Thompson Wins Race 2; Points Leader Van Berlo Penalized

Photo: Porsche

Parker Thompson claimed his second Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands victory of the season in a controlling drive in Race 2 of the weekend at Road America.

The JDX Racing driver broke Kay van Berlo’s three-race win streak in Sunday’s hard-fought 45-minute contest that saw the Pro class championship leader handed a post-race drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

Thompson weaved his way into the lead on the opening lap after a three-wide attempt into Turn 1 that dropped van Berlo to third and briefly saw Riley Dickinson lead in the No. 53 Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

An off-course excursion for the No. 27 Kelly-Moss Road & Race Porsche of Sebastian Carazo brought out the first full-course caution on the opening lap.

A wild ride for Hutton McKenna in the No. 88 Wright Motorsports Porsche through The Kink resulted in the race’s second yellow just moments after the Lap 2 restart.

Van Berlo reclaimed the runner-up position on the second restart from Dickinson, who was forced off-course in Turn 4, dropping the Texan to ninth at the time.

The contact between the two cars ultimately gave van Berlo the post-race penalty.

Thompson, meanwhile, stretched out his lead over van Berlo, crossing the line 2.708-seconds ahead of the No. 3 Kelly-Moss Porsche, which ended up finishing 15th overall after being assessed the time penalty. 

Seb Priaulx came home second in his Multimatic-backed Kelly-Moss entry, with Leh Keen completing the podium in the No. 12 311RS Motorsport Porsche.

Dickinson rebounded to finish seventh in his Porsche Austin-backed entry, meanwhile.

Pro-Am class honors again went to the No. 99 Kelly-Moss Porsche of Alan Metni, who finished ahead of the No. 57 Wright Motorsports entry of John Goetz.

Curt Swearingin completed the class podium in third.

Grady Willingham took Pro-Am 991 class honors for Goldcrest Motorsports following an accident for Kent Hunt and Chris Bellomo, who were battling for second in class at the time in the closing stages.

A spin on the final lap by Matt Halcome, who was running second in class at the time, promoted the No. 95 Irish Mike’s Racing Porsche of Conor Flynn to second in class at the line.

RESULTS: Race 2

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