Yardley Charges to Race 1 Pole at The Glen

Ryan Yardley stormed to pole position for the opening race of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America weekend at Watkins Glen International after a late improvement propelled him to the top of the times on Friday.

The Topp Racing driver improved late in the session, locking in a 1:47.349 lap aboard his No. 78 Topp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car on his 11th of 14 attempts around the 3.38-mile road course to outpace ACI Motorsports’ Jimmy Llibre by just 0.154 seconds.

Riley Dickinson jumped to the top of the times early in the 30-minute session, and would finish the 30-minute qualifying session third-fastest, just 0.168 seconds off of Yardley in his Kellymoss machine.

Topp’s Tyler Maxson emerged fourth-fastest with Matheus Leist rounding out the overall top five fastest and Pro class times in his No. 47 Nolasport Porsche.

Kellymoss claimed the Pro-Am pole after Alan Metni placed his No. 99 Carrera Cup car comfortably ahead of ACI’s JP Martinez, setting the 12th-quickest overall time in qualifying.

Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind will start Race 1 from the Masters class pole, and will roll off the grid 19th overall in his No. 45 Porsche.

The only incident of note during the session was an off from Todd Parriott at Turn 5, who was able to bring his No. 13 Kellymoss Porsche back on track after a brief spin.

The half-hour session ran otherwise uninterrupted and entirely green.

Race 1 of the Carrera Cup North America weekend will go green at 2 p.m. EST on Friday with live coverage available on PorscheCarreraCup.us, Peacock, and IMSA’s YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying