Yardley Scores COTA Race 1 Pole; Ties Dickinson on Points

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Ryan Yardley put a firm grip on his title fight in Porsche Carrera Cup North America by claiming pole for the penultimate race of the season at Circuit of The Americas, leading a Topp Racing lockout of the front row.

Yardley, who entered the weekend two points behind championship rival, stormed to pole position in his No. 78 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car on Saturday morning, settling a 2:06.211 lap time.

More importantly, the pole for Yardley has now put him back tied on points with Dickinson.

Yardley’s lap was 0.124 seconds quicker than the sister No. 77 entry of Tyler Maxson, with Dickinson set to start from fourth on the grid after a series of late-session improvements following a red flag.

It included an improvement by Dickinson’s teammate, Aaron Jeansonne, who will start third.

The No. 2 ACI Motorsports Porsche of Jimmy Llibre completed the top-five.

The 30-minute session was halted for Masters class competitor Todd Parriott, who went into the tire barriers and got stuck in the gravel, setting up a rapid-fire of improvements from the front of the pack.

Alan Metni took Pro-Am class pole in his No. 99 Kellymoss Porsche, ahead of title rival JP Martinez of ACI, who qualified second.

The Masters pole went to Scott Blind of Ruckus Racing, who already clinched his class championship prior to this weekend’s final two races of the season.

Race 1 of the gets underway at 2:40 p.m. CST with live coverage on Peacock, IMSA’s YouTube channel as well as PorscheCarreraCup.us.

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