Thompson Breaks Van Berlo’s Win Streak in Race 1 at Laguna

Photo: Porsche

Parker Thompson broke Kay van Berlo’s four-race win streak in Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands following a hard-fought victory Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Thompson became the second different winner of the season, taking his No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car to a 0.515-second win over Trenton Estep in Race 1 of the weekend.

Having started on pole, Estep, in the No. 6 MDK Motorsports Porsche, lost the lead on the opening lap to Thompson, while van Berlo dropped from fourth to ninth after nearly getting caught up in an accident that saw Pro-Am class pole-sitter Efrin Castro in the gravel.

Van Berlo recovered to finish fifth, behind the No. 53 Kelly-Moss Road and Race entry of Riley Dickinson and Leh Keen’s 311RS Motorsport Porsche, which were classified third and fourth, respectively.

Michael McCarthy finished sixth in the No. 7 Kelly-Moss entry, ahead of TJ Fisher and Hutton McKenna.

Pro-Am class honors went to Marco Cirone, who made a late-race pass on Justin Oakes to claim victory in dramatic fashion.

The Mark Motors Racing driver edged out the No. 99 Kelly-Moss entry of Alan Metni, who also got around Oakes with less than five minutes left on the clock.

Castro lost out on a chance of class victory after pitting his Kelly-Moss entry on the opening lap with damage following his incident.

Mark Kvamme, meanwhile, claimed his fourth win of the season in the Am class.

The MDK team owner/driver finished ahead of the No. 57 Wright Motorsports Porsche of John Goetz, with Bill Smith completing the podium in the class for drivers age 57 or older.

The 40-minute contest, the first race of the weekend at Laguna Seca, ran caution-free.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 8:40 a.m. PT (11:40 a.m. ET) with live coverage on Peacock, IMSA.tv and PorscheCarreraCup.us.

RESULTS: Race 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John