K-PAX’s Caldarelli and Beretta Return To Winning Form In Sebring

Normal programming has resumed in GT World Challenge America: After a four-race winless drought which must have felt eternal, the all-black #1 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Michele Beretta and Andrea Caldarelli dominated Race 1 from Sebring International Raceway, to clinch the Pro class Teams’ Championship for the California-based powerhouse.

While Beretta and Caldarelli celebrated their Pro Cup and overall victory, the Pro-Am class was won by the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 of Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher, which held off its title rivals – the #04 CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (George Kurtz/Colin Braun), and the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R (Charlie Luck/Jan Heylen), to not only win the class but take the points lead heading into Race 2 tomorrow.

There was one change from the end of Qualifying this morning, to the beginning of Race 1: The #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 (Manny Franco/Alessandro Balzan) was moved up to the Pro category, after Franco was recategorised from Bronze to Silver following a proper assessment of his pace. This put all four Pro cars at the front of the grid.

Due to an incident in the TC America which predeced, the start of the race had to be delayed from its scheduled 2:15 PM start as circuit workers fixed and inspected the track. The green flag would wave at 2:57 PM.

Right at the start, one of the Pro-Am title contenders suffered a hammer blow to their title hopes, when the #43 RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Erin Vogel had to check up – and moved right into the path of the #94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 of Chandler Hull, pushing Hull into the concrete barriers.

Hull was audibly frustrated, co-driver Bill Auberlen couldn’t contain his bewildered disbelief – the championship dark horses, who entered the day 24 points out of the lead, retired without having made it to turn one. Vogel and Michael Cooper’s race didn’t go much further, they retired in the pits after just two laps.

The race was put under Full Course Yellow, and then the Safety Car picked up race leader Beretta on the following lap. When the race restarted, Beretta continued to lead, followed by the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Michael Dinan, the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini of Misha Goikhberg, and the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari of the newcomer Franco.

Into turn three, Ashton Harrison made a move for the Pro-Am class lead, thrusting her bright red Acura past the green, yellow, red and white Porsche of Luck. While Beretta started to break away in the overall lead, the top three in Pro-Am, including the silver and red Mercedes of Kurtz, were all running tail-to-nose within ten laps.

Harrison was doing her level best to keep Luck and Kurtz behind her. 30 minutes elapsed, and on lap 14, Luck suffered a setback of his own when his Porsche lost it over Sebring’s signature harsh bumps, sending him spinning through turn 15. He only lost one position, but it took him out of the fight which was now between Harrison and Kurtz.

Beretta had stretched his advantage out to over ten seconds by the time the pit window opened at the 40 minute mark. 12 out of the 13 remaining cars pitted for fuel, tyres, and driver changes, while the #23 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari of Charlie Scardina stayed out for another lap before pitting.

The top ten remained virtually unchanged, with Caldarelli now inheriting a ten-second lead aboard the #1 K-PAX Lamborghini.

Robby Foley in the #96 Turner BMW now had his hands full trying to defend second from Jordan Pepper in the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini, as the South African driver tried to gain as many points as he could to keep his hopes at the Drivers’ Championship alive. Balzan in the #34 Conquest Ferrari was lying in wait behind them, in case either driver made a mistake. The cornering speed of the Lamborghini and the top-end speed of the BMW made for an intriguing contrast in styles in the fight.

Mario Farnbacher and Colin Braun resumed the battle that their amateur co-drivers began. Both of them cleared Onofrio Triarsi Jnr in the #23 Ferrari for position after pit stops. It took a while for Jan Heylen to bring the #45 Wright Porsche back into the frame, but he eventually got past Triarsi and began chasing down the #93 Acura of Farnbacher and the #04 Mercedes of Braun, cutting the gap down to around three seconds with 15 minutes left in the race.

Caldarelli just had to hammer out fast, consistent laps with no one in his rear view mirrors. He took the chequered flag after 42 laps, winning by a final margin of 25.6 seconds.

With the victory – the seventh of the year for the #1 K-PAX car – K-PAX Racing have secured the Pro Teams’ Championship for 2022, their second in a row and fifth in the last seven years. One of their ace drivers is already guaranteed to win the Drivers’ title.

Foley would have to defend from Pepper into the tight right-hand Hairpin (turn seven) multiple times, but eventually he was able to buy himself some breathing room. Foley brought the Turner BMW home to a second-place finish, by just over half a second.

But Dinan, Foley, and the Turner team won’t be back for Race 2 tomorrow – a pre-arranged withdrawal due to the drivers’ prior commitments, with Petit Le Mans just one week away.

On the last lap, Pepper had to defend third place from Balzan, but he stuck his bright green Lamborghini to the inside line and held the final podium position. Balzan brought the new Conquest Ferrari home to fourth overall and in class.

With three races left, Caldarelli now stretches his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 54 points over Pepper, and if Caldarelli and Beretta win tomorrow, Caldarelli will clinch his second consecutive Drivers’ title.

Eventually, the top three in Pro-Am would find themselves running tail-to-nose as they were at the start, once Heylen erased the gap to Farnbacher and Braun.

But Farnbacher had his rivals covered perfectly. He finished 1.1 seconds ahead of Braun over the line, to give Racers Edge Motorsports their fourth Pro-Am victory of the season (in fifth overall).

Harrison and Farnbacher entered the day just two points behind Luck and Heylen in the Drivers’ standings, and they now lead it by seven points over the Wright Motorsports duo.

Kurtz – the newly-crowned SRO3 Champion in GT America – and Braun are just eight points out of first place.

But the first retirement of the season was a major blow for Hull and Auberlen, who fall to 47 points behind Harrison and Farnbacher.

The #91 TR3 Racing Lamborghini (Jeff Burton/Corey Lewis) got a good start and converted it into an eighth-place overall finish. That’s the best result of the season for both Burton and Lewis, who began their season at Zelus Motorsports before joining Miami-based TR3 Racing at Road America last month. The #08 Qelo Capital/DXDT Racing AMG GT3 (Scott Smithson/Bryan Sellers) finished in ninth.

And the Am Champions, Scardina and Triarsi, finished tenth overall, followed by the #63 Usalco/DXDT AMG GT3 (David Askew/Dirk Müller), the #12 Ian Lacy Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 (Frank Gannett/Drew Staveley), and the #13 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari (Ryan Dalziel/Justin Wetherill).

FGTWCA RACE 1 RESULTS >>

Race 2 is scheduled to start tomorrow, at 1:15 PM EDT. There is a growing chance of rain in the forecast for tomorrow’s races as of this afternoon.

Images © Brian Cleary, Regis Lefebure, Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports Group America