Kay van Berlo takes back-to-back victories at Porsche Carrera Cup North America opener

Kay van Berlo drove a near-perfect race to claim an impressive back-to-back victory at Sebring International Raceway for the season opening race week for the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America series.

It was another clean start for the field as Kay van Berlo led the field in to the first corner, once again Parker Thompson made a lightning start to get the jump on Riley Dickinson to take second place on the opening lap. Pro-Am driver Carlos De Quesada was an early spinner after contact from Pedro Torres; De Quesada would recover to track to continue.

By the end of the first lap van Berlo, on fresh Michelin tyres, had already pulled out a visible gap to the second placed Thompson. It wouldn’t be long before Dickinson would make his move on Thompson, dropping him to third place with a small tap (which would result in a warning), into the jaws of chasing Leh Keen and Dimitri Dimakos.

In Pro-Am Justin Oakes took the lead on the opening lap, ahead of Efrin Castro, and Alan Metni. For Am Mark Kvamme led John Goetz and Vernon McClure.

Credit: Porsche

Ten minutes in to the forty-minute race van Berlo was in control and pulling away from the field; Teammate Riley Dickinson was 1.357 seconds back with another 2.2 second gap to Thompson, who was being chased down by Trenton Estep, Dimakos and Varun Choksey.

An optimistic move by Richard Edge on Robert Hanly saw the two collide, Edge tried to pass on the inside and Hanly turned in, possibly unsighted, leaving the two cars briefly stranded in the middle of the track as the field split around them, taking avoiding action.

Leh Keen and Trenton Estep put on a display as Estep moved up to fourth place, the two going wheel-to-wheel through four corners, briefly touching door handles down the straight. Dimakos would take advantage of the unsettled Keen, demoting him to sixth place.

At the halfway point Dickinson had closed the gap on the leading car, with the two Kelly-Moss teammates within half a second of each other. Throughout the field there was a number of battles going on, a midfield battle saw positions changing throughout the lap with Justin Oakes leading an eight car train.

While the two Racing for Children’s-backed Kelly-Moss cars set the pace at the front, a third, piloted by Michael McCarthy fell out of ninth place after an off-track excursion due to a front right puncture. He would manage to get the car back to the pitlane so the team could replace the wheel.

Credit: Porsche

As the clock counted down van Berlo started to pull away once again from teammate Dickinson, lapping consistently again, in the same way he dominated the first race, extending the gap to third place which would eventually be close on nine-seconds by the end of the race.

In the Pro-Am class Moisey Uretsky was hunting down the final podium place as Oakes battled hard to defend. Oakes would hold on to the position until the end of the race, despite his car sliding around on the bumps of Sebring.

With two minutes left on the clock the debris flag was flown on the home straight, as part of the underbody of a Porsche was scattered across the track.

van Berlo finished the race and secured an impressive double victory in twenty laps, ending the forty-minute session 2.9 seconds ahead of his Kelly-Moss teammate Dickinson, with Parker Thompson bringing home the JDX Racing Porsche in third place.

It was the same in both Pro-Am and Am classes as both Efrin Castro and Mark Kvamme took back-to-back victories. Alan Metni took second place in Pro-Am ahead of Justin Oakes. In the Am class Vernon McClure was second, with John Goetz third.

Dickinson was the only driver who managed to unsettle van Berlo’s perfect race week, claiming the fastest lap of the race with a time of 2:03.354.

The 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America will resume at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in California on 8-9 April.

2022 Porsche Carrera Cup North America – Sebring International Raceway – Race 2 results

Pos.	#	Driver	Time	Gap
1	3	Kay van Berlo	41:25.668	–
2	53	Riley Dickinson	41:28.612	+2.944
3	9	Parker Thompson	41:37.516	+11.848
4	6	Trenton Estep	41:42.236	+16.568
5	11	Dimitri Dimakos	41:45.090	+19.422
6	12	Leh Keen	41:47.137	+21.469
7	13	Varun Choksey	41:48.034	+22.366
8	58	TJ Fischer	41:49.418	+23.75
9	81	Grant Talkie	41:54.609	+28.941
10	77	Travis Wiley	42:00.945	+35.277
11	2	Sean Varwig	42:02.397	+36.729
12	65	Efrin Castro	42:07.915	+42.247
13	8	Michael McCann	42:10.685	+45.017
14	99	Alan Metni	42:14.594	+48.926
15	47	Justin Oakes	42:22.092	+56.424
16	44	Moisey Uretsky	42:23.880	+58.212
17	88	Hutton McKenna	42:26.029	+1:00.361
18	56	Jeff Mosing	42:30.800	+1:05.132
19	84	Marco Cirone	42:31.229	+1:05.561
20	24	Adam Adelson	42:31.937	+1:06.269
21	26	Peter Atwater	42:32.809	+1:07.141
22	17	Curt Swearingin	42:34.867	+1:09.199
23	16	Pedro Torres	42:36.828	+1:11.160
24	43	Mark Kvamme	42:41.978	+1:16.310
25	95	Conor Flynn	42:45.625	+1:19.957
26	10	Vernon McClure	42:46.206	+1:20.538
27	55	Matt Halcome	42:49.622	+1:23.954
28	57	John Goetz	42:53.157	+1:27.489
29	29	Jeffrey Majkrzak	43:07.265	+1:41.597
30	69	Thomas Collingwood	43:08.972	+1:43.304
31	42	Bill Smith	43:11.022	+1:45.354
32	89	Mike Zoi	43:13.405	+1:47.737
33	22	Carlos De Quesada	43:17.845	+1:52.177
34	92	Joseph Lombardo	43:26.046	+2:00.378
35	30	Dominique Lequeux	41:31.389	1 Lap
36	18	Richard Edge	41:31.624	1 Lap
37	21	Grady Willingham	41:34.240	1 Lap
38	4	Robert Hanley	41:38.508	1 Lap
39	80	Joe Still	42:12.528	1 Lap
40	19	Tom Balames	42:22.955	1 Lap
41	97	Craig Conway	42:25.068	1 Lap
42	7	Michael McCarthy	21:48.116	10 Laps
DNS	28	Bob Mueller

Watch the full Porsche Carrera Cup North America at Sebring Race 2

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