The 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup North America season is becoming one of the most intensely fought title chases in series’ history.
No one can rest easy entering the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America from August 1 – 4.
The 4.048-mile, 14-turn “National Park of Speed” offers one of the greatest tests to drivers in a series where success comes down to the pilot behind the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car and the team behind them in an all-Porsche paddock.
Fast, technical and demanding a razor’s edge balance of patience and aggressive driving, the Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin track is an old-school style nemesis to the next generation of Porsche champions.
The premier one-make championship has eight rounds remaining across four race weekends and no class championship – Pro, Pro-Am or Masters – is a lock.
In fact, the contenders in Pro and Pro-Am have changed in each weekend run thus far.
While Loek Hartog (Netherlands) has remained atop the Pro class running order nearly all season, his pursuers have changed regularly each round.
The Pro-Am class leaders have also swapped the top spot seemingly every lap and, while Matt Halcome (Dallas, Georgia) has remained at the top of the Masters class, the 2021 Pro-Am 991 class champion knows one misstep can close the gap quickly.
Practice gets underway on Thursday, August 1 with the 40-minute round nine taking the green flag on Saturday, August 3 and its twin, round ten, on Sunday, August 4.
ROAD AMERICA FAST FACTS
- Field. 36 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars are entered for the weekend.
- Pro class. 15 Pro-Am class. 12 Masters class. 9
- Teams. 11 race teams are represented across all three classes.
Track Record:2:07.586, Riley Dickinson, No. 53 Kellymoss, set in 2023
2023 Race Winners
Pro.
Race 1. Riley Dickinson, Kellymoss
Race 2. Riley Dickinson, Kellymoss
Pro-Am.
Race 1. Efrin Castro, Kellymoss
Race 2. Efrin Castro, Kellymoss
Masters (then known as Am).
Race 1. Scott Noble, MDK Motorsports
Race 2. Scott Noble, MDK Motorsports
Point Leaders.
Pro. Loek Hartog, No. 24 Kellymoss
Pro-Am. Marco Cirone, No. 84 ACI Motorsports
Masters. Matt Halcome, No. 55 ACI Motorsports
Entrants. MDK Motorsports
Schedule. All times Central
Thursday, August 1.
3:00 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. – Practice 1
Friday, August 2.
9:35 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. – Practice 2
5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Qualifying (all classes)
Saturday, August 3
11:45 a.m. – 12:25 p.m. – Race 1 (40-minutes)
Sunday, August 4
11:35 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. – Race 2 (40-minutes)
Hometown heroes.
Kellymoss brings a record nine entries to its “home” race at Road America. The operation, started in 1988, is housed in an 80,000-square-foot facility in the capital city of Wisconsin, approximately 90 miles away.
In 2023, Kellymoss won two of the three classes (Pro and Pro-Am) in both rounds here. The operation also won here in the first year of the series as well. Past Kellymoss Road America race winners Efrin Castro (Dominican Republic) and Alan Metni (Austin, Texas) are both entered this week. Castro is the only driver capable of back-to-back wins at Road America having earned both race titles here in 2023.
Legacy track.
Road America is a “Legacy Track” on the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup schedule. The track joins Sebring International Raceway, Watkins Glen International, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as tracks that hosted the premier one-make race series in its 2021 debut season. Road America, Watkins Glen, Sebring and Indianapolis have hosted a Carrera Cup weekend each season.
Back home.
After one year racing in support of the NASCAR Xfinity Series here at Road America, Carrera Cup North America is back on the IMSA SportsCar Weekend in 2024
Porsche Driver Development Workshop.
Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) continued its long tradition of preparing the next generation of professional race drivers. The 2024 Porsche Driver Development Workshop was held in Mooresville, North Carolina July 18 – 19 at Team Penske, factory partner to Porsche in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP class.
Ten drivers received valuable career experience in sessions with experts from the disciplines of physical training, nutrition, technology, media and career planning. The workshop was held exclusively for Porsche EBOOST North America Junior Program and Porsche Mobil 1 ® Female Driver Program North America drivers.
PT Autosport to continue driver program.
