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Hartog clinches Porsche Carrera Cup North America championship at Road Atlanta

Review, Porsche Carrera Cup North America, Rounds 13 & 14, Braselton, Georgia

Braselton, Georgia. Loek Hartog (Netherlands) clinched his first Porsche Carrera Cup North America Pro class championship with a full race weekend still remaining on the 2024 schedule. The series’ rookie used two second place finishes at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to put his nearest championship contender out of mathematical reach of the title. Rounds 13 and 14 at the Braselton, Georgia track saw Zachary Vanier (Canada) and Ryan Yardley (New Zealand) each win their second races of the season on October 10 and 11 respectively.

Hartog has scored seven race wins in 14 rounds with an additional five podium finishes for a total of 303 points thus far. The point total puts the No. 24 Kellymoss Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car 87 points ahead of Alex Sedgwick (United Kingdom) in the No. 98 PT Autosport JDX Racing entry in the all-Porsche race series. The Pro-Am races were both won by 2021 and 2023 class champion Efrin Castro (Dominican Republic). Castro’s performance tightened the championship chase in the class to a narrow 19 points between Alan Metni (Austin, Texas) in the lead and Moisey Uretsky (Miami, Florida) in fourth place. In the Masters class, the No. 18 ACI Motorsports machine of Richard Edge (Atlanta, Georgia) raced to victory lane in race one while Chris Bellomo (Portola Valley, California) drove the No. 68 Kellymoss Porsche to the win in race two of the weekend. By virtue of two Georgia podiums, Bellomo closed to within 34 points of Masters class leader Matt Halcome (Dallas, Georgia).

Porsche Motorsport North America will crown champions in all three classes at the Porsche Carrera Cup North America season finale at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA), October 18 – 20 in Austin, Texas.

Round 13. Thursday. October 10, 2024.
Zachary Vanier saw an opportunity to secure his second Porsche Carrera Cup North America race win of the year and moved on it. Starting in third place on the Pro class grid, the Canadian followed points leader Loek Hartog – who jumped into the lead in the first turn – and polesitter Alex Sedgwick through the first 10 of 12 corners at Road Atlanta. When Hartog ran deep into turn 10B to defend against Sedgwick, second in points, who was making a move for the lead in the No. 98 PT Autosport JDX Racing Porsche, the pair left the door open. Vanier pushed into the space, making it three-wide going under the bridge and down the hill into turn 12. He cleared his teammate and Hartog at the end lap one in the lead. He never backed off and reached the checkered flag with a gap of just one second ahead of Hartog. Ryan Yardley moved ahead of Sedgwick for the final step on the Pro class podium in the No. 78 Topp Racing Performance Porsche.

The Pro-Am class battle was also a fight of the class points leaders. A surging Efrin Castro secured his second race win of the year – the first coming in Miami’s round three – in the No. 65 Kellymoss entry. The two-time class champion bettered his teammate Alan Metni (Austin, Texas) in second place with the win while Marco Cirone (Canada), in the No. 84 ACI Motorsports Porsche finished in third place while Moisey Uretsky (Miami, Florida) was in fourth place driving the No. 44 Baby Bull Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

In the Masters class Richard Edge secured his third race win of the season – second in a row – in the No. 18 ACI Motorsports machine. Edge narrowly bettered his ACI teammate and fellow Georgian Matt Halcome – behind the wheel of the No. 55 – to the win. Halcome’s second place result helped pad his points lead over Chris Bellomo (Portola Valley, California) with three rounds remaining. Bellomo drove the No. 68 Kellymoss Porsche to a fourth-place finish missing the last step of the podium to Scott Blind (Fenton, Missouri) who drove the No. 45 Ruckus Racing Porsche to third place.

