Florida Chapter of Volvo Club of America

Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, California. (March 11, 2012) – The USTCC (United States Touring Car Championship) had its inaugural round of the 2012 championship at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California this weekend.

K-PAX Racing was represented by Robert Thorne driving the #80 K-PAX Racing C30 GT-R for the very first time. Friday was spent primarily getting accustomed to the new car as well as working on set-up in order to optimize the car to the standardized series tire.

“We came here this weekend with the car setup according to how we had run it in the World Challenge series last year, but we quickly learned that the tires used in the USTCC required a very different setup in order to create a well-balanced car”, commented Team Manager, Bob Raub.

Qualifying results on Saturday showed that the team and driver Robert Thorne quickly had come to terms with the new cars setup, clinching pole position in the 20-minute session.

The 2-hour endurance race on Sunday provided a great deal of challenging conditions throughout the race, including several full-course yellows, rain showers, plenty of traffic and, due to the length of the race, pit stops for fuel.

The standing-start format of the race allowed the, second position, all-wheel drive Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution get the jump on the C30, however, on lap 10 Robert Thorne was able to reclaim the top spot and after that never looked back.

At the checkered flag the #80 C30 crossed the line 1 minute and 43 seconds ahead of the second place Mazda 3. A big part of the large margin of victory had to do with the fact that the Volvo only had to stop for fuel once whereas most of the top competitors had to come in for fuel twice, proving that the C30 GT-R is not only fast but fuel-efficient as well.

After the race Robert Thorne had the following to say: “The C30 ran great today. We were able to really dial it in on Friday and Saturday allowing us to manage tire wear and the overall balance of the car all through the race. This being my first race with this car and this series my main goal was to simply keep it on the track. This win wouldn’t have been possible without the help from my sponsors at the Autoparts Warehouse, the crew at K-PAX Racing and Volvo for providing me with such a great racecar”.

Robert Thorne and the #80 K-PAX Racing C30 GT-R will be back racing in the USTCC at Thunderhill Raceway in May.

For more information on K-PAX Racing, visit www.kpaxracing.com

For more information on Autoparts Warehouse, visit www.EAPW.com

For more information on USTCC, visit www.ustcc.com

Lexington, Ohio (Aug 5, 2011) – K-PAX Racing, the World Challenge GT Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ champion in 2010, enjoyed a solid day of qualifying at round seven of the Pirelli World Challenge Championship at Mid Ohio, with three out of the four of the teams cars qualifying in the top three in both the GT and Touring Car classes.

The story of the day for the team was Aaron Povoledo’s stellar run for pole in his Volvo C30 Touring Car in the first qualifying session of the weekend. Povoledo qualified with a time of 1:35.00 to snatch the pole from second placed Lawson Aschenbach by over 8 tenths of a second. More importantly Povoledo’s pole earns 1 point for Volvo in the battle for the Manufacturers Championship in Touring Car. While Povoledo was beyond thrilled with his effort, he also understands that it took more than one person to make this result possible.

“I’m just over the moon that we were able to put this car on pole again. It was an all around huge team effort. I think that the work that the guys did back at the shop during the break made all of the difference. They gave me a car that I was able to drive really hard but really precisely, and that’s what made the difference. I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Overcoming some difficulties early in the session Robb Holland managed to put his Volvo C30 up into third place on the very last lap. Holland’s was a little disappointed with his time of 1:36.14 and felt that his C30 had more in it then he was able to show.

“We got blocked on our first flying lap by a few cars that passed under the double yellow. I was unable to get my brake pads bedded in properly and they glazed up and it took until the last lap of the session to get them working right. I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow because, as my teammate has shown, there is a lot more left in these C30’s and I’m confident that we’ll put in a good show for all of the Volvo fans here this weekend.”

On the GT side of things the story was much the same with Alex Figge, in only his second qualifying effort in the series, doing an impressive job by putting his Volvo S60 GT on the second row of the grid in position 3. In setting a time of 1:24.336 that was only 4 tenths of a second off of pole, Figge was looking forward to being able to put pressure on the competition in tomorrows race.

“It was a good qualifying session. Much shorter than the ones I was used to in ALMS and Champ Car. I was a little nervous at first but I was able to get focused and put in a lap that was good enough for P3 and very much in range of the top two. I’m pretty satisfied with my effort and the team did a great job with the set up and I’m confident that we can run strong in the race tomorrow.”

The only sour note struck in today’s efforts by the K-PAX Racing team was that reigning series champion, Randy Pobst, was unable to put in a lap during qualifying due to an undiagnosed issue with his car. The team plans on working hard through the night in order to sort out the problem and get Pobst back on track in time for tomorrows race.

In attendance this weekend is Volvo acting President, John Maloney, who was impressed with the strong results that the K-PAX Racing Volvo’s produced.

“It was a great day of qualifying today. To start the second half of the season with a first and third in Touring Car and third in GT is fantastic. The team obviously worked hard during the hiatus and made some good improvements to both the C30’s and S60’s and we’re running at the front and looking for more good things tomorrow in the race.”

K-PAX Racing Media

mediainfo@kpaxracing.com