Jimmy Llibre led a doubly special day for ACI Motorsports, winning in the ExxonMobil Pro class for the first time of his Porsche Carrera Cup North America career.
A victory in Carrera Cup had been elusive for Llibre, a longtime Porsche single-make driver, until Saturday afternoon at Road America. Llibre lunged for the lead in the opening turns of lap one, moving from third to first, and finishing by more than 1.5 seconds ahead of the field.
“(I feel) a lot of emotions, but I’m really proud to represent my country, my teammates and ACI Motorsports,” said Llibre, who hails from the Dominican Republic. “A big thanks to all my sponsors who make this possible. Thank you so much ACI, and let’s go for more.”
The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars (992 generation) all jockeyed for position at the start of the 40-minute race, and second-place finisher Zachary Vanier took advantage of the action. Vanier started fifth prior to his sixth podium of the season, while Ryan Yardley followed in third.
Yardley’s finish means he closes the gap to Pro class championship leader Riley Dickinson to just five points prior to Sunday’s race at the 4.048-mile circuit.
ACI Motorsports was also victorious in the Solairus Aviation Pro-Am class,
winning with championship leader JP Martinez. Martinez started second behind polesitter Alan Metni, but assumed the top spot within the first five minutes of the race.
“I didn’t get to test here, so I felt I was on my back foot a little bit this weekend,” said Martinez. “But the team gave me an amazing car, so kudos to them. It’s a special day because we won overall first place and Pro-Am first place, so hats off to the team for doing such a good job. Extremely happy.”
Metni maintained second place by the race’s end, while Brady Behrman finished third.
Peter Atwater wound up as the only polesitter to win in class on Saturday, starting first and finishing first in the Solairus Aviation Masters class. It was also Atwater’s first-ever win in the series.
Rob Walker tried to keep his JTR Motorsports Engineering teammate within striking distance but was resigned to second place by just over two seconds. Championship leader Scott Blind completed the class podium.
“I was just trying to hit my marks,” said Atwater. “The team put together a great car, we’ve been working on it for four days. It felt good, it’s good to have a teammate behind me and Scott always makes us push a little harder. He’s a tough guy to beat.”
The final Porsche Carrera Cup North America race at Road America goes green on Sunday, August 3, at 11:35 a.m. ET.
All Carrera Cup races, including replays from Road America, will be shown live on IMSA and Porsche Motorsport North America YouTube Channels, IMSA TV, Peacock, and the Porsche Motorsport North America social channels on Facebook, Linkedin, Threads and X.
