Vanier Wins Yellow-Filled Opening Race at COTA

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Zach Vanier claimed his third Porsche Carrera Cup North America victory of the season following a caution-filled opening round of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The JDX Racing driver made an inside move around pole-sitter Loek Hartog at the start of the 35-minute race to take the lead and hold off the Pro class champion-elect through two lengthy full-course cautions and restarts.

Vanier finished ahead Hartog, with the No. 88 Baby Bull Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Michael Cooper completing the podium in Race 1, following a late-race two-car incident that ended the race under yellow.

Ryan Yardley drove his No. 78 Topp Racing Performance Porsche to a fourth place result, ahead of Alex Sedgwick’s PT Autosport-backed JDX entry, which completed the top-five.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 65 Kellymoss Porsche of Efrin Castro, ahead of James Sofronas and Marco Cirone.

It came after class pole-sitter and championship leader Alan Metni finished fourth in his Kellymoss Porsche.

Metni provisionally holds the lead by 1 point over Castro heading into tomorrow’s title-deciding race.

An opening lap airborne crash for Masters class points leader Matt Halcome turned the championship prospects upside down, with Chris Bellomo provisionally closing to within 12 points of the ACI driver following Bellomo’s class victory on Saturday.

Halcome escaped injury in the accident, which came after contact with the No. 70 JDX Racing entry of Joel Johnson.

The second yellow came for an incident for series debutant John Gililand stopped on track on the restart lap, while Peter Atwater and Todd Parriott came together in the closing minutes to bring out the race-ending third yellow.

The season-ending race gets underway Sunday at 11 a.m. CDT with live coverage on PorscheCarreraCup.us, Peacock 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