Six races down, six more to go, and the streak continues for the black #1 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Michele Beretta and Andrea Caldarelli. Fanatec GT World Challenge America Race 2 at VIRginia International Raceway was won by Caldarelli and Beretta, who fought their way from fourth on the grid to the overall and Pro Cup victory on Sunday afternoon.
It was a beautiful day for a race, under sunny skies with comfortable temperatures of 24°C ambient and 45°C surface. The 5.2 kilometre undulating road course had tested drivers and teams all weekend across all of the SRO America series. Two teams were scratched from the field after a multi-car accident in Race 1: The #38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 (Samantha Tan/Nick Wittmer), and the #61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo (Jean-Claude Saada/Conrad Grunewald).
And the car that was starting on pole position, the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher, had also taken damage in the incident. With help from Rick Ware Racing, the Racers Edge crew repaired their damaged NSX overnight. Despite having no chance to shake the car down on a hardship lap before the race, Farnbacher led the abbreviated field of 17 cars to the green flag at 1:15 PM local time.
On the opening lap, the #91 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini of Corey Lewis went off at the Roller Coaster complex (turn 14/a). Lewis couldn’t get his car restarted, and on lap 2, the Safety Car was deployed.
Farnbacher maintained his lead, while Colin Braun in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 moved into second. Loris Spinelli moved up to third in the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3; Spinelli was due to start second, but team mate Steven Aghakhani was given a five-place grid penalty for the acrimonious incident between himself and Misha Goikhberg in the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini, which also got a grid penalty for shared responsibility.
Meanwhile, Caldarelli, who started fourth, slipped to fifth on the opening lap behind the #13 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 of Ryan Dalziel. And when the race restarted on lap 7, former K-PAX driver Giacomo Altoe lunged past him in his #9 TR3 Racing Lamborghini, putting the Pro Cup championship leader down to sixth.
At the front, Farnbacher’s red and black Acura was setting a string of fastest laps to try and gap the field, just as he did in Race 2 at NOLA Motorsports Park in May. Braun was able to stay with him and take the fastest lap for himself.
Further back in the pack, the #43 RealTime Racing NSX GT3 of Michael Cooper was fighting for position, but had a brake issue heading up the hill to the Roller Coaster, and he hit the #88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini of Madison Snow, knocking both cars out of the race. Both Cooper and Snow were not injured.
This incident and repairs to the tyre barrier required a second Safety Car, and the compulsory ten-minute pit window was delayed until 45 minutes elapsed in the race to make up for the extended Safety Car running.
The race restarted from lap 15, with 50 minutes left in the race. Needing to make up ground, Caldarelli went three-wide down the Madison Avenue backstretch with Dalziel and Altoe, and was able to grab fifth place back from Altoe and tuck in behind Dalziel in fourth.
The pit window opened after 18 laps. Pro Cup teams pitted early, with the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 pitting from third overall ahead of the #3 K-PAX Lamborghini on lap 19. On lap 20, the #1 K-PAX Lamborghini pitted, and the overcut worked to their advantage as Beretta was able to rejoin ahead of Aghakhani on track.
Several Pro-Am teams waited until lap 23, minutes before the pit window closed, to do their service. The #93 Racers Edge NSX and #04 CrowdStrike/Riley AMG GT3 both came in, and rejoined from first and second overall. Ashton Harrison was now leading in her Acura, ahead of George Kurtz’s Mercedes, with Beretta and Aghakhani behind them. Unfortunately, both Triarsi Competizione cars waited a lap too late to pit both their cars, and both the #13 and #23 were hit with drive-through penalties that dropped them down the order.
Harrison and Kurtz had first and second in Pro-Am locked down, and quickly conceded their overall positions to Beretta – who grabbed the outright lead on lap 28 – and Aghakhani, who was in with a chance to chase down Beretta and take his and US Racetronics’ long awaited first win.
But coming out of Hog Pen Corner (turn 17), Aghakhani dropped his left side wheels off in the grass and ran off track before rejoining behind Harrison. An unscheduled pit stop for overheating issues caused by grass in the radiator dropped him out of the top ten. Beretta now had a lead of over six seconds to Pro-Am leader Harrison in second.