Round 14. Friday, October 11, 2024.
Ryan Yardley piloted the No. 78 Topp Racing Performance Porsche to his second win of the season. As Vanier did a day earlier in race one, Yardley held off Loek Hartog. The “champion in waiting” pressed Yardley so hard that Hartog drove wide coming out of the 12th turn, taking all four Yokohama racing slicks off the track. Hartog saved the No. 24 Racing For Children’s Kellymoss entry, but with radiators now packed with grass and red Georgia clay, he had to slow as temperatures in the engine grew. Yardley, who won his first race in round seven at Watkins Glen International in June, held on to win by nearly two seconds. Hartog followed across the finish line in second place for the second day in a row putting himself out of reach in the championship. Race one winner Zachary Vanier finished in third place.

The Pro-Am battle was even more intense as the championship chase narrowed on points and widened on contenders. Efrin Castro (Dominican Republic) won for the second consecutive day while teammate Alan Metni finished in second and Marco Cirone in third place, just as they had the day before. That brought the top four positions in the class to within 19 points of one another, only 11 points separate the top three.

The Masters class saw Halcome control the early season in the No. 55 ACI Motorsports Porsche. However, the competition began to close on him as the season progressed. With a race two win at Road Atlanta added to his total, Bellomo is within 34 points of Halcome, who finished in fourth place on Friday.

• Pro class winners.
o Race 1. Zachary Vanier, No. 9 JDX Racing
o Race 2. Ryan Yardley, No. 78 Topp Racing Performance
• Pro-Am class winners.
o Race 1 & 2. Efrin Castro, No. 65 Kellymoss
• Masters class winners.
o Race 1. Richard Edge, No. 18 ACI Motorsports
o Race 2. Chris Bellomo, No. 68 Kellymoss

• On point.
o Pro class. Loek Hartog, No. 24 Kellymoss (clinches championship)
o Pro-Am class. Alan Metni, No. 99 Kellymoss
o Masters class. Matt Halcome, No. 55 ACI Motorsports
o Entrant. Kellymoss

• To the point. Complete Porsche Carrera Cup North America point standings can be found at: https://porschecarreracup.us/standings/ .

• Broadcast. All 2024 races are archived on Porsche Motorsport North America TV: (https://www.youtube.com/c/PorscheMotorsportNorthAmerica).

• Online. Porsche Carrera Cup North America: www.PorscheCarreraCup.us

• Next Up. October 19 – 20. Circuit of The Americas, Austin, Texas, Rounds 15 and 16.

Quotes.
Loek Hartog, No. 24 Kellymoss, 2024 Pro Champion.
“It was an almost perfect year. Very thankful to all people who made it possible. It was a very good year with a lot of nice memories made and a lot of things learned, that is why I came here. It feels very special to do this with all of these people. They became a family for me.”

Zachary Vanier, No. 9 JDX Racing, Pro Winner, Race 1.
“That was absolutely amazing. This, by far, ranks as one of the best, if not the best, races of my career. Perfectly executed by the JDX team. We came here testing last week and we left with a relatively good program and something I thought we could come here and compete with. I think we showed that this weekend. We had a really good qualifying session which put us in contention for this and, of course, maximizing the race and capitalizing on everything we could. I am absolutely thrilled right now. I can’t thank the entire JDX team enough. This is truly amazing.”

Ryan Yardley, No. 78 Topp Racing Performance, Pro Winner, Race 2.
“Pretty exciting race. Nice to get the win here. It is always good to go from pole position, lead every lap and win the race. Massive thanks to everyone at TCS and Topp. Looking forward to COTA next week. I am looking forward to finishing the season on a high.”

Efrin Castro, No. 65 Kellymoss. Pro-Am Winner, Race 1 & 2.
“It is amazing. I want to take this moment to give thanks to God, to the Man Above. He set me up to have a great weekend. I have so much support from my pastor, from my family, from my friends. Everyone was behind me. I am glad I was able to pull this win because it still gives us a chance. I am racing for the kids – for Children’s of Alabama – and my goal for this year was to give them something to be proud of. They fight way harder to overcome their challenges than we do. This is a special moment for us. I am glad we got the two wins.”

Chris Bellomo, No. 68 Kellymoss. Masters Winner, Race 2.
“Things worked out at the start today. I had a really good race managing what was going on ahead of and behind me. We are going to give the championship our best shot at COTA. We had a really good test there. I am going to stay positive.”

• 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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