Van Berlo Claims Long Beach Pole in Duel With Estep

Photo: Porsche

Kay van Berlo has claimed pole for Saturday’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands round at Long Beach following a closely fought session with Trenton Estep.

Van Berlo reeled off a best lap of 1:19.985 in his No. 3 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car to edge out Estep by 0.040 seconds.

Estep, driving for MDK Motorsports, held provisional pole for the majority of the session until the Dutchman’s late flyer with just seconds left on the clock.

Riley Dickinson qualified third in the No. 53 Kelly-Moss Porsche, with Leh Keen and Parker Thompson completing the top-five overall and in the Pro class for 311RS Motorsport and JDX Racing, respectively.

Justin Oakes scored Pro-Am class pole in the first-ever split qualifying session in series’ history.

Oakes’ 1:21.602 lap time in the No. 47 Nolasport entry edged out Efrin Castro’s Kelly-Moss-prepared Porsche by 0.493 seconds.

Alan Metni will start third in class in his Kelly-Moss Porsche.

Am class pole honors, meanwhile, went to the No. 43 MDK Porsche of Mark Kvamme.

The Pro-Am/Am session featured two incidents, the first for a spin by Jeff Mosing in Turn 8 prior to Vernon McClure coming to a stop in Turn 10.

Race 1 of the weekend gets underway Saturday at 10:45 a.m. PT (1:45 p.m. ET) with live coverage on the series’ official website and Peacock, featuring commentary from IMSA Radio.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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