through our association and partnership with Lamborghini Squadra Corse we intended to do the full Intercontinental GT Challenge this season on top of our U.S. program with K-PAX as well,” Law said.

“Bathurst was postponed and with COVID in Australia the timing of Bathurst [in May] is just not good. That event has been moved to the middle of our season that we’re running in the U.S. So we opted to pull out of Bathurst.

“We have two 40-foot and one 20-foot containers that we used for Europe when we ran it [in 2020] with Bentley. All those containers are at our shop in Sonoma and they were loaded and packed and were ready to ship out until the announcement came that Bathurst was being postponed.”

Law said the 24H Spa program will be run in conjunction with staff from Lamborghini Squadra Corse, as was the case with the team’s factory-supported effort in last year’s Indianapolis 8 Hour, where Caldarelli, Pepper and Mirko Bortolotti finished third overall.

He also did not rule out participation in the IGTC season-ending Kyalami 9 Hour, depending on the team’s results from Rounds 2 and 3 of the global GT3 championship.

“Spa is a critical race for Lamborghini,” said Law. “Lamborghini has not won the Spa 24. We’re going in with a full factory-supported effort with factory drivers.

“Depending on how well we do and where we are position points-wise [after the Indianapolis 8 Hour], Kyalami is on the table possibly.”

K-PAX’s core program will remain in GTWC America with Pepper and Caldarelli returning to defend their Pro class title alongside the new Pro-Am class pairing of Lamborghini factory driver Giacomo Altoe and Canada-based Russian Misha Goikhberg.

“We really enjoyed racing in Europe,” Law said. “We loved the competition over there. It’s something that Lamborghini really wanted [us] to have a presence over there.

“It’s also something that Jim Haughey [team owner] really wanted to do. He really wants to go after an [international] championship. He was all in for IGTC this year.”

Law said a full-season IGTC program is “definitely on the table” for 2023.

“We have an unbelievably good relationship with Lamborghini,” he said. “They’ve been very supportive. We’d like to continue that relationship and see if we can do [a full season] of Intercontinental.”

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