One of the strongest GT3 teams in North America is crossing the Atlantic in 2020, as K-PAX Racing will switch their star men to GT World Challenge Europe, in what is a rearrangement of Bentley’s customer teams.
The team led by Darren Law is another American outfit moving to challenge the European stalwarts, as they take the Pro Cup with the same two examples of the second generation Continental GT3 that helped the team in their bid for the GT World Challenge America teams title, though with some inclusions in their lineups, due to the fact that they are now the leading Bentley team in Europe as M-SPORT is moving to compete in the Intercontinental GT Challenge by Pirelli.
The No. 9 Bentley will stay with Alvaro Parente and Andy Soucek as Jordan Pepper jumps in as the third driver, and the No. 3 Bentley retains Rodrigo Baptista and Maxime Soulet, with Jules Gounon becoming the third driver. To Parente, this means a return to SRO GT in Europe after a year away, which was spent complementing his long stay in America with K-PAX, while the rest of the group are known for their commitment with M-SPORT, which includes participations from Baptista at the 24 Hours of Spa.
One of the reasons behind K-PAX’s move lie into an increased focus from M-SPORT in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, with its two Bentleys moving to the grueling Worldwide competition, but there’s also the element that the GT World Challenge America decided to axe the presence of Pro Cup teams while introducing the Silver Cup on it, making it closer to the Asian series and leaving the European one as the only GT World Challenge series that allows full professional lineups.
Despite the move to Europe, K-PAX will keep a Pro-Am Cup campaign in GT World Challenge America, and the single Continental GT3 II staying in North America will have Guy Cosmo and Patrick Byrne as drivers, with them having the 2017-2018 Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 title in their account, in a brilliant performance for Jackie Chan DC Racing.
To M-SPORT, this will be the first season where they won’t be fully committed to GT World Challenge Europe, as the leading Bentley team participated since the introduction of the first generation Bentley Continental GT3.
In one of the Continentals, Jordan Pepper and Jules Gounon continue their combo as Maxime Soulet joins the lineup after racing with them at the Kyalami 9 Hours. In the other car we will see a full British lineup, as Alex Buncombe steps up for a full campaign after some participations with M-SPORT in 2019, joined by Oliver Jarvis, who spent the last year with KCMG in their Nissan GT-R, and Seb Morris, recently promoted to Bentley factory driver after efforts with Parker Racing and JRM. The rearrangement in M-SPORT’s lineups leave Steven Kane out of the team, becoming a free agent in 2020.
The 2020 GT World Challenge Europe season, the first without Blancpain as main sponsor, starts on April 17th with the usual Endurance round at Monza, while the Intercontinental GT Challenge by Pirelli gets into action on January 31st with the Bathurst 12 Hour, which is expected to be occur on schedule despite the intense bushfires in Australia.
PHOTOS - SRO
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