Porsche Carrera Cup North America travels to Texas for final showdown of the season

by Thomas Moore

Porsche Carrera Cup North America Rounds 15&16

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas PCCNA 8/24

Austin, Texas. The Porsche Carrera Cup North America concludes its fourth season this weekend at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. For the second consecutive season, the premier Porsche one-make championship in North America will crown its champions with a two-round finale in support of Formula 1®. Rounds 15 and 16 of the all-Porsche championship will run on Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20.

The 3.4-mile, 20-turn Grand Prix circuit has drawn 36 pre-event entries across all three classes: Pro, Pro-Am and Masters. Each Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car (Type 992) is mechanically identical and rides on the same Yokohama ADVAN® A005 racing slick, making driver performance and team preparation the determining factors in every session. Since its founding in 2021, Porsche Carrera Cup North America has been a key training ground. Sebastian Priaulx (United Kingdom), inaugural champion in 2021, has Porsche race wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar and World Endurance Championships. Parker Thompson (Canada) took the championship in 2022 and progressed to become a current race winner in the IMSA GTD class. Most recently, 2023 champion Riley Dickinson (New Braunfels, Texas) won his premier and season finale races in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge in January of 2024 driving a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport for Kellymoss.

There will be a single 30-minute practice session on Friday, October 18. A 30-minute qualifying session for all classes will set the grid on Saturday morning. The twin 35-minute races, shortened by five minutes to fit the Formula 1 ® standard, will race in the afternoon on Saturday, October 19, and in the morning on Sunday, October 20.

• Field. 36 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars are entered for the weekend.

• Pro class. 16 | Pro-Am class. 9 | Masters class. 11

• Teams. Nine 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/32/2023/10/09/2024PCCNACOTAPreEventEntryList.pdf

• Series Track Record. 2:06.808, Tom Sargent, No. 17 McElrea Racing, set in 2023.

• 2023 Race Winners.

- Pro. Race 1 & 2. Riley Dickinson, No. 53 Kellymoss

- Pro-Am. Race 1 & 2. James Sofronas, No. 14 GMG Racing

- Masters (previously called Am).

Race 1 & 2. Mark Kvamme, No. 43 MDK Motorsports

• Point Leaders.

Pro. Loek Hartog, No. 24 Kellymoss

Pro-Am. Alan Metni, No. 99 Kellymoss

Masters. Matt Halcome, No. 55 ACI Motorsports

Entrants. Kellymoss

Current Porsche Carrera Cup North America Championship Point Standings.

https://porschecarreracup.us/standings/

• Schedule. All times Central.

Friday, October 18.

2:35 p.m. – 3:05 p.m. – Practice

Saturday, October 19.

9:50 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. – Qualifying (all classes)

3:40 p.m. – 4:20 p.m. – Race 1 (35-minutes)

Sunday, October 20.

11:00 a.m. – 11:40 a.m. – Race 2 (35-minutes)

• Hometown heroes. Two Texans will have an opportunity to celebrate their success with their hometown fans this weekend. Alan Metni, 2022 Pro-Am class champion, is an Austin resident looking to capture his second Porsche Carrera Cup North America championship at his home track in the No. 99 Kellymoss Porsche. Jeff Mosing also lives in Austin and is targeting a victory at COTA in the No. 56 Topp Racing Performance Porsche.

• Formula 1 ® support. The Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is the third weekend on the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup North America calendar to race in support of the Formula 1 ® World Championship. The second and third race weekends of the season were also headlined by F1. Rounds three and four were held at the Miami International Autodrome, May 3 – 5. Loek Hartog raced to the overall victory in race one while Zachary Vanier earned his first career win in race two. Rounds five and six came in Montreal where Carrera Cup was a support event for the Grand Prix of Canada on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, June 7 – 9. While rain battered both rounds, it was Yves Baltas who came across the finish line first in race one, and Hartog who took the checkered flag first in the second race of the weekend.

• Scheduling change. As was the case in both Miami and Montreal, the Porsche Carrera Cup North America standard schedule will be tweaked for the COTA Formula One ® weekend. A single, 30-minute practice session (2:35 – 3:05 p.m. CT) will take place on Friday, October 18 rather than the customary pair of 30-minute practices on other weekends. Qualifying on Saturday (9:50 – 10:20 a.m.) takes place as usual over a 30-minute period. Both rounds will be shortened to 35 minutes with round 15 set to take the green flag on Saturday at 3:50 p.m. CT. The season finale will come just before the United States Grand Prix at 11:00 a.m. CT.

• Celebrate good times. Porsche Motorsport North America will award the Al Holbert Cup for the fourth time on Sunday, October 20. For the second year, the Porsche Carrera Cup North America Celebration of Champions will take place at Porsche Austin where the Pro, Pro-Am, and Masters classes, along with the Entrant champion, will be recognized.

• 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 award recognizes the true racing spirit of Al Holbert conveying his professional driving skill, engineering precision and a passion as a gentleman racer.

• To the point. Loek Hartog (Netherlands) secured his first Porsche Carrera Cup North America Pro class championship with two podium finishes at Road Atlanta in rounds 14 and 15. The driver of the No. 24 Racing For Children’s Kellymoss Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car secured an insurmountable 87-point lead over Alex Sedgwick (United Kingdom) in the PT Autosport JDX Racing No. 98. Sedgwick’s position is more vulnerable. He is a mere five points ahead of Ryan Yardley (New Zealand) in the No. 78 Topp Racing Performance machine and 29 ahead of Zachary Vanier (Canada) in the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche. Dan Clarke (Indianapolis, Indiana) holds fifth place in the overall standings, 38 points shy of second place in the No. 64 Era Motorsport racer.

To date, the Pro-Am class has traditionally been the most fiercely fought. The 2024 championship has been no exception. In fact, entering the final race weekend in Texas, four drivers have a realistic shot at winning the class. Alan Metni – driving the No. 99 Kellymoss entry – holds only a 10-point margin over his teammate and constant championship rival Efrin Castro (Dominican Republic) in the No. 65. Castro has made a serious run at the title in the last two races scoring both Road Atlanta wins. All three Pro-Am titles are held by either Castro (2021, 2023) or Metni (2022). Castro is only one point ahead of Marco Cirone (Canada) who has the No. 84 ACI Motorsports Porsche in third place. Moisey Uretsky (Miami, Florida) has raced the No. 44 Baby Bull Racing up to fourth place with two wins (round four at Miami and round six at Montreal). He is 19 points behind Metni.

The Masters class championship has come down to a two-driver showdown in Texas. Matt Halcome (Dallas, Georgia) enters the final race weekend with 278 points scored over the first 14 races in the No. 55 prepared by ACI Motorsports. Chris Bellomo (Portola Valley, California) sits 34 points behind in the No. 68 Kellymoss machine. No other entry in the class is capable of acquiring enough points to win the title.

The Entrants championship has again come down to two legendary names in North American one-make racing, Kellymoss and JDX Racing. Kellymoss, which has won the title all three previous seasons, retains the standings lead with 291 points, 33 ahead of JDX.

There are now only 56 points per class remaining for a driver to capture. A victory pays 25 points, second place counts for 20 and third place is awarded with 17 points. A pole position is worth two points while setting the 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 Porsche Motorsport North America YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/@PorscheMotorsportNorthAmerica, on the Peacock streaming app and at IMSA.tv.

• On the web. www.PorscheCarreraCup.us.

  • Image courtesy of Porsche Motorsport North America.

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