Road America Weekend Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***A total of 30 entries are set for this weekend’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands event at Road America. It marks the series’ largest entry since its inaugural rounds at Sebring International Raceway in March.

***Thirty-two cars were initially on the entry list although two have withdrawn. The No. 8 Goldcrest Motorsports Porsche of Joe Still (personal reasons) and the No. 72 Goldcrest entry of Phillip Martien (car damaged from testing accident) will not take part in the pair of 45-minute races.

***Leh Keen posted the quickest time after Friday’s pair of practice sessions. The 311 RS Motorsport driver reeled off a 2:10.027 to edge out the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Parker Thompson by just 0.004 seconds. Practice 1 pace-setter and Pro class championship leader Kay van Berlo ended up third on the combined time charts.

***Click Here for the combined practice results.

***An accident by the No. 27 Kelly-Moss Road & Race Porsche of Sebastian Carazo, whose car ended up on top of the tire barriers at Canada Corner, ruled the car out of Friday’s second practice session as the team works to make repairs in time for this afternoon’s qualifying session.

***Bill Smith, meanwhile, found the Turn 13 barriers in the No. 42 Topp Racing Porsche in the second session, which brought out the day’s second red flag.

***Jimmy Llibre is making his series debut in the No. 16 MRS GT-Racing Porsche, boosting the Pro class grid to 14 cars. The Pro-Am class, meanwhile, has seen the return of Tim Pappas, who contested Sebring with his JDX Racing-run Porsche.

***The Pro-Am 991 class has eight cars this weekend including the addition of Richard Edge (ACI Motorsports) and Connor Flynn (Irish Mike’s Racing).

***Flying Lizard Motorsports makes its series debut with a previous-generation Cup car for Chris Bellomo, who has raced for the team in the USAC-sanctioned Porsche Sprint Challenge North America and Yokohama Drivers Cup. Former Lizard driver Johannes van Overbeek is serving as Bellomo’s driver coach.

“We are not only excited to be bringing Flying Lizard Motorsports to the Porsche Carrera Cup series but also glad to be in the IMSA paddock again as well,” said program manager Darren Law. “Chris will run select events this year in IMSA as part of his training program to expand his efforts in 2022.”

***Seb Priaulx, who has fallen to second in the Pro class championship following van Berlo’s sweep of the weekend at Watkins Glen, has previous experience of the four-mile circuit from last year’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race in Multimatic’s Ford Mustang GT4.

“I really enjoyed racing at Road America in the Mustang last year,” he said. “It’s a fast, technical track and it requires some serious commitment. My goal is the same as always and that is to win both races; I’m feeling confident and I know I can do it. I’ve done a lot of work since the last race, culminating in a test at Road America last week. I want that championship lead back and I will be giving it my all.”

***Road America marks Kelly-Moss Road & Race’s home track, with the Madison, Wis-based team fielding a total of six cars this weekend with representation in each class and currently leads the Pro, Pro-Am drivers’ and entrant’s championship points.

***SP Tools has entered into a technical and marketing partnership that will include the SP Tools Mechanic Team of the Year Award. Unlike other year-long awards which celebrate a single technician, the award will recognize the full-team effort required to provide a championship-caliber program in the series.

***Porsche announced this week that Dr. Daniel Armbruster will be succeeded by Volker Holzmeyer as Porsche Motorsport North America’s President and CEO, beginning in January 2022. Holzmeyer is on-site this weekend to begin the transition process.

***The 2022 Carrera Cup North America schedule will be unveiled this evening during IMSA’s ‘State of the Sport’ address.

***Full coverage of both 45-minute races can be found live at PorscheCarreraCup.us with IMSA Radio’s John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw providing commentary. Coverage is also available on Trackpass on NBC Sports Gold and IMSA.tv.

***Race 1 gets underway Saturday at 12:35 p.m. ET with the second round scheduled for Sunday at 10:45 a.m. 

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