Kingsley Wins Opening Race of Weekend at Mid-Ohio

A trend throughout the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama season continued Saturday morning at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

In the four weekends that the series has run so far this year, the first victory of each weekend has gone to Jeff Kingsley in his No. 16 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Race 1 of 3 in Lexington, Ohio, was no different as the Canadian tallied his fourth career Platinum Cup class victory.

Kingsley started second alongside polesitter Riley Dickinson in the No. 53 Moorespeed Porsche but got a speedy start that saw him overtake Dickinson for the lead moments after the green flag flew.

He finished 3.284 seconds ahead of Dickinson, despite getting mired in slower traffic in the closing stages.

The front row will be flipped from Race 1, with Kingsley on pole and Dickinson – who has two wins of his own this season – on the outside front row.

Rounding out the podium and earning the Yokohama Hard Charger Award for gaining the most positions throughout the race was Sean McAlister in the No. 11 Porsche for JDX Racing. McAlister – who finished third twice at during the most recent round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the first time this season – started seventh on the grid.

Metni, who scored his seventh consecutive Platinum Masters victory, held on for fourth.

In the Gold Cup class for Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars built between 2014 through 2016, a blanket could have been thrown over the four Porsches for the first half of the 45-minute race. Bart Collins started from pole and held off the hard charging No. 65 TPC Racing Porsche of Efrin Castro.

However, Curt Swearingin would not be denied as he slowly picked off both cars and inherited the lead around the 20-minute mark. Shortly after he took the lead from Collins, the latter spun in his No. 22 MCR Racing Porsche and Castro finished 4.822 seconds behind for the runner-up position.

Race 2 at Mid-Ohio goes green at 3:35 p.m. ET, with the third and final race of the weekend set for Sunday at 9:20 a.m. Both races can be streamed live on IMSA.com.

RESULTS: Race 1