Former GT series champion Alvaro Parente scored his first Pirelli World Challenge win of 2018 on Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, in the second race of the weekend.
Parente drove his #9 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3 to a three-second victory over Rodrigo Baptista in the #3 K-PAX Racing Bentley Continental GT3, who made it a 1-2 for the Californian team and a double class win, the Brazilian taking the top spot in the GTA class by finishing second overall.
The win for Parente, comes after two big accidents this season prior to the CTMP weekend, the first at St Pete and the second at VIR. The latter meant that the K-PAX Racing crew required a back up car on short notice, which it received last week from Malaysia and prepared for the weekend’s CTMP doubleheader weekend.
“This win is dedicated to the team and to the owner (Jim Haughey) for always believing and investing in this team,” said Parente. “It hasn’t been easy for the guys who have had to rebuild three cars already this season, and we’re barely halfway into the season. So, this win is dedicated to their hard work. I’ve had a few podiums (top-three), but this is my first race win this year so I’m feeling good since it’s been a really hard year.
“For strategy, we weren’t competitive yesterday in the wet, so we took the risk with the slicks and it worked out. Today, having one-two position was great for us. I wish it would have been dry yesterday so I could be leaving here with an even bigger smile. But I’m happy for the win today and congratulations to all the guys for all of their hard work to get us here.”
“As far as the strategy going into the race today, I think we won the race yesterday on the choice to go to slick tires,” said Baptista. “Today, I just tried to pass Alvaro but it’s almost impossible to pass on the outside. I just tried to stay with Alvaro for the first five or six laps. The car is good and the only place we lose time compared to the other cars is Turn 5a and 5b. The Bentley is good. We learned a lot from racing and testing at the past few tracks, so we’re looking forward to Lime Rock next week.”
Rounding the podium Sunday in the 39-lap main event was COTA double race winner Toni Vilander in the Toronto-based RFerri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3, followed by Denmark’s Michael Christensen in the #24 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and Saturday’s GT race winner Daniel Morad in the #2 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Behind Baptista in the GTA class standings at the checkered flag was the 2016 GTA series titleholder Martin Fuentes, driving the #07 Squadra Corse Garage Italia Ferrari 488 GT3 and Saturday’s GTA race winner Parker Chase in the #19 TruSpeed Audi R8 LMS GT3.
The Pirelli World Challenge will now head to the Lime Rock Park road course next weekend (May 25-28) in the annual Memorial Weekend Classic.
Photo courtesy of PWC
