K-PAX Racing’s Andrea Caldarelli and Michele Beretta could not be touched Saturday at NOLA Motorsports Park. The duo managed to drive away from the pack to win Race No. 1 for Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS. For Caldarelli, it is his third win in a row to start the season. Beretta claimed his first win on debut with the team.
“It was a great job from everybody,” Beretta told SRO America’s Amanda Busick. “We did a clean race with no mistakes. Looking forward to the next one.”
Beretta led from the overall pole while teammate Misha Goikhberg was able to move up to second. The full course caution (later changed to a safety car) came out at the end of the first lap due to a spin for Wright Motorsports’ Charlie Luck. Luck went way too fast into turn 3 and charged into the left rear corner of DXDT Racing’s Scott Smithson. Luck spun out and damaged the front end of his Porsche, while Smithson ended up with a tire rub.
Luck ended up having to go behind the wall for repairs. Following the replacement of the front splitter, Luck returned to the race, 13 laps down. He would finish 16th overall, 10th in Pro-Am.
After the restart, Beretta slowly but surely drove away from the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Turner Motorsport’s Michael Dinan and US RaceTronics’ Steven Aghakhani had a multiple-lap duel for third. 25 minutes into the race, it ended in tears when Aghakhani spun in turn 6. He was able to continue without issue, but lost a lot of time.
Beretta was able to expand his lead over Goikhberg to over 20 seconds by the time the pit window opened 40 minutes into the race. The stop cost the No. 1 team part of their lead once Caldarelli got in the car, but the advantage was still very comfortable. The real race was for third overall between Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley in the Pro class, Pro-Am leader Bill Auberlen and US RaceTronics’ Loris Spinelli.
Spinelli was able to get past Auberlen and put the…
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