The Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America will open the second half of its third season at Road America, July 27–29, as the premier Porsche one-make race series will act as support for NASCAR for the first time. The all Porsche 911 GT3 Cup series will run a pair of 40-minute races on the 4.048-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course with round nine of the 16-race championship coming on Friday, July 28. Round 10 will take place just minutes before the NASCAR Xfinity Series feature on Saturday, July 29.
The field will include 35 cars including 20 Pro class entries, eight in the Pro-Am class and seven in the Am class. Riley Dickinson has led the Pro points standings since the first weekend of the season and currently holds a 63-point lead over Tom Sargent in second place. That is a nine-point increase gained at Watkins Glen while he has pulled away from Will Martin in third place by 76 points. This despite Martin winning the first round at The Glen. By virtue of his victory in race one at Watkins Glen, Jason Hart is in fourth place with 82 points.
A pair of second places last round gives Efrin Castro (170 points) a 20-point margin over Marco Cirone in the Pro-Am class. Cirone is 20 points ahead of Jeff Mosing, who won the class both races at Watkins Glen.
Mark Kvamme maintains a 50-point lead in the Am class over Scott Noble (197-147). However, that is actually a two-point drop from where the defending Am class champion stood entering The Glen.
Kellymoss gained nine additional points over McElrea Racing in the entrants’ championship at Watkins Glen. The two have 182 and 145 points respectively. JDC Racing has 135. Dickinson retains his lead in the Junior ranks.
This weekend marks the first time that Carrera Cup has run support to NASCAR. In addition to the Xfinity series, the Porsche one-make series has raced with IMSA 13 times, IndyCar (three times) and Formula 1 (once, with a second race scheduled at COTA to close 2023). Twice the series has shared Long Beach with IMSA and IndyCar. The series will also run at Porsche Rennsport Reunion 7, Sept. 28-Oct. 1 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Junior masterclasses
Porsche Motorsport North America held its Porsche Motorsport North America Junior Development Program training event at the Porsche Experience Center Atlanta last week. Twelve drivers — six from Carrera Cup and six from Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama — spent two days in Atlanta discussing nutrition, mental performance, visual performance training, physical testing and training, use of race simulators, personal brand management, sponsorship, digital and social media and presenting and on-camera training.
Drivers included Riley Dickinson, Jimmy Llibre, Will Martin, Thomas Sargent, Elias De La Torre IV, and Sean Varwig from Carrera Cup and Chloe Chambers, Nicholas Maloy, Aidan Kenny, Zachary Vanier, Riley Pegram and Paul Bocuse from Sprint Challenge. Presenters were Tanner Foust (Personal Brand Management), Jeff Zwart (sponsorship), Bob Varsha (media), Dr. Kalie Baker, Jeremy Mullins (nutrition), Ian Berwick (PAGID Bakes), Scott Baker (Director, Marketing Communications for Porsche Cars North America) and Patrick Long.
Record holder
Carrera Cup regular Dimitri Dimakos earned a new distinction at Road America in May. Driving an unmodified Porsche 911 GT3 RS on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R N0 street tires, Dimakos set a new production car track record lap of two-minutes, 5.17-seconds. The effort was supported by Goldcrest Motorsports and Carrera Cup Am class driver Jeff Majkrzak.
Homefield advantage
Kellymoss needs little extra incentive to perform. However, the overall Carrera Cup championship winning operation the last two seasons will enjoy a homefield advantage at Road America. The entrant of seven cars — spread across all three classes — is based in Madison, Wis., less than two hours from Elkhart Lake. Shockingly, the juggernaut team of the series only has only one overall win here, Kay van Berlo (2021).
Schedule (All times Central
Thursday, June 27.
10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Practice 1 3:30 p.m. – 4:10 p.m. – Practice 2 Friday, June 28.
10:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. – Qualifying (all classes) 2:55 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. – Race 1 (40-minute race) Saturday, June 29.
12:15 p.m. – 1:55 p.m. – Race 2 (40-minute race)
Broadcast
All races air on the Peacock streaming app, IMSA.tv and PorscheCarreraCup.us and are archived at: https://www.youtube.com/c/PorscheMotorsportNorthAmerica.
On the web. www.PorscheCarreraCup.us.