By RaceScene Publisher on Thursday, 17 March 2022
Category: The Checkered Flag

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.#DriverTimeGap
13Kay van Berlo41:25.668
253Riley Dickinson41:28.612+2.944
39Parker Thompson41:37.516+11.848
46Trenton Estep41:42.236+16.568
511Dimitri Dimakos41:45.090+19.422
612Leh Keen41:47.137+21.469
713Varun Choksey41:48.034+22.366
858TJ Fischer41:49.418+23.75
981Grant Talkie41:54.609+28.941
1077Travis Wiley42:00.945+35.277
112Sean Varwig42:02.397+36.729
1265Efrin Castro42:07.915+42.247
138Michael McCann42:10.685+45.017
1499Alan Metni42:14.594+48.926
1547Justin Oakes42:22.092+56.424
1644Moisey Uretsky42:23.880+58.212
1788Hutton McKenna42:26.029+1:00.361
1856Jeff Mosing42:30.800+1:05.132
1984Marco Cirone42:31.229+1:05.561
2024Adam Adelson42:31.937+1:06.269
2126Peter Atwater42:32.809+1:07.141
2217Curt Swearingin42:34.867+1:09.199
2316Pedro Torres42:36.828+1:11.160
2443Mark Kvamme42:41.978+1:16.310
2595Conor Flynn42:45.625+1:19.957
2610Vernon McClure42:46.206+1:20.538
2755Matt Halcome42:49.622+1:23.954
2857John Goetz42:53.157+1:27.489
2929Jeffrey Majkrzak43:07.265+1:41.597
3069Thomas Collingwood43:08.972+1:43.304
3142Bill Smith43:11.022+1:45.354
3289Mike Zoi43:13.405+1:47.737
3322Carlos De Quesada43:17.845+1:52.177
3492Joseph Lombardo43:26.046+2:00.378
3530Dominique Lequeux41:31.3891 Lap
3618Richard Edge41:31.6241 Lap
3721Grady Willingham41:34.2401 Lap
384Robert Hanley41:38.5081 Lap
3980Joe Still42:12.5281 Lap
4019Tom Balames42:22.9551 Lap
4197Craig Conway42:25.0681 Lap
427Michael McCarthy21:48.11610 Laps
DNS28Bob Mueller

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

Search for Porsche Motorsport Community on Facebook

Join the Porsche Motorsport Community on: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Discord

Original link