Andrea Caldarelli took the chequered flag to win Race Two of the opening weekend of the 2021 Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS, the #3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 the Italian driver shared with Jordan Pepper crossing the line 7.898 seconds ahead of teammate Corey Lewis in the sister #6 car.
With the #3 car having taken pole for both 90-minute races, Caldarelli’s teammate, Jordan Pepper drove the second stint to take the victory in Race One, resulting in a perfect weekend for the Sonoma-based team.
Completing the overall podium positions in Race Two was George Kurtz in the #04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, the Crowdstrike CEO sharing the driving duties with Colin Braun.
Second in the Pro-Am class went to the Fred Poordad / Jan Heylen-crewed #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Pole-sitter Jordan Pepper in the #3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 had a fuel pressure issue at the start and fell back to fourth as Colin Braun in the #04 DXDT Racing Mercedes inherited the lead.
Braun held off Jan Heylen in the #20 Wright Motorsports Porsche, Heylen initially the quicker of the two and putting the #04 Mercedes under pressure. Once Colin Braun had got into a rhythm, the DXDT Racing pilot managed to consistently lap quicker than the #20 Mercedes and by lap 10 had extended his lead to nearly 2.5 seconds.
After 15 minutes of racing, the closest on-track battle was for fifth place with Ryan Dalziel in the #63 DXDT Racing Mercedes just over half a second behind Dakota Dickerson in the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3.
Matt McMurry in the #77 Rearden Racing Lamborghini made an early stop ahead of the pit window opening for fuel.
As the pit window approached, Heylen and Pepper both found some additional pace and the gap between first and second fell to less than 1.5 seconds.
Jordan Pepper was the first of the front-runners to stop when the pit window opened, the rear of the #3 Lamborghini hinting at a potential instability in the laps prior to the stop. Braun and Heylen stayed out until the end of the pit window.
After the driver changes had cycled through, Andrea Caldarelli in the #03 Lamborghini held the lead, followed by teammate Corey Lewis in the sister #6 car. The K-PAX pair controlled the remainder of the race from the front, Corey Lewis holding a gap of over 30 seconds to George Kurtz in the #04 DXDT Racing Mercedes as the race entered the final 20 minutes.
As the race entered the final laps, Russell Ward in the #33 Mercedes was looking to find a way past Erin Vogel in the #19 car but Vogel defended hard to take sixth place overall and fourth in Pro-Am.
The Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS next convenes at Circuit of the Americas on April 30 – May 2.
