St. Petersburg Grand Prix Next Up for K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports

Hot on the heels of a dominating win at Circuit of the Americas, K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports will race this week on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg for Rounds 3 & 4 of the Pirelli World Challenge. The 11th Annual Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will feature an action packed week of sports car and open wheel racing on a temporary 1.8-mile, 14 turn street course in the heart of downtown.

K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports has entered their two McLaren 650S GT3 race cars for the event, with drivers Kevin Estre and Robert Thorne. The newly formed team enjoyed success at their debut during the season opener in Austin, Texas at Circuit of the Americas. The team earned a 4th place finish with Estre in Round 1, then in Round 2, clinched a top 10 finish with Robert Thorne and an overall win by a 30 second margin with Estre.

American Robert Thorne has previous experience at St. Petersburg in the Pirelli World Challenge with K-PAX Racing, and this weekend will mark McLaren GT factory driver Kevin Estre's first time at the event.

Fan Activities Friday afternoon at 3:30pm at the team garage, K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports will hold a special autograph session with Estre and Thorne signing a commemorative poster, honoring the team earning McLaren GT's first with for the 650S GT3. On Saturday at 2:15pm, the team will open the garage to the fans from 2:15pm to 2:45pm for a private tour with Program Manager Darren Law, and drivers Estre and Thorne. Tickets for the event and be purchased at gpstpete.com.

Darren Law // Program Manager This is a significantly different racetrack than the last event. The McLaren is well suited to a traditional smooth road course as we showed with a win last race weekend, but we have some unknowns coming to a bumpy temporary street circuit. This will be the first time the new McLaren 650S GT3 has run on this type of track. We did pre-season testing at Sebring on the short course to try and simulate for this weekend as that is bumpy and has tight sections like a street course. Both K-PAX Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports have had success and completed many races on street circuits, so I feel confident in that aspect but we don't have any data for this car here, so we will have to be very diligent about getting the setup right in a short period of time.

Kevin Estre // Driver of #9 K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports

McLaren 650S GT3 I'm really looking forward to driving in the streets of St. Petersburg! It's going to be my first time on the track, but I love street circuits, and with the agility from our McLaren 650S GT3, I'm sure that we are going to be competitive. We learned a lot on during the first event in Austin at COTA and I'm sure that we are going to be better on some points in St. Petersburg.

Robert Thorne // Driver of #6 K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports

McLaren 650S GT3 The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is always such a great event to race at. The atmosphere is electric and the schedule is packed with all kinds of racing. It's in the heart of downtown, so it brings both casual and diehard fans. Being a temporary street circuit, the track is a lot rougher on cars than a smooth, permanent race course. You've also got concrete on both sides of track, so if you get hit or run out of space, you've got nowhere to go. It adds another level of competition. The McLaren should be good here, and we're riding the momentum of winning the last event. We're looking forward to getting out on track.

Media Contact:

Kelly Brouillet

kelly@kbrucommunications.com

#FlyingLizardMotorsports #PWC