Kurtz was battling to keep the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R of Charlie Luck behind him. But Luck’s fortune would run out, on lap 45 he spun off through the Climbing Esses and slid off into the grass with enough momentum that it almost brought him back across the infield. Thankfully, Luck was able to continue, before another spin, and another rejoin.
With ten minutes left in the race, Harrison was on course to take the Pro-Am victory. But on lap 39, Harrison also went off at Hog Pen corner just as Aghakhani did earlier, and took a spill through the grass before spinning back out onto the track. Kurtz drove through to the Pro-Am lead, while a dejected Harrison was left to fight back just to finish in the overall top ten after dropping to 11th.
This gave Beretta a 20-second lead, and there was no catching the black K-PAX Lamborghini en route to yet another GT World Challenge America victory, the sixth in a row for the #1 K-PAX car, and Beretta’s fourth since joining the team after the Sonoma meeting.
The decision to come in a lap later proved pivotal to gaining the top spot and never looking back from there. “I think we did a perfect job again with the strategy,” remarked Beretta. “The pit call, the pit stop, there was fighting in the beginning but [Andrea] did a great job keeping towards the front. I don’t think it was a very fun stint for him with all of the long safety cars.”
“But my stint was fairly clear, and it felt good in the car. Our main competitors were struggling a bit more, and we just all did a great job again.”
K-PAX Racing have now won the last eleven GT World Challenge America races in a row, and ace driver Caldarelli has now won ten in a row, both streaks dating all the way back to 2021.
Kurtz, who swept the weekend in GT America in a similar Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the one he shares in GTWC America with Braun, made no mistakes in his final stint and took the Pro-Am victory in second place overall. After the race, he remarked: “You just gotta hang around and hopefully you get lucky,” and gave props to Harrison on her performance. “She drove a great race, so we just took advantage of the off and kept it super clean and consistent. The CrowdStrike/Riley guys gave me a fantastic car, I love this track.”
It was the second Pro-Am Cup win for the #04 CrowdStrike/Riley AMG GT3 and their drivers, who now move into sole possession of the Pro-Am points lead after six races.
The #96 Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 (Michael Dinan/Robby Foley) persevered through steering issues late in the race to hang on to third overall and second in Pro Cup, leaving with a pair of second-placed trophies after a double DNF at NOLA.
After a difficult Race 1 that saw them embroiled in incidents, the #94 BimmerWorld M4 GT3 (Chandler Hull/Bill Auberlen) recovered to finish fourth overall and second in Pro-Am. In all, it was a successful weekend for the team based out of Dublin, Virginia – a Pro-Am podium finish, plus two Am Cup wins in GT4 America anchored by team president James Clay!
K-PAX got both cars on the Pro podium again as the green #3 of Goikhberg and Jordan Pepper finished fifth overall.
And after a difficult start to the season, the #63 DXDT Racing AMG GT3 (David Askew/Dirk Mueller) finished third in Pro-Am, and sixth overall. The DXDT squad based out of nearby Statesville, North Carolina, will happily take this result.
Aghakhani recovered to drive the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 up to seventh, as did Luck, who along with Jan Heylen, finished eighth in the #45 Wright Porsche.
On the final lap, Harrison overtook the #9 TR3 Lamborghini of Ziad Ghandour for tenth position at the Roller Coaster. Ghandour hit Harrison from behind, but Harrison kept on driving, while Ghandour lost the position to the #13 Triarsi Ferrari of Justin Wetherill in the final corner.
The #93 Racers Edge NSX and #13 Triarsi Ferrari would finish ninth and tenth overall, both cars promoted after the #08 DXDT Racing AMG GT3 (Scott Smithson/Bryan Sellers) was given a 31-second post-race penalty.
The #23 Triarsi Ferrari (Charlie Scardina/Onofrio Triarsi) finished 12th overall as the sole remaining Am category entry, and both drivers were able to join the Pro-Am podium finishers on the podium.
GT World Challenge America and the rest of the SRO Motorsports Group America championships will return on 22-24 July at Watkins Glen International in New York state.
Images © Regis Lefebure, Brian Cleary, James Lietz, Fred Hardy / SRO Motorsports Group America