PT Autosport’s Aspiring Driver Shootout program continues this season, with 88 drivers making the cut to the second round of deliberations. Each applicant was asked to submit answers to both video and written questionnaires and a personal profile, with up to 12 aspiring drivers to be chosen to attend the November 11 – 13 Shootout at New Jersey Motorsports Park. The winner will earn a driver partnership package of up to $250,000 for the 2025 and 2026 racing seasons, with second and third also receiving scholarships toward a racing school.
Changes and opportunities.
Since the most recent round at Watkins Glen International, June 20 – 23, a major change to the entry list left drivers scrambling for new homes. When MDK Motorsports announced their departure from the series on June 28, race winners Yves Baltas (New York City, New York) and Dan Clarke (Indianapolis, Indiana) as well as frontrunners Sabré Cook (Grand Junction, Colorado) and Kenton King (San Marino) were need of new teams. All four found rides in time for the weekend. Baltas moved to veteran Porsche entrant GMG Racing while Clarke, Cook and King moved to Era Motorsport.
A new Era.
The events of June 28 brought the plans of one sports car racing team forward several months. While Era Motorsport intended to enter the Porsche Carrera Cup North America in 2025, the opportunity to draft two of the Pro class’s top drivers, Dan Clarke (Indianapolis, Indiana) and Sabré Cook (Grand Junction, Colorado) as well as Pro-Am driver Kenton King (San Marino), changed those intentions.
It assembled a program to support a three-car effort in the series effective immediately. The team was founded in the United Kingdom in 2018 and expanded to North America in 2020.
With an entry campaigning in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s LMP2 class already on its resume, the Porsche Carrera Cup North America was a natural place for the team’s Indianapolis, Indiana-based operation to expand. Era has an LMP2 class win at the Rolex 24 At Daytona LMP2 (2021) and won the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 championship in 2021.
To the point.
The battle at the front of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America standings is heated. Loek Hartog (Netherlands) continues to sit atop the Pro class standings with 150 points.
The driver of the No. 24 Racing For Children’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car prepared by Kellymoss has three wins and two additional podium finishes including a pair of second places at the most recent weekend at Watkins Glen International.
A victory in round eight – the second race at “The Glen” – moved Alex Sedgwick (United Kingdom) and the No. 98 PT Autosport Porsche readied by JDX Racing into second place with 119 points.
The position swap came when Michael Cooper (Huntington, New York) missed the podium at Watkins Glen in the No. 88 Baby Bull Racing Porsche. Cooper holds third place just ahead of Ryan Yardley (New Zealand).
The Pro-Am class is even more intense as the top spot again swapped back between the two leading contenders at Watkins Glen.
Marco Cirone (Canada) took advantage of a low points haul in round eight by Moisey Uretsky (Miami, Florida) to drive the ACI Motorsports No. 84 into a 13-point lead in the class.
Meanwhile, former class champion Alan Metni (Austin. Texas) used a round seven win to jump into the top three. Having only missed one podium in the first eight races of the season, Dallas Georgia’s Matt Halcome continues his firm grip on the Masters class padding his lead to 43 over Mark Kvamme (Columbus, Ohio).
However, Kvamme has withdrawn from the series moving Chris Bellomo (Portola Valley, California) to the effective second position in the title chase.
Kellymoss once again holds the upper hand in the Entrants standings with 151 points. With MDK Motorsports withdraw, the Madison, Wisconsin-based Kellymoss is the effective leader in the category. JDX Racing (139 points) and Topp Racing Performance (127) follow in second and third place.
224 points remain available for the season. To collect all the points, a driver would need to win each round, win the pole position and set the fast race lap for each remaining race.
A victory pays 25 points, second place 20 and third place is awarded with 17 points. A pole position is worth two points while a fastest race lap will add an additional point to the total of a driver in each class.
Broadcast.
Races air live at PorscheCarreraCup.us, on the IMSA YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@imsaofficial, on the Peacock streaming app and at IMSA.tv. All are archived on the Porsche Motorsport North America YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/PorscheMotorsportNorthAmerica.
On the web. www.PorscheCarreraCup.us.
Porsche Carrera Cup North America racer Michael McCann Jr. is set to make a team switch to debut with Kellymoss for the upcoming ninth and tenth rounds at Road America.
In his third season in the championship, McCann has five top-ten finishes with McCann Racing in 2024, including a best finish of fourth in round two this year at Sebring International Raceway.
