VAN BERLO, CASTRO AND KVAMME EARN CLASS POLE POSITIONS FOR PORSCHE CARRERA CUP NORTH AMERICA SEBRING OPENER

Porsche Carrera Cup North America Presented by the Cayman Islands qualifying for the season opening round is complete. Kelly-Moss Road and Race picked-up where it left-off last season earning the overall pole position for Round 1 at Sebring International Raceway with Kay van Berlo (Belgium) taking Pro honors and Pro-Am with 2021 class champion Efrin Castro (Dominican Republic). The new MDK Motorsports program guided Mark Kvamme (Columbus, Ohio) to the top spot in the Am class. The quickest laps for each class will lead the grid of 43 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars to the green flag tomorrow, Thursday, March 17,  for the 40-minute Race 1 at 9:15 a.m. ET.

The field for Race 2 – set to go green at 1:30 p.m. ET – will be based on the second fastest qualifying lap from today’s 30-minute qualifying session or from the fastest race lap in Race 1. In the event that no one goes quicker in the 40-minute race, van Berlo will again sit on the overall pole position having also set the second overall fastest lap in qualifying. Castro and Kvamme also retain the pole in the Pro-Am and Am classes respectively.

Van Berlo, who was runner-up in the 2021 Pro class, set the quickest time of two-minutes, 3.330-seconds around the 3.74-mile, 17-turn Sebring circuit. His second best lap was a 2:03.356 in the No. 3 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. Both times narrowly beat out teammate Riley Dickinson (New Braunfels, Texas) in the No. 53 Porsche who turned 2:03.507 and 2:03.698 best laps. Parker Thompson (Canada) piloted the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche to a pair of laps good enough for third-place (2:03.535/2:03.859) while Dimitri Dimakos (Chicago, Illinois) placed the No. 11 311RS Motorsports Porsche on the outside of Row 2 with a lap of 2:04.003.

Castro guides the Pro-Am class to the green flag in the No. 65 Kelly-Moss Porsche for the first of the 40-minute races with laps of 2:05.299 and 2:05.363. Peter Atwater (Denver, Colorado) in the No. 26 JDX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car. Kvamme’s best lap in the No. 43 was a 2:05.980 with a second-best of 2:06.139. Wright Motorsports’ veteran John Goetz (Weston, Connecticut) starts in second-place for the Am class in the No. 57 with times of 2:06.432/2:06.662.

On Track.

The two, 40-minute races will be run on Thursday, March 17. Round One will take the green flag at 9:15 a.m. ET/6:15 a.m. PT while Round Two will start at 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT.

Kay van Berlo, No. 3 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

“A very good session, especially the first set of Michelin tires. With 43 cars out on track, we knew qualifying was going to  be all about getting a free lap. I went out, and straightaway, had a clear lap so I could put a good lap time down. That allowed us to put on a new set of tires later in the session. Again, I had a good position out on track, but I made a mistake and knew I was losing a lot of time. I was able to put together turns 15, 16 and 17 and that gave us another pole. It is really tight at the front of the grid but that doesn’t surprise me. We’ll check some data with the team and do some fine-tuning to prepare for the long runs. Tomorrow the big points are up for grabs.”

Source. Porsche