Lamborghini recorded an historic 100th GT3 race victory courtesy of K-PAX Racing’s Jordan Pepper and Andrea Caldarelli in the third round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season at Virginia International Raceway. The series leaders achieved the landmark result during the opening race of the weekend, their fourth victory in five races at the start of the season to consolidate their points advantage.
Heading into the weekend, Pepper and Lamborghini Factory Driver Caldarelli held an impressive lead in the points standings after a dominant start to the GT World Challenge America season, first at Sonoma Raceway and then the Circuit of the Americas. The race weekend began strongly again with the third fastest time in the first free practice session with Caldarelli at the wheel before Pepper topped the second session.
Come qualifying for Race 1, Caldarelli and Pepper claimed pole position and duly took another victory, albeit in hard-fought fashion as an unfortunately timed full course yellow came out just before the mandatory driver-change pit window opened. By that point Caldarelli – who started the race – had built up a healthy margin over the Winward Mercedes-AMG and initially lost out after the pit-stops.
Pepper didn’t have to wait long before reclaiming the lead of the race however, as the Mercedes was handed a drivethrough penalty for a pit-stop infringement, leaving the South African driver in a largely comfortable lead thereafter. Pepper brought the #3 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo home to victory by nearly seven seconds.
The victory became Lamborghini Squadra Corse’s 100th success in GT3 racing, stemming back six years to the first win at Monza in 2015, an achievement which Lamborghini’s Head of Motorsport Giorgio Sanna says reflects the company’s prowess in sportcar racing over the years.
Giorgio Sanna, Lamborghini Head of Motorsport, commented: “The 100 overall victories achieved by the two generations of Huracán in GT3 not only demonstrates the indisputable performance and reliability of our car, but also the growth of Lamborghini Squadra Corse as a motorsport department. From the first race in 2015 at Monza, which also coincided with the first victory, we continue to support all our customer teams worldwide and I take this opportunity to thank them and share this important result with them and our drivers.”
The #3 unfortunately could not repeat its performance in the second race of the weekend, but the sister #6 K-PAX Racing car of Lamborghini Factory Driver Giovanni Venturini and Lamborghini GT3 Junior driver Corey Lewis recorded a fine second place, some reward after a tough weekend.
On the same weekend, Lamborghini also celebrated a podium result in the latest round of the Italian GT Sprint Cup championship, held at Misano Adriatico. LP Racing’s Jonathan Cecotto and Pietro Perolini scored an impressive second place in Race 2, having finished Race 1 in seventh place.
