Hartog Takes Flag-to-Flag Win in Race 1 at Indy

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Loek Hartog inched closer to the Pro class championship with a flag-to-flag win in Friday’s opening Porsche Carrera Cup North America round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Dutchman earned his sixth victory of the season, driving the No. 24 Kellymoss Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car to a 8.421-second win over the No. 78 Topp Racing Performance entry of Ryan Yardley.

Hartog jumped into the lead from pole in the 40-minute contest, which ran caution-free despite an opening lap incident between Sabre Cook and Elias Da La Torre that sent De La Torre briefly airborne.

Both cars continued, with no penalty issued by race control.

De La Torre, meanwhile, had side-by-side contact with Marco Cirone later in the race with no action as well.

The No. No. 98 PT Autosport-backed JDX Racing entry of Alex Sedgwick finished third, with Michael Cooper and Zachary Vanier completing the top-five for Baby Bull Racing and JDX, respectively.

Jimmy Llibre, who was running second for the majority of the race, dashed into the pits on the final lap with a suspected mechanical issue.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 99 Kellymoss Porsche of Alan Metni, who came home ahead of the sister entry of Efrin Castro.

Moisey Uretsky was third in the No. 44 Baby Bull Porsche, who took over the class championship lead.

Rukus Racing’s Scott Blind, meanwhile, picked up the Masters class win after a ten-second post-race penalty for Richard Edge due to abusing track limits.

Edge was demoted to fourth in class after the penalty.

Race 2 gets underway Saturday at 11:10 a.m. EDT 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