Maxson Claims Sebring Race 1 Win

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Tyler Maxson drove to victory in the opening Porsche Carrera Cup North America race of the weekend at Sebring International Raceway, becoming the first driver to win with the new Porsche 911 Cup on U.S. soil.

Maxson, who started on pole courtesy of a new qualifying lap record, drove his No. 77 Topp Racing entry to a controlling win over the No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering Porsche of Jared Thomas.

Thomas took the lead of the 40-minute race on the second lap after a side-by-side battle with Maxson before the Topp driver retook the position on Lap 9 with a move around the JTR owner/driver in Turn 3.

He then extended he lead in the remainder of the race, which ran caution-free, to finish 7.607 seconds ahead of Thomas for his third career Carrera Cup North America win.

Thomas, meanwhile, scored his first career podium, with the No. 24 Kellymoss Porsche of Aaron Jeansonne coming home third.

Series rookie Callum Hedge, in the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche, was fourth after an impressive charge up the running order at the start which he maintained.

Reigning Porsche Sprint Challenge North America champion Cole Kleck survived a late-race off-course excursion to finish fifth in the No. 78 Topp Porsche.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 54 ACI Motorsports entry of Patrick Mulcachy, finishing 30 seconds clear of second-placed James Sofronas in his GMG Racing entry.

Mulcachy finished an impressive eighth overall in the 26-car starting field.

Marco Cirone, meanwhile, claimed victory in the Masters class, his first in the singe-make series in three years, finishing less than one-second ahead of Richard Edge and a hard-charging Scott Blind, who was just 1.1 seconds behind in third.

The No. 68 Kellymoss Porsche of Chris Bellomo was one of three cars handed penalties in the race, after an early incident with Blind’s Rukus Racing Porsche.

Sabre Cook was forced to retire her No. 37 JDX Racing Porsche after contact with the No. 40 ACI Porsche of series rookie Janne Stiak that damaged Cook’s steering rack.

It resulted in a drive-through penalty for Cook, which was unable to be served.

Stiak, meanwhile, was given a ten-second post-race time penalty for blocking, which came prior to the incident with Cook.

It dropped the German driver to 12th place overall result.

The second race takes the green Friday at 5:45 p.m. EST with live coverage on Peacock, IMSA’s YouTube channel 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