Porsche Carrera Cup North America returns to Indianapolis

by Thomas Moore

Porsche Carrera Cup North America.

Rounds 11&12.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana.

Speedway, Indiana. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is hallowed ground in motorsports. That is especially true of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America where the premier one-make series on the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid North America has raced in each of its four seasons to date. A total of seven races have been held in the all-Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car series on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course since 2021. Rounds 11 and 12 of the 16-race, 2024 season will take place September 19 – 21 as part of IMSA’s Battle on the Bricks weekend.

With three race weekends remaining on the calendar, each 40-minute race – two rounds per weekend – remain vital in all three classes of competition: Pro, Pro-Am and Masters. Even the Entrants championship – currently being led by Kellymoss with 201 points – remains mathematically achievable for the top 12 teams. Loek Hartog (Netherlands) remains the target atop the Pro class. Hartog is ahead of an aggressive pack led by Alex Sedgwick (United Kingdom), Ryan Yardley (New Zealand) and Zachary Vanier (Canada) who trail by no more than 76 points. Marco Cirone (Canada) leads the Pro-Am class by a single point over Moisey Uretsky (Miami, Florida) while Matt Halcome (Dallas, Georgia) holds a 41-point buffer over Chris Bellomo (Portola Valley, California) in the Masters class.

Practice gets underway on Thursday, September 19 with the first 40-minute round taking the green flag on Friday, September 20 and the second race of the weekend, another 40-minute round, on Saturday, September 21.

• Field. 30 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars are entered for the weekend.

• Pro class. 15 | Pro-Am class. 9 | Masters class. 6

• Teams. 8 race teams are represented across all three classes.

• Entry list. The full Porsche Carrera Cup North America entry list can be found at: https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2024/09/11/2024PCCNAIndianapolisPreEventEntryList.pdf

• Series Track Record. 1:24.953, Riley Dickinson, No. 53 Kellymoss, set in 2023.

• 2023 Race Winners.

- Pro. Race 1 & 2. Riley Dickinson, Kellymoss

- Pro-Am. Race 1 & 2. Efrin Castro, Kellymoss

- Masters (previously called Am). Race 1 & 2. Scott Noble, MDK Motorsports

• Point Leaders.

Pro. Loek Hartog, No. 24 Kellymoss

Pro-Am. Marco Cirone, No. 84 ACI Motorsports

Masters. Matt Halcome, No. 55 ACI Motorsports

Entrants. Kellymoss

Current Porsche Carrera Cup North America Championship Point Standings.

https://imsa.results.alkamelcloud.com/?season=242024&evvent=14Road+America

• Schedule. All times Eastern.

Thursday, September 19.

11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. – Practice 1

2:35 p.m. – 3:05 p.m. – Practice 2

Friday, September 20.

9:35 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. – Qualifying (all classes)

3:00 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. – Race 1 (40-minutes)

Saturday, September 21.

11:10 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. – Race 2 (40-minutes)

• Hometown heroes. Indianapolis is not only the “Racing Capital of the World,” but also the home of Porsche Carrera Cup North America regulars. A native of the United Kingdom, veteran open wheel racer turned Pro class winner Dan Clarke has called “Circle City” home for years. While his Champ Car career never allowed him the opportunity to race in the Indianapolis 500, he has one Indy Lights series start at “The Brickyard” in 2010; he finished fourth. While Clarke’s teammate Sabré Cook is a native of Grand Junction, Colorado, she lives in Indianapolis in pursuit of her racing career. The two drivers race for Era Motorsports which is also based in Indy. The veteran sports car racing team joined the series at the Road America stop in August.

In 2023, Clarke finished second in race one and fifth in race two here at Indianapolis. Cook had a season-ending incident early in the second race of the weekend. While the accident was not of her making, concussion symptoms prevented her from competing in the final races of the 2023 season.

• Legacy Track. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a “Legacy Track” on the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup schedule. The track joins Sebring International Raceway, Watkins Glen International, Road America and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as tracks that hosted the premier one-make race series in its 2021 debut season. Indianapolis, Watkins Glen, Sebring and Road America have hosted a Carrera Cup weekend each season.

• Back home again. Porsche Carrera Cup North America was the feature series for the two Porsche Sports Car Together Fest events held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2021, 2022). The series ran three races at “The Brickyard” in 2021, its inaugural season, to balance out events canceled due to Covid-19 concerns. That brings the total number of Carrera Cup North America rounds held here to seven entering the weekend.

Past overall race winners:

2021. Race 1. Seb Priaulx, Race 2. Parker Thompson, Race 3. Seb Priaulx

2022. Race 1. Parker Thompson, Race 2. Riley Dickinson

2023. Race 1. Riley Dickinson, Race 2. Riley Dickinson

• Weathervane. Indianapolis Motor Speedway has proven to be a championship indicator for the Porsche Carrera Cup North America over the years. Each year’s champion won at least one race at Indianapolis in the season they captured the Al Holbert Cup for an overall championship. 2021 Champion Seb Priaulx (United Kingdom) won twice here that season. Parker Thompson, 2022 Champion, won the first race of the weekend the year of his title. In 2023, Riley Dickinson captured both 40-minute rounds on the way to his championship season.

• Graduate school. Kay van Berlo (Netherlands) and Riley Dickinson (New Braunfels, Texas), both Porsche Selected Driver Program North America pilots, will join with current Carrera Cup driver Jake Pedersen (Orem, Utah) to race in Sunday’s six-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Battle on the Bricks. The trio, all current Kellymoss drivers who also piloted Kellymoss entries in Porsche Carrera Cup North America, will share the GTD class No. 90 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R. Van Berlo has one GTD race win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (Laguna Seca, 2023). It marks the first time either Dickinson or Pedersen have ever driven in the GTD class.

