Sprint Challenge Nears Finale After USA West Round at Laguna

Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West by Yokohama ran its penultimate round of the season last weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with nearly 30 cars running to support the NTT IndyCar Series finale event.

After a qualifying session that saw the top-three Porsche 992 GT3 Cup race cars separated by just 0.009 seconds, a morning shower limited green flag action for Race 1 on Saturday.

Kenton King, the WeatherTech Pole Position Award winner, went on to score the Pro/Am class victory with Robert Todd and Charlie Hayes completing the podium.

Later in the day for Race 2, Todd mirrored King’s earlier performance by starting from the pole position himself and leading from green flag to checkered. King and Hayes ran second and third, but both drivers faltered and fell down the order mid-race.

Will Wattanawongkiri was elevated to second in Pro/Am after starting seventh and after an incident in Race 1, Sam Parnagian recovered to finish third.

In the Porsche 992 Am category, Peter Ludwig started first in both races but faced a handful of obstacles. Ludwig led for the five minutes of action in Race 1, but was running near Parnagian’s incident that brought out a yellow flag with 30 minutes remaining.

While the race would not restart due to weather, it was determined Ludwig’s Porsche fell behind Laura Ely and Kyle Washington as he navigated the incident, giving the win to Ely and ultimately finishing third.

With both King and Ely – who are teammates at Black Sheep Racing – winning their respective classes in Race 1, the achievement marks only the second time a Sprint Challenge USA West team has swept their class victories and the first team to do so in the 992 categories.

Flying Lizard, a fellow California-based team, holds the record for a three-class sweep last season at two tracks.

In Race 2, Ludwig maintained the lead from start to finish, but held off a hard-charging Ely seeking her second win. Ely started five spots behind Ludwig and finished within a second, while Washington took home another podium in third.

In the 992 GT3 Cup championship standings and with one round remaining, Todd leads King by less than 30 points, while Ludwig leads Ely by only 15 points.

Casey Dennis, meanwhile, had yet another dominant weekend in the Porsche 991 class, sweeping both wins on Saturday. John McInnes shared the podium alongside Dennis in both races, finishing second in Race 1 and third in Race 2, with Jim Walsh and Michael Zuieback having their turn in the top-three as well.

In both races on Saturday, Jade Avedisian and Michael Gaulke claimed swept the Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport Pro/Am and Am class victories, respectively.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2

The 2023 finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is all that remains for both Porsche Sprint Challenge North America and USA West. After first joining together at Circuit of The Americas last month, the two series will reunite again on Oct. 4-7 to conclude both seasons.

All Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama races stream live on FloSports, in addition to the series’ YouTube channel. More information can also be found at www.porschesprint.com and on social media via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.