Llibre Takes Saturday Victory at Road America

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Jimmy Llibre picked up his breakthrough first Porsche Carrera Cup North America victory in a commanding near flag-to-flag run in Saturday’s opening race of the weekend at Road America.

Llibre, who started third on the grid, got around pole-sitter Tyler Maxson and second-placed Riley Dickinson at the start of the 40-minute contest.

The ACI Motorsports driver then held off the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Zachary Vanier by 1.554 seconds in the race that ran caution-free.

The win remains provisional pending a post-race investigation of an incident between Llibre and Pro class championship leader Dickinson at the start.

Title rival Ryan Yardley completed the podium with a third place finish in his No. 77 Topp Racing Porsche, ahead of Dickinson, who got around the No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering entry of Jared Thomas with four minutes to go.

Yardley has provisionally closed to within five points of Dickinson in the Pro class championship.

Dickinson’s teammate Aaron Jeansonne was sixth, ahead of seventh-placed Maxson at the checkered flag after a last-lap scrap between the two cars.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 4 ACI Porsche of JP Martinez, who finished ahead of the No. 99 Kellymoss machine of Alan Metni.

Peter Atwater, meanwhile, picked up the win in Masters, in the No. 12 JTR Motorsports Engineering Porsche.

The No. 53 JTR entry of Rob Walker was second, with Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind completing the class podium in third.

The race’s only notable incident came on the second lap when the No. 11 Alegra Motorsports Porsche of Michael De Quesada had contact with Matheus Leist’s No. 47 Nolasport entry on the entry into Turn 5.

De Quesada was handed incident responsibility and was given a stop-and-60-second penalty as a result.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 10:35 a.m. CST with live coverage on Peacock as well as Porsche Motorsport North America and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

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