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Coming from California to race in GT World Challenge Europe, K-PAX Racing is the team that comes from afar. What could be more normal for a team that takes its name from the film ‘K-PAX: the man who comes from afar’ with Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey.

For the origins of the team, we must go back to the end of 2006 thanks to Jim Haughey, a fan of the film K-PAX. Former driver Darren Law has joined the management of K-PAX Racing which has joined forces with Lamborghini Squadra Corse since 2021 after a quick stint in the Bentley camp. It is also with the British brand that K-PAX Racing started on a European program in GTWC Europe, before the arrival of the pandemic.

Photo : K-PAX Racing

Brand change in 2021 with Lamborghini and 19 victories out of 26 races in GT World Challenge America over two seasons with two crowns for Andrea Caldarelli, one for Jordan Pepper. “We have definitely dominated these two years, we have won two championships with two official riders”explains Darren Law. “I think we kind of achieved everything we could do in America and that’s why Jim wanted to come back to Europe with the team. We wanted to partner with a builder where the relationship was mutual, and we’ve always worked with builders in the past. »

In 2022, K-PAX Racing ran a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 at the 24 Hours of Spa for Andrea Caldarelli, Marco Mapelli and Jordan Pepper. The best time in Superpole did not last long because of a penalty, but the pace was good in the race to finally finish just outside the top 10 and best Lamborghini.

2023 goes through a complete program in Endurance, still with the Italian brand. Without an electrical problem that caused them to lose 7 laps, Franck Perera, Sandy Mitchell and Marco Mapelli were on their way to a good result in the Belgian Ardennes with the possibility of a podium finish.

Photo : K-PAX Racing

Between K-PAX Racing and GT, the story is not recent. After the Porsche, the Californian team decided to take up the challenge of racing Volvo S60s in different championships. Then there were McLaren and Bentley. “People said we were a little crazy to bring a front-drive sedan to GT racing, and maybe that was the case”laughs Jim Haughey, team boss. “But that was before GT3, and you could do things with those kinds of cars that the other teams weren’t doing. We can’t do that in the current GT3 era because the manufacturer’s support is totally different from what you needed for the Volvo. »

For the rest, Jim Haughey approached McLaren. “So we moved to McLaren, and I also wanted to be closer to my home in the South Bay of San Francisco”he recalls. “Darren got involved as he had just taken over Flying Lizard Motorsports and we wanted someone to run the team operationally so the partnership and the plan to bring Darren into the team is a good fit for all of us. both. »

Darren Law then entered the loop, as he explains: “I retired from flying and had the opportunity to take over Flying Lizard and buy the team out, but we decided to take a different route and become more of a customer racing team. Our whole story has been in GT, we started very well together and we always had official drivers, which was an important factor for us. Jim is in this business to win, we want to be at the forefront, and the best way to do that is to line up with a constructor. We’ve run Pro-Am riders before, but there’s always an added risk in the peloton. If you are up front, you are there to win. »

Mitchell – Mapelli – Perera (photo : K-PAX Racing)

“We’re a bit different, because there aren’t many American teams racing in Europe, but we have a group made up of British, American, Italian and French people, which is good because we can learn things different people, different cultures and different ways of working”says Haughey. “Most of our employees are contract workers who work with us on site throughout the season. » Only six people work full-time on the team.

There are two GT World Challenge Europe rounds left for K-PAX Racing to score big points and make people forget the 2 small points brought back in 2023 because the potential is clearly there.

2023-08-08 07:02:41


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