Dickinson Trims Kingsley’s Points Lead with Race 1 Victory

Riley Dickinson beat Jeff Kingsley to take three points out of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama championship leader’s advantage in the first of this weekend’s three races at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Texan driver Dickinson, who arrived with 22 points to make up, held off Kingsley at a pair of late restarts to win Friday morning’s 45-minute contest by just under half a second.

Starting from pole position in the No. 53 Moorespeed Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine, Dickinson built a comfortable lead in the first half of the race.

Kingsley quickly maneuvered his No. 16 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche from fourth to second, while Dickinson maintained a lead of about three seconds until two full-course cautions in the final 22 minutes bunched the field behind the pace car.

Dickinson held strong on both restarts with Kingsley directly on his bumper and prevailed by a small margin for his third win of the 2020 season.

Kingsley’s Kelly-Moss teammate Sebastian Carazo completed a successful pass on Sean McAlister in the No. 11 JDX Racing Porsche on the final restart to snatch third.

With the victory, Dickinson trimmed his deficit to Kingsley to 19 points in the GT3 Cup Challenge Platinum Cup class standings for current-generation 911 models.

With two races remaining this weekend at Michelin Raceway and six total the rest of the season, he retains his championship hopes.

In the Platinum Masters class for drivers at least 45 years of age, Charlie Luck collected his first win of the season in the No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche, holding off runaway points leader Alan Metni in the No. 99 Kelly-Moss AM Motorsports entry by 0.789 seconds.

Metni had won eight of the first nine races this season heading into Road Atlanta, while Luck had finished second to the class championship leader on five occasions.

In the Gold Cup class for 911 GT3 Cup cars built between 2014 and 2016, honors went to Efrin Castro whose No. 65 TPC Racing Porsche crossed the finish line 0.781 seconds ahead of Curt Swearingin in the No. 17 ACI Motorsports entry.

It was Castro’s fourth class win of the season and moved him within 10 points of Swearingin atop the Gold standings.

Joseph Lombardo, driver of the No. 92 Wright Motorsports Porsche, earned the Yokohama Hard Charger Award.

The race was also memorable for David Baker, who made his 99th career GT3 Cup Challenge start this morning and will make his 100th this afternoon in the aptly numbered No. 100 Topp Racing Porsche.

Race 2 starts at 1:55 p.m. EST this afternoon, with the final race of the weekend at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Both races will stream live on IMSA.com.