Van Berlo Had “No Doubts” of Success for Kellymoss With Riley

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Kay van Berlo said he had “no doubts” of achieving wins with Kellymoss with Riley despite the new joint effort having gotten off to a challenging start in early season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races.

The Porsche North America Selected Driver and Bronze-rated pilot Alan Metni scored top honors in the GTD class in last weekend’s Motul Course de Monterey powered by Hyundai N, in a double podium for the team, with Julien Andlauer and pole-sitter Alec Udell finishing third in class.

The previous best finish for the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R had been seventh at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

“We’ve had a rough start to the season but coming away with a win here is definitely a good thing,” van Berlo said Sunday after scoring his first GTD class win and third in the series.

“After all the strategies played out, everyone was on a different strategy. We had an idea of where we were and I realized I was in P2 behind the 44 [car], which was obviously on older tires.

“But they were really good in straight line, so it wasn’t easy to pass them after the restart and obviously the BMW behind me was pretty quick as well, so I had to defend them at the same time.

“Then I had one opportunity coming out of the T11, I was able to pass. It was pretty tight going into T2 for the lead, but it worked out.

“We brought it home from there and I came away with a win.

“Alan this weekend has been really quick, so that certainly contributed to the success and the Kellymoss with Riley guys gave us a really quick car, especially after a rough first part of the season.”

Van Berlo, who drove for the two teams separately last year in Michelin Endurance Cup and Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America competition, said he was confident the new joint effort between team owners Victoria Thomas, Andy Kilcoyne and Bill Riley would produce results.

“I’ve driven for both teams, in LMP3 last year for Riley where we won the Endurance Cup, Kellymoss, where we were fighting for Carrera Cup championships for two years,” the Dutchman explained.

“I have no doubts that the team would be capable of winning in GTD and would give us a good package in order to fight for the win.

“I’ve always had faith in both teams and connecting the two teams this year made it even better since both teams have helped my career a lot in the past couple of years.

“Even though we had a couple of rough races, in Sebring we had good pace. We were at the front but it didn’t completely work out because of several reasons but we had the package to do it.

“We showed it again this weekend. It’s been a long time coming and earlier this weekend we felt like we were on the right track, the right window.

“I had a lot of faith going into the race today that we would be capable of doing it… I’m sure the team will be very successful in the future as well.”

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