The second-generation racer made his series debut in 2021, scoring eight top-ten finishes in the Pro class. Last year his season began well with his first two podium finishes in the championship before a practice crash at Road America eliminated him from that weekend.
“The beginning of the season has been eye-opening to everyone at McCann Racing,” McCann said.
“As a one-car team, there are many pros and cons, but we ultimately agreed that joining forces with Kellymoss offers the best chance of success in the series.
“I’m very thankful to the men and women at McCann Racing for their support in this decision, and am looking forward to what the future holds with Kellymoss.”
The 2024 Kellymoss lineup already includes points leader Loek Hartog, young racer Jake Pederson, former Pro-Am champions Alan Metni and Efrin Castro, series Pro-Am rookie Jordan Wallace, and Masters class racers John Goetz and Chris Bellomo.
“One primary differentiator for a driver considering our team is the volume of data available to parse. This will be very helpful to Michael,” said Andy Kilcoyne, CEO and co-owner of Kellymoss.
“With the addition of Michael, Kellymoss currently fields an impressive nine-car effort in Porsche Carrera Cup North America, offering opportunities to benchmark against the very best in the sport, along with solid coaching and mentoring resources.”
Kellymoss has shown off their winning ways again in 2024 with three Pro wins and three in Pro-am.
“After a successful test with the team at Road America, it is clear that Michael is a solid fit,” added Victoria Thomas, co-owner of Kellymoss.
“Culture is critical and he is exactly the type of person our team can enthusiastically rally around. That’s really important when you are working hard and putting in long hours on and off the track.”
Rounds nine and ten of Porsche Carrera Cup North America will be held at Road America during the first week of August. Round nine is scheduled for 11:45 am on Saturday, August 3 and round ten at 11:35 am on Sunday, August 4.
- Porsche EBOOST North America Junior Program and Porsche Mobil 1® Female Driver Program North America
- Porsche Motorsport North America hosts workshop for Junior and Female Driver Programs
- Porsche Penske Motorsport center of 2024 driver training
- Experts provide valuable insight to the next generation of potential Porsche racers
- History of young driver training deep and successful internationally and domestically
Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) continued its long tradition of preparing the next generation of professional race drivers last week.
The 2024 Porsche Driver Development Workshop was held over two days at the headquarters of Team Penske, factory partner to Porsche in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP class.
Drivers received valuable career experience both hands-on and in sessions with experts from the disciplines of physical training, nutrition, technology, media and career planning.
The workshop, eligible only to Porsche EBOOST North America Junior Program and Porsche Mobil 1 ® Female Driver Program North America drivers, took place July 18 – 19.
The highlight of the Porsche EBOOST North America Junior Program and Porsche Mobil 1 ® Female Driver Program North America each year since 2021 has been the Porsche Driver Development Workshop.
While it has changed in name, format and timing since the launch of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America, the core focus of the program has remained steadfast: to offer Porsche one-make drivers’ knowledge to maximize their careers.
All Porsche EBOOST Junior Drivers and Porsche Mobil 1 Female Drivers are invited to attend the official workshop each season. The program provides an opportunity for the drivers to receive a range of educational tools, training and support to take the next step in their career.
The 2024 program was held July 18 – 19 at Team Penske headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina. One year earlier, it had been held at the Porsche Experience Center Atlanta in 2023. All drivers came from either the Porsche Carrera Cup North America or the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama.
While the specifics of the agenda change each year, the basics have remained the same since Porsche first began a similar program in Europe for young prospects.
This system was brought to North America in 2012 and ran as the Porsche Young Driver Academy through 2019. It was rebooted in 2021 with the advent of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America and became more focused on drivers currently running in the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid North America.
This year, drivers received a behind-the-scenes look at the highest level of team operations at Team Penske and the Yokohama Development Center, both in Mooresville.
Other elements of the Workshop included nutritional advice, media and social media instruction as well as the opportunity to train with the Porsche Penske Motorsport GTP race team. American Porsche factory driver Dane Cameron and former international Porsche one-make champion and current Porsche Penske driver Matt Campbell (Australia) were also on hand to offer key insights on how to navigate a career in sports car racing.
The early years
While Porsche has chosen full Junior drivers from the Porsche Global Junior Shootout for decades, Porsche Cars North America and Porsche Motorsport North America first implemented its own program to assist the best young drivers in the United States and Canada to the next level of professional motorsport as well.
