Championship Showdown Set for All Three Classes at Road Atlanta

The Porsche Carrera Cup North America Presented by the Cayman Islands season ends this week with Rounds 15 and 16 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, with a total of 35 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars entered.

Championships in its three classes and the entrants title are all undecided as practice begins on Wednesday, with four drivers capable of capturing the Pro class title, two in the Pro-Am category and three in the Am class.

Fifteen — nearly half —  of the cars entered this weekend are in the Pro class.

The early favorite for the title, Kay van Berlo, did not disappoint from the start sweeping not only Rounds 1 and 2 at Sebring but 3 and 4 on the Long Beach street course as well.

Since that time, he added back-to-back victories at Watkins Glen International for a total of six wins, most in the class, for the year behind the wheel of the No. 3 Kelly Moss Porsche.

Van Berlo has three more podium finishes, seven pole positions and seven fastest race laps. The 2021 runner-up has 270 points coming into the event.

However, four wins, three pole positions and one fastest race lap for Parker Thompson in the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche bring the former open-wheel driver into contention.

The winner of twin races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and single trips to victory lane at Road America and Indianapolis Motor Speedway  have combined for 259 points for Thompson – who finished in third-place in the class last year.

Forty points back from van Berlo is first year contender Trenton Estep. The driver of the No. 6 MDK Motorsports Porsche has three wins, three pole positions and two fastest laps.

Riley Dickinson is the last driver in the Pro class with a victory and the last driver with a shot to take the title from his Kelly-Moss teammate.

Dickinson scored his first win in the series at the most recent round at Indianapolis in the No. 53. The 2021 fourth-place championship finisher has three fastest race laps and one pole position.

With a theoretical 56 points available (25 x 2 for race wins, 2 x 2 for pole position wins and 1 x 2 for fastest race lap in each session) to a single driver over the course of a normal weekend, all four drivers are still in the hunt for the title.

Echoing the battle to the last corner of the inaugural season, Kelly-Moss teammates Alan Metni and Efrin Castro are again the final contenders for the Pro-Am title.

Last year, Castro – then racing for Hardpoint EBM – made a late season charge on the early year dominance of Metni. While the balance between Metni’s No. 99 and Castro’s No. 65 has been more consistent this year, the two enter the final two races of the season with Metni again the leader.

As in 2021, Castro, who has seven wins to Metni’s three, again must overcome the point gap to his teammate to repeat as the Pro-Am class champion.

With only a 14-point deficit, the positions could swap in Round 15 on Thursday.

Midway through the season, the general opinion was that Mark Kvamme would march away with the Am championship in the No. 43 MDK Motorsports Porsche.

However, the nine-time race winner missed rounds 9 and 10 at Toronto, opening up the opportunity for John Goetz and Bill Smith to close on Kvamme.

When Smith missed Road America due to an injury sustained at home, that flipped the top-three in the class for drivers age 57 and older.

Entering the final race weekend, Kvamme holds 272 points, Goetz is 16 points behind in the No. 57 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

Smith has raced the No. 42 Topp Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race car to third-place, 31 markers out of the lead. The three are the only drivers with a chance to secure the Am championship in the seven car class.

Track action gets underway on Wednesday with a pair of practice sessions, followed by qualifying on Thursday morning and the first of the 40-minute races taking the green flag at 5 p.m. ET. Live coverage will be available on Peacock and PorscheCarreraCup.us featuring IMSA Radio commentary.