Van Berlo Spins, Wins Incident-Filled Race 1 at Long Beach

Photo: Porsche

Kay van Berlo claimed victory in Saturday’s incident-filled opening round of Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands, despite spinning his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the process.

The Dutchman took his No. 3 Kelly-Moss Road and Race entry to its third win of three races this season, in a race that ended under full course caution due to a heavy accident by the No. 10 Kelly-Moss Porsche of Vernon McClure in Turn 8.

Van Berlo led from pole and fended off a challenge from Riley Dickinson until Lap 9 when both cars spun on fluid laid down by an accident triggered by Trenton Estep in the Hairpin.

The incident brought out the second caution following an opening lap incident that put Efrin Castro’s Porsche in the flower bed at the Fountain.

Estep, who qualified second, dropped to fourth at the start before going into the Turn 1 runoff after contact with Parker Thompson.

He then made contact with the No. 81 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Grant Talkie in the Hairpin that triggered multiple spins from other cars due to fluid laid down on the 1.968-mile street circuit.

Dickinson, who was running second at the time, dropped to sixth at the time although van Berlo managed to retain the lead.

A restart with 9 minutes left on the clock was quickly followed by a third and final caution for McClure’s hard hit.

The No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche of Thompson finished second, with TJ Fischer completing the overall and Pro class podium in his No. 58 Topp Racing entry.

Michael McCann and Dimitri Dimakos completed the top-five, meanwhile.

Pro-Am class honors went to Alan Metni in the No. 99 Kelly-Moss entry after issues struck Nolasport’s Justin Oakes, while John Goetz picked up the win in Am in his No. 57 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

The second and final race of the weekend gets underway Sunday at 4:20 p.m. (7:20 p.m. ET) with coverage streamed live on the series’ official website and on Peacock, featuring commentary from IMSA Radio.

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