• Newcomers and returners. Stanislav Minskiy will be making his Porsche Carrera Cup North America debut at Indianapolis. The Pro-Am class driver from Mytischi, Russia joins the MOMENTOP FMS x RGB Racing team in the No. 27. Javier Ripoli (Venezuela) returns in the No. 91 to the Pro-Am class, also with MOMENTOP FMS x RGB Racing, for the first time since the first two rounds at Sebring.

• Al Holbert Cup. Since 2021, the Al Holbert Cup has been awarded to the overall champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America. The trophy was named in recognition of Holbert’s commitment, inspiration and leadership in the formation and organization of Porsche motorsports in North America. The silver cup carrying his name is crafted as a timeless and traditional trophy to commemorate each Pro class champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America. The Al Holbert Cup is engraved each year with the champion’s name and year of the championship. This original cup is on display at Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) headquarters in Carson, California. A replica trophy is presented to the champion as their tangible reminder of their milestone season. This award recognizes the true racing spirit of Al Holbert conveying his professional driver’s skill, engineer’s precision and a gentleman racer’s passion. A true link between the past, present and future of Porsche. The Al Holbert Cup will be presented to the overall 2024 champion on the evening of October 20 at the Celebration of Champions in Austin, Texas.

September 30 will mark the 36th anniversary of the loss of North American Porsche motorsport pioneer Al Holbert. A storied racer and one of the all-time leaders in IMSA race victories (49) and pole positions (27), Holbert was a consummate engineer-racer. The Warrington, Pennsylvania-native earned three 24 Hour of Le Mans overall titles as well as two Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring victories racing with Porsche. He became synonymous with the brand and became an intricate part of IMSA racing in the 1980s. Through his skills as a driver, owner and businessman the wildly popular No. 14 Holbert Racing Porsche 962 prototypes remain iconic today. As the first Director of Motorsports for Porsche North America – today’s equivalent position to PMNA president and CEO – Holbert outlined the future of the German sports car manufacturer’s North American racing endeavors. He guided the brand to a fulltime foray in Indy car racing and managed its position as a sports car juggernaut. While tragically killed in 1988 in a private plane crash, Holbert’s vision for the marque lives on.

• To the point. With six more rounds remaining in the 2024 race season, the championship picture is coming into focus. At the front of the field, podium runs at the five most recent rounds and five overall race wins total, place rookie Loek Hartog (Netherlands) and the No. 24 Kellymoss Racing For Children’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car ahead of the field by 57 points over Alex Sedgwick (United Kingdom). Sedgwick trails with one race win (race two at Watkins Glen) and two podium finishes in the No. 98 PT Autosport JDX Racing Porsche. Sedgwick earned a pair of third place finishes at Indianapolis last season giving the second-year driver a boost of confidence entering the final championship push this week. Ryan Yardley (New Zealand) moved into third place in the Pro standings at the most recent weekend at Road America in the No. 78 Topp Racing Performance Porsche. Zachary Vanier (Canada) – driving the No. 9 JDX Racing entry – is 76 points behind Hartog and five markers back from Yardley. Yardley and Vanier have each scored one race win (Yardley, Watkins Glen, race one – Vanier, Miami, race two). Michael Cooper (Huntington, New York) holds fifth place in the standings driving the No. 88 Baby Bull Racing Porsche to 116 points, -90 to Hartog.

The Pro-Am class battle is the tightest on the grid as Marco Cirone (Canada) is only a single point ahead of Moisey Uretsky (Miami, Florida). The No. 65 Kellymoss entry for two-time class champion Efrin Castro (Dominican Republic) is a mere 19 points behind Cirone. 2022 class champion Alan Metni (Austin, Texas) holds fourth place in the No. 99 Kellymoss Porsche only five points behind his longtime rival Castro. Jordan Wallace (Annapolis, Maryland) is still in search of his first series win in the No. 23 Porsche prepared by Kellymoss but has been on the precipice of the top step throughout his rookie season in the Pro-Am class.

Matt Halcome (Dallas, Georgia) has led the Masters class since the opening race of the season. Since that time, he has driven his popular No. 55 ACI Motorsports Scooby Doo “Mystery Machine” livery to four wins and has not failed to podium in any round. He leads the Masters championship standings by 41 points over Chris Bellomo (Portola Valley, California) in the No. 68 Porsche prepared by Kellymoss.

Kellymoss continues its hold on the Entrants standings with 201 points. That places the two-time champions 22 points ahead of JDX Racing and 46 over Topp Racing Performance.

168 points remain available for the season. To collect all the points, a driver would need to win each round, win the pole position and set the fastest race lap for each remaining race. 56 total points are the maximum a driver to capture in a weekend. A victory pays 25 points, second place 20 and third place is awarded with 17 points. A pole position is worth two points while a fastest race lap will add an additional point to the total of a driver in each class. Each of the two races pays a total of 28 points.

• Broadcast. Races air live at PorscheCarreraCup.us, on the IMSA YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@imsaofficial, on the Peacock streaming app and at IMSA.tv. All are archived on the Porsche Motorsport North America YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/PorscheMotorsportNorthAmerica.

• On the web. www.PorscheCarreraCup.us.

  • Image courtesy of Porsche Motorsport North America.

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