Beginning in 2012 and running through 2019, each year, the Porsche Young Driver Academy (PYDA) brought four racers under the age of 24 to a two-day program that included both a classroom day and a track day to hone and display their skills through the direction of experts in their fields.
Like today, the Academy put the drivers through intensive classroom activities with the objective to broaden and sharpen talents not only behind the wheel but also out of the cockpit.
While education was the hallmark of the by invitation-only event, the PYDA also helped determine the IMSA Hurley Haywood Scholarship recipient. At the time, the scholarship was awarded annually to help provide the selected driver with a package of tangible assets to present to teams in IMSA Porsche one-make racing for the next season.
During the span of the program, 33 drivers graduated including future champions like Riley Dickinson, Trent Hindman, Roman De Angelis, Michael De Quesada, Zach Robichon, Elliott Skeer, Madison Snow, Alec Udell and 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric.
2024 Porsche Driver Development Workshop Attendees
- Paul Bocuse. Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama
- Zachary Vanier. Porsche Carrera Cup North America. Pro class winner: Miami (Race 2)
- Elias De La Torre IV. Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
- Jimmy Llibre. Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
- Loni Unser. Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama. Female Driver Development Program participant.
- Therese Lahlouh. Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama. Female Driver Development Program participant.
- Madeline Stewart. Porsche Carrera Cup North America. Female Driver Development Program participant.
- Caroline Candas. Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama. Female Driver Development Program participant.
- Paige Morales. Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama. Female Driver Development Program participant.
- Sabré Cook. Porsche Carrera Cup North America. Female Driver Development Program participant. Highest finishing female driver in Porsche Carrera Cup North America, to-date – P8, three times in 2024.
The remarkable 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup North America season has continued to set new records, with the most recent weekend at Watkins Glen establishing a new record for the most number of race winners in a single season.
Already this year, six different drivers have taken their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup to victory lane – and we’re only halfway through the season.
The Watkins Glen spotlight shone brightly on Topp Racing’s Ryan Yardley and JDX Racing’s Alex Sedgwick as first-time winners.
They joined championship leader Loek Hartog, Gustav Burton, Zachary Vanier, and Yves Baltas as 2024 winners. Since the championship’s debut in 2021, a total of 14 different winners have driven to victory lane – many using Porsche Carrera Cup North America as a key career stepping stone.
Of those winners, Seb Priaulx, Kay van Berlo, Parker Thompson, and Laurin Heinrich have gone on to taste success in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in GTD machinery.
Every winner but one has been in his early 20s. A victor last year at Watkins Glen, Jason Hart remains the only outlier after taking victory as a 47-year-old.
The focus on opportunities for young drivers is a key motivation for the establishment of the Porsche Eboost Junior Program.
Young drivers in both Porsche Carrera Cup North America and Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama receive additional support from Porsche Motorsport North America, including mentorship from Porsche legend Patrick Long.
These young drivers, along with members of the Porsche Mobil 1 Female Driver Program, are set to head to Mooresville, North Carolina, next week for the brand’s annual driver development workshop.
This year the event will be staged at the Team Penske facility – the same building where the IMSA race-winning Porsche 963 prototype machines from Porsche Penske Motorsports are prepared.
“We’re thrilled to have the support of Porsche Penske Motorsport for our 2024 junior and female workshops,” Porsche Motorsport North America President and CEO, Volker Holzmeyer said.
“Many of our factory drivers in the 963 launched their careers via Carrera Cup competition around the world, including Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet, and Matt Campbell. For every young driver in Porsche Carrera Cup North America – one day becoming a Porsche factory driver and getting to race for the brand in prototype machinery is the ultimate goal.”
Workshop participants will receive key career advice at the event focussing on more than just their efforts behind the wheel. Fitness, diet and nutrition, brand management, sponsorship, marketing, social media, and a unique behind-the-scenes look at how television broadcasts are produced for the sport are just some of the key “classes” scheduled.
Porsche focuses heavily on junior driver development around the world. Each of the junior drivers competing in Carrera Cup North America compete for the opportunity to represent Porsche Motorsport North America at the annual Global Shootout. The winning driver from that event earns the opportunity to become an official Porsche Motorsport Junior – following in the footsteps of the likes of Klaus Bacher, Michael Christensen, Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell, Laurin Heinrich and last year’s winner, Frenchman Alessandro Ghiretti
The popularity of Porsche Carrera Cup North America has continued to shine in 2024, with the number of drivers who have raced in the four-year history of the championship reaching 106.
