Hartog Dominates Opening Race of Weekend at Road America

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Loek Hartog extended his Porsche Carrera Cup North America Pro class points lead with a commanding victory Saturday at Road America.

The Dutchman in the No. 24 Kellymoss Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car took his fourth victory of the season, in a flag-to-flag run, finishing 4.383 seconds ahead of the second-placed No. 98 PT Autosport-backed JDX Racing Porsche of Alex Sedgwick.

Jimmy Llibre finished third in the No. 2 ACI Motorsports entry.

The results remain provisional pending a post-race review of the race start.

Hartog, who claimed his fourth pole of the season on Friday, jumped out into an early lead from the drop of the green flag and faced virtually no competition over the course of the 40-minute contest, which saw a mid-race full-course caution for the No. 45 Rukus Racing entry of Scott Blind, who stopped on track in Turn 5 after contact with another competitor.

It came after two separate opening lap incidents, one for Pro-Am contender Efrin Castro, who spun his No. 65 Kellymoss Porsche into the Turn 1 gravel trap, along with a multi-car pileup in Turn 5 that was triggered by Michael Cooper, who was served with a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

Cooper, who entered the race third in the points standings, later retired his No. 33 Baby Bull Racing Porsche.

The race ended with a heavy accident between Jake Petersen and Alan Metni in Turn 5, although the race stayed green to the checkered flag.

Ryan Yardley finished fourth after running wide on the restart in his No. 77 Topp Racing Performance Porsche, with Elias De La Torre completing the top-five for JDX.

Dan Clarke, meanwhile, finished sixth in the No. 64 Era Motorsport entry.

Pro-Am saw Pedro Torres take top honors in his No. 16 ACI Motorsports Porsche after an early race issue for class pole-sitter Metni, who dropped down the running order.

Torres held off a hard-charging Marco Cirone, who finished second in class in his ACI Porsche.

Chris Bellomo, meanwhile, picked up Masters class honors, giving Wisconsin-based Kellymoss two of the three class wins on Saturday.

It marked Bellomo’s first career Carrera Cup victory.

The second Carrera Cup North America race of the weekend takes the green Sunday at 11:35 a.m. CDT with live coverage on Peacock, IMSA.tv and PorscheCarreraCup.us.

RESULTS: Race 2

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