K-PAX Racing is preparing for the penultimate race in this season’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup, which takes place at the Nürburgring in Germany this coming weekend (July 29-30).

The team, drivers Franck Perera, Sandy Mitchell, and Marco Mapelli, and the new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 have shown good speed on track this year but have not had the luck to score a podium finish or race win so far.

Opening the campaign at Monza, Marco was closing in on third place in the final stages of the contest before a problem caused the car’s retirement, while at Circuit Paul Ricard a late brake change halted Sandy’s charge as the trio climbed from 16th to eighth in the final hour.

Last time out at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa a faulty wire caused an electrical problem with just three hours to run, dropping the car from the top ten right down the order. Refusing to give up however, everyone continues to work hard and push for success on track, knowing had things fallen the right way that this season could look very different.

This weekend the team heads to the legendary Nürburgring, still home to the fabled 20.832 km (12.944 mi) Nordschleife, though racing will be confined to the flowing and undulating 5.148 km (3.199 mi) GP-Strecke where K-PAX Racing finished sixth in 2020, and where Marco won outright the following year.

After test sessions on Friday, July 28th, official action begins the following morning with Free Practice at 08:00 CEST (00:00 PDT), followed by Pre-Qualifying at 12:25 (04:25). On Sunday, July 30th, qualifying is set for 08:45 (00:45), with the three-hour race due to begin at 14:45 (06:45).

Franck Perera

“It has been positive season as we were fighting for a podium in Monza. At Paul Ricard from P-nowhere we climbed up to P8 before we had an issue, and at Spa we showed that we were able to fight against the top six or top eight in the race. We have had positive performances this season, so I hope we’ll be able to get the result that we deserve.

“Lamborghini has always been competitive at the Nürburgring, but I think practice will be very important to set the car up well and see where we are. The weather can be a surprise there – a long time ago when I was in Formula 3, we got snow in August! But now, the temperatures are climbing like crazy and every single year we are beating records. I hope it will be not that hot because it’s better for us when it’s colder.”

Sandy Mitchell

“We’ve put ourselves in some strong positions this year and fought back well at times, but we haven’t quite had the overall result yet. The target for this weekend is to keep doing a lot of what we’re already doing, and just try to finalize things to get that result.

“I’ve only raced at the Nürburgring one time, which was 2020, so it’s not one that I’m hugely experienced with, but I enjoy it, especially the middle section of the lap which flows really well. It’s a circuit that you can overtake on as well, so it should be exciting. The Lamborghini has done well there in previous years and the slow speed section in the first sector can suit the car. I think it’s going to be a track that we can do well at, and we’ll definitely be pushing hard.”

Marco Mapelli

“I’m really looking forward to Nürburgring. We have a good, solid base to work with and we have some more testing compared to the usual weekend plan, with the two sessions on Friday. We need some luck back compared to the first three rounds but I’m looking forward to challenging for the top positions.

“The weather is unpredictable even in summertime at the Nurburgring, but I think the chilled temperature will help us. Our car performs quite well at the track, and we’ve had some success over the last three years. At Spa we the quickest Lamborghini, so we’ve definitely had good pace all year, for sure we need to get the result in the race.”

Darren Law, Program Manager

“We are looking forward to the next round at Nürburgring as we have had good runs there in the past, with a top six in 2020. We feel the track suits the Lamborghini well and we have had great pace all season, it is just unfortunate that our results don’t equal our performance. The team is working well, the drivers are right on pace so we hope to put it all together in these final races of the year.”