Of those 106 drivers, only two—Kellymoss teammate Efrin Castro and John Goetz—have participated in every race since the championship’s debut at Sebring in 2021.
The series has also attracted strong international interest, with many young stars looking to showcase their talents on the North American stage. While the USA leads the tally with 74 different drivers, 32 drivers from overseas have competed in the championship – 11 of these racers taking overall round victories.
The nationality breakdown of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America alumni includes USA (74) Canada (9), UK (5), Netherlands (3), Germany (3), Venezuela (2), Australia (2), New Zealand (2), Dominican Republic (2), plus Sweden, Puerto Rico, Portugal and France (each with 1).
Topp Racing’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America rookie Colin Kaminsky arrived at last weekend’s Watkins Glen rounds with a new car, new paint scheme, and an even bigger respect for the modern safety advances in motorsport.
The former Indy NXT driver debuted this year at Sebring International Raceway and adapted quickly to finish fifth in his first-ever race in the series. He followed that up with another top-ten finish in seventh in round two.
However, his pair of Formula 1 weekends in Miami and Montreal didn’t quite go to plan. The heavy rain in Sunday’s race in Montreal hampered both traction and vision for the entire field, and Kaminsky, unfortunately, lost control under braking in race two, heading into the final corner.
His No.77 Porsche slid sideways towards the chicane and suffered a dramatic, heavy impact with the Tecpro barrier. Kaminsky ended up in the middle of the road and, fortunately, did not suffer any secondary impacts. Thankfully, he was able to exit the car via the passenger side.
His Topp Racing squad then began a race of their own, putting together a new car for the former open-wheel racer to make the grid for Watkins Glen.
“I went in too deep under braking and lost the rear. I knew I had messed up significantly and that I wanted to get the car turned,” Kaminsky said.
“My first thought was that I had two options. I knew it was going to crash and I didn’t know if it was going to be in the pit lane or in the wall. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the pit lane without knowing who might be standing there, so I chose the wall because I knew I wasn’t going to clear the corner.
“I had time to brace for it – tighten every muscle in my body and get ready for impact. But I knew that it was going to hurt.
“After I came to a stop, I was very shocked that nothing hurt at all. The fact that I got to race at Watkins Glen after walking away from that accident with no broken bones or a concussion is remarkable.
“It’s just a huge testament to the safety of these Porsche race cars that we get to race. Not only that but the advances in our safety equipment, my Bell helmet, the Hans device, the Tecpro barrier – every racer is very thankful for all these advancements.”
As soon as the checkered flag fell in Montreal, the Topp Racing team moved into high gear to get Kaminsky back on track for Watkins Glen.
“The team’s effort was just insane. The tub was destroyed in that crash, but they ordered a new one and built a new car—it is the fastest they’ve ever put a car together. Remarkably, it took them two days!
“By the third day, they were wrapping the car in a brand new livery. The team actually had to split up a bit as they had commitments in Porsche Sprint Challenge the following weekend.
“It really was remarkable. Post Montreal, they headed to Texas where their shop is, build the car, and then be on track at Watkins Glen – it is a logistical miracle and it’s a huge testament to them and how strong and capable they are.”
Kaminsky repaid their faith in him at Watkins Glen by qualifying eighth and finishing both races in the top ten for the second time this season – seventh in race one and ninth in round two.
That in itself would have counted as a win for Topp Racing – but they went even better with Ryan Yardley clinching his and the team’s first overall victory in round seven.
Despite his dramatic Montreal weekend, Kaminsky loved racing not only in Montreal but on all the tracks on the Porsche Carrera Cup North America schedule this year.
“It was a cool event and despite the bad memories, Montreal is still a cool track,” he said.
“I’m really enjoying my time in Porsche Carrera Cup North America. It’s incredibly competitive and I love all the tracks that we’re going to, which is really cool. I had never been to Watkins Glen before, I haven’t raced at Road Atlanta either.
“It’s so very cool to get a diverse calendar, race in front of the IMSA paddock, and at the Formula 1 events to showcase myself.”
