K-PAX Racing Overcomes Pre-Weekend Issues to Bring Home a Solid Start to the Season

The Pirelli World Challenge race season kicked off last weekend at Circuit of the Americas, and although the event started with frustration for K-PAX Racing, the team finished the weekend with one top five finish, and three more top 10 finishes between the three McLaren 650S GT3 cars. With several long straights, the track is not a favored venue for the high downforce machine, but the team earned valuable points on which to build their championship foundation.

Throughout the testing and practice sessions, the No. 9 McLaren 650S GT3 of Alvaro Parente battled with an electrical issue, taking away two days of valuable track time. The persistence of the engineers and mechanics paid off, and the team was able to diagnose and fix the problem just in time for qualifying. The McLaren trio of Parente, Colin Thompson and Austin Cindric qualified well, their first ever attempt in the Pirelli World Challenge GT class.

All three cars had a solid start and maintained their positions throughout race one. Unfortunately, the No. 6 of Austin Cindric was hit from behind, causing damage to the rear diffuser. This resulted in a loss of rear grip for the majority of the race but the young driver did a tremendous job keeping the car under control. The team gain solid championship points with Parente finishing 6th, Colin Thompson in 9th and Cindric in 12th.

For race 2, the McLaren trio's fastest laps set Parente, Thompson and Cindric to start 6th, 9th, and 13th. An incident in the opening lap moved the trio each up one spot for the restart. As the cars up front battled for position, the race leader was called in for penalty, moving Parente up to 4th. He stayed close to the top three as the fight continued, biding his time for the right moment to pass. His opportunity came with less than 20 minutes to go, and the No. 9 McLaren 650S passed the Cadillac of Michael Cooper to take 2nd position. With a podium finish in site, the team was ordered by race control to serve a drive through penalty for the pass, rejoining the race to finish in 9th. Austin Cindric also showed a strong run, methodically working his way up from 13th to the top 10 when he was also called to pit lane for a drive through penalty for the formation of the first lap. The call had him rejoin in 17th, and he gained three spots back to finish 13th in the remaining laps. Colin Thompson enjoyed a trouble free race, working his way up through the pack from his 9th place starting position. While maintaining 7th through a majority of the race as he matched the pace of the leaders, through some attrition and solid driving he was able to fight for 5th place. With one lap to go, Thompson set up McLaren to overtake the Audi of Kyle Marcelli. He finished in 4th, earning the team the first top five finish of the year.

Despite the technical setbacks of the weekend, the team and McLaren 650S GT3 cars performed well, and now journey to St. Petersburg, where Rounds 3 & 4 of the Pirelli World Challenge will take place March 11-13.

Darren Law It was an eventful race weekend, and we should have had a better finish than we did, but we're still happy with fourth place, and three McLarens with no damage. Overall, it was a positive weekend with solid finishes in both races. We earned valuable points, and this will be a long championship. Looking ahead to St. Petersburg, we feel we should do well there. The strength of the car is in the braking and the corner grip. We lack a little top speed, but St. Peterburg only has one long straight and should excel everywhere else.

Alvaro Parente // No. 9 McLaren 650S GT3 I don't understand why I was penalized. I felt it was a fair overtake. Without that drive-through, we would be second for sure, and we lost a podium finish without any fault of our own. K-PAX Racing did a great job, and the McLaren 650S was competitive in a hard circuit for us. I want to thank the team for the support. Now we have to look ahead and maximize our opportunities.

Colin Thompson // No. 13 McLaren 650S GT3 I stared 9th in Race Two, so moving up 5 spots in a sprint race is always good. It's our first top five finish of the year. Combined with the top 10 from Race One, we have two solid points finishes. You can't complain about that to kick off the year. I'm excited for St. Petersberg. The McLarens were good there last year, so coming off this weekend, and going into a track that we know the McLarens are strong at should be a good running for the team. It's a street race, so anything can happen. It's about surviving those.

Austin Cindric // No. 6 McLaren 650S GT3 There were a lot of positives coming out of this weekend. Unfortunately, the positives did not outweigh the negatives. Despite everything, the team did a great job, and the McLaren 650S did well. I'm looking forward to St. Petersburg. It's one of my favorite street courses, and I look forward to having some fun there.

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