Thompson Closes Points Gap With Race 1 Win at Indy

Photo: Porsche

Parker Thompson claimed his fourth Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands win of the season in the opening race of the weekend at the Porsche Sports Car Together Fest at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Indianapolis-based Canadian took his No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car to a 1.362-second win over Kay van Berlo in the No. 3 Kelly-Moss entry following a late-race restart to the finish in the 40-minute contest.

Having started from pole, Thompson maintained the lead through the opening stages although his slight advantage over the No. 53 Kelly-Moss Porsche of Riley Dickinson was erased just prior to halfway when Jeffrey Majkrzak spun and beached his Am class No. 29 Goldcrest Motorsports Porsche in Turn 10.

It set up a 14-minute shootout to the finish, which saw van Berlo make a late-race pass on Dickinson for the runner-up position.

Dickinson completed the podium in third, followed by Carrera Cup North America debutant Matty Graham, who got around MDK Motorsports teammate Trenton Estep with eight minutes to go.

Michael McCarthy came home sixth ahead of Leh Keen in seventh and Travis Wiley in eighth.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 65 Kelly-Moss Porsche of Efrin Castro, who crossed the line 1.913 seconds over Curt Swearingin’s ACI Motorsports entry in second and Alan Metni, who completed the class podium in his No. 99 Kelly-Moss Porsche.

MDK’s Mark Kvamme, meanwhile, took another controlling victory in the Am class, meanwhile.

Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon finished 22nd overall out of the 33 starters, finishing one position ahead of Kvamme in Gordon’s first competitive race outing in more than five years.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on PorscheCarreraCup.us and IMSA.tv.

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