Champion Priaulx Wins Season Finale Ahead of Van Berlo

Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands champion Sebastian Priaulx narrowly beat Kay van Berlo to win the final race of the season at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Priaulx held off his Kelly-Moss Road and Race teammate van Berlo in the second half of the race after a restart from a safety car period after an incident involving Matt Halcome, John Goetz and Bill Smith.

After wrapping up the championship in Race 1 on Thursday, Priaulx started Race 3 from pole and controlled the opening half despite van Berlo keeping within three seconds.

Despite being helped by the safety car’s intervention on multiple occasions – the other instance being for Sean McAlister going off with just over half an hour to go – van Berlo was unable to find a way past Priaulx in the No. 15 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Priaulx claimed his sixth win of the year by a margin of 0.869 seconds, while seven-time winner van Berlo finished the campaign 79 points behind after a total of 16 races.

Riley Dickinson rounded out the podium in third for Team Hardpoint after overtaking JDX Racing’s Parker Thompson.

TJ Fischer completed the top five with Max Root, Dylan Murry and Leh Keen taking the next three finishing positions.

The Pro-Am title battle between Alan Metni and Efrin Castro went down to the final race of the year, and concluded with Castro overcoming his deficit to Metni by winning for the third time this weekend.

Castro arrived at Road Atlanta on Thursday with a 39-point gap to overturn and managed to gradually eat away at Metni’s advantage over the course of the round.

Metni spun into the Turn 10A gravel in Race 3, paving the way for Castro to seal the championship by only two points. Metni needed to finish fifth in order to secure the title.

Dimitri Dimakos rounded off an impressive Porsche Carrera Cup North America debut in the 991-generation class by taking his third victory in as many races.

As was the case in Race 2, Dimakos beat all of the 992-gen Pro-Am category contenders in his older machine with another strong drive.

Despite being one of five drivers who were not running at the checkered flag, Halcome earned the 991 class championship at Road Atlanta courtesy of his results earlier in the event.

RESULTS: Race 3