K-PAX Racing will return to Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS competition this season, contesting the full Endurance Cup campaign with Lamborghini.
Based in Sonoma, California, the American outfit last ran a full European schedule in 2020 when it tackled the Endurance Cup with Bentley. Switching to Lamborghini machinery the following year, it has since earned back-to-back Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS titles and made a one-off appearance at the 2022 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. Now the team has revealed plans to return to the European stage with a Pro car driven by a trio of Lamborghini Squadra Corsa drivers.
There is significant top-line GT3 experience courtesy of Marco Mapelli and Franck Perera. Competing for FFF Racing, Mapelli made history in 2019 when he and teammate Andrea Caldarelli won all three Fanatec GT titles in the same season, while Perera has been a series regular since 2012. Mitchell is the youngest of the trio and will tackle his first campaign in a Pro car, though the Scotsman is by no means inexperienced. Indeed, Mitchell has earned two class wins at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa and an Intelligent Money British GT title with Barwell Motorsport.
"SRO has a great product and the best GT3 racing in the world," commented team principal Darren Law. "We have experimented with racing in Europe several times already, at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, as well as a full season of the Endurance Cup in 2020. We were successful that year but feel we have unfinished business.
“It is quite a challenge for a US team to move its operations and equipment to Europe," he continued. "We have leased a workshop in Italy, and we will use part of our US team members and a partial crew from Europe. All the equipment is in containers on its way and both our cars are at Lamborghini Squadra Corse now getting updated to the new EVO2 spec. Fingers crossed everything makes it in time for the first test at Paul Ricard but if not, we have support from Lamborghini if needed.
“We have to thank [team owner] Jim Haughey for allowing all of us to have this opportunity. Without his passion and dedication to the sport none of this would be possible. We also have to thank Giorgio Sanna [Lamborghini’s Head of Motorsport] for giving us such a strong driver line up. We have worked with both Marco and Franck previously, and raced against Sandy, so it will be great to have him joining our program this year. We are looking forward to the challenge and can't wait to get the season started.”
K-PAX Racing will join its rivals on-track at the official Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS test days at Circuit Paul Ricard on 7-8 March. The Endurance Cup campaign launches at Monza on 21-23 April, followed by trips to Circuit Paul Ricard (2–4 June), the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa (29 June–2 July), the Nürburgring (28–30 July) and Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya (29 September–1 October).