Andrea Caldarelli: “This Title Goes To Them”

Andrea Caldarelli clinched his second consecutive Pro Drivers’ Championship in the GT World Challenge America series with two race victories at Sebring International Raceway over the weekend.

Caldarelli entered this weekend’s double-header at Sebring 47 points ahead of Jordan Pepper, his co-champion in the 2021 season. Caldarelli and his current co-driver, Michele Beretta, dominated proceedings with two victories – and two fastest laps from Caldarelli.

“It was definitely a very positive weekend,” said Caldarelli.

Apart from a brief wheel-to-wheel skirmish with his former co-driver in the sister K-PAX car, Caldarelli wanted to avoid taking any unnecessary risks over the course of his opening stint of the race.

“We knew we had to finish the race, which means not having any mistakes and racing clean. I tried to take an easy start, still keeping up with the guys up front. I didn’t want to take a lot of risks, and we knew that we had pace. So, we focused on the pit stop.”

“The guys did a very good job, as we were able to jump the two cars ahead of us. That was a very good call.”

When Caldarelli brought the black #1 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in for its pit stop, they were running third overall, their starting position. Thanks to the K-PAX mechanics’ quick work in the pits, Beretta took over and assumed the overall lead which he would not relinquish, only expand.

On Saturday, Caldarelli and Beretta won from pole position to snap a four-race winless streak. The #1 K-PAX crew were undefeated heading into Watkins Glen, before a harsh 60-second stop/go penalty was given to Beretta in Race 1. What followed was a tyre issue in Race 2, then two straight races at Road America where they couldn’t match Winward Racing’s Mercedes for pace.

“We didn’t have a great last couple of events, so there was a lot of pressure coming into Sebring,” Caldarelli remarked about the team’s relative mid-season slump. “There was a lot of hard work behind the scenes, and the guys did an awesome job.”

“This title goes to them because honestly, we know how hard it was.”

With back-to-back GT World Challenge America championships, Caldarelli is gradually adding more and more hardware to his growing collection of trophies and accolades.

In 2019, Caldarelli became the first one of two drivers (along with Marco Mapelli) to win the so-called “SRO Triple Crown” – winning the Overall, Sprint Cup, and Endurance Cup titles in GT World Challenge Europe, all in the same calendar year. It’s a feat that hasn’t been replicated before or since.

This followed his European Endurance Cup championship in 2017, along with two runner-up finishes in the SUPER GT Series’ GT500 class when he was driving for Toyota. At the wheel of a Lamborghini GT3 car, Caldarelli also won his class in the 2020 24 Hours of Daytona.

Oh, and he’ll be one of the stars of the upcoming Lamborghini LMDh prototype programme beginning in 2024.

One other statistical accolade Caldarelli achieved with his win today, was the most wins for a single driver in team history. When told of this achievement, Caldarelli smiled and said, “That’s really special. I’m really happy with that one.”

“It’s sometimes hard to build a great relationship with a team, and there are a lot of ups and downs. Keeping it all together isn’t the easiest thing, but to do that and make history is always something special.”

K-PAX have already wrapped up both the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships for the second consecutive season, and they could give Lamborghini the Manufacturers’ Championship in the upcoming Indianapolis 8 Hour Race.

Images © Regis Lefebure, Brian Cleary / SRO Motorsports Group America

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