Dominant performance by Kay van Berlo in opening race of Porsche Carrera Cup North America season

Kay van Berlo fired a warning shot to his rivals as he dominated the opening race of the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America season at Sebring International Raceway.

Starting from Pole position, the Kelly-Moss Road and Race driver led the field into Turn 1 as JDX Racing’s Parker Thompson got the jump on Riley Dickinson. Thompson would put pressure on van Berlo throughout the opening laps of the race, at one point pulling alongside. This would prove to be the only challenge to the lead of the race as van Berlo remained calm and pushed on for victory, eventually ending the race nearly six-seconds clear of Thompson.

For Thompson the early charge for the lead soon turned in to a race of defence as Kelly-Moss driver Riley Dickson tailed the JDX Racing Porsche, waiting for his chance to pounce, despite collecting damage on the opening lap of the race to the splitter on the front of his car. Normally damage like this would see the driver fall down the order with the loss of downforce but Dickinson soldiered on, looming large in the mirrors of Thompson’s car.

The top three cars remained near each other for the opening half of the race, pulling out a gap to fourth place, with van Berlo released at the front as his teammate battled on, he put in consistent lap times, including the fastest lap of the race (2:03.520) to go on to victory. Thompson and Dickinson would take second and third places, with a gap of over ten-seconds to the next car, Trenton Estep of MDK Motorsports.

Credit: Porsche

Fifth-place finisher Leh Keen in the 311RS Motorsport car had a relatively quiet race, finishing a second and a half behind Estep and five seconds over Michael McCarthy in sixth place.

McCarthy came out on top of the fierce battle for sixth place, which saw a train of five cars, and at one point of the race three-wide as Michael McCann, Dimitri Dimakos, Varun Choksey, and Grant Talkie fought hard.

In the Pro-Am class there was another dominant winner, and once again a Kelly-Moss car. Efrin Castro led the class from the start of the race and was never under any pressure for the Pro-Am lead. The fight for second place however was a different matter, as Alan Metni and Justin Oakes tussled for position, in the end Kelly-Moss driver Metni took second place ahead of Oakes.

The Am class saw victory for a new team as MDK Motorsports owner/driver Mark Kvamme dominated the race, eventually finishing over ten seconds ahead of Bob Mueller ad Jeff Majkrzak.

Despite the huge field of cars, 41 of the 43 starters finished the race, a huge testament to both Porsche and the field of competitors for make it through the gruelling race across the bumps of Sebring. TJ Fischer was the first driver to retire from the race, a huge lock up on lap 6 led to a flat-spot on his tyre which ultimately saw the tyre delaminate and explode, causing damage to the front right of the Porsche.

The second retirement of the race was Hutton McKenna, who got caught up with Tom Balames into Turn 1 in the closing stages of the race; Balames managed to continue while McKenna was left on the side of the track with a broken car.

2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America – Race 1 – Sebring International Raceway Results

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