The 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup North America may have a host of fast young stars joining the grid, but in today’s opening practice sessions at Sebring International Raceway, a series veteran topped the times.
Running a single-car team in 2024, McCann Racing’s Michael McCann set the fastest time of the day in the morning session when the 28-year-old stopped the clocks at 2 minutes, 4.094 seconds.
McCann joined the series for the first time in 2022, McCann climbed the podium for the first time at Long Beach and repeated that performance at the Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix.
McCann today headed Kellymoss’ former Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup ace Loek Hartog and series returnee Ryan Yardley. The New Zealander continued his strong end-of-season speed from 2023 when he finished second in the final race of the year at Circuit of The Americas.
“The strength of this field is incredible. So to be P1 after on opening day is like a small victory,” McCann said.
“You never win a race on the first day, but it is always nice to start the weekend strong.”
McCann and the rest of the field battled for the first time today on the new series Yokohama Advan tire, working their way up to speed across the bumpy Sebring circuit.
“I swear this place gets bumpier every year,” McCann said.
“The car feels wicked fast right now, so we’ll see if we can keep going into qualifying and the first race tomorrow.”
Times in today’s afternoon session were slower than this morning as temperatures rose. Jimmy Llibre set the fasting time in practice two – and the fifth fastest time overall – with a lap of 1 minute, 4.444 seconds.
Heading the pack for the Pro-Am class was series rookie Jordan Wallace, who impressed in his first runs for Kellymoss. Wallace set the fastest time of the day in the first session and third fastest in the afternoon.
His teammate and 2022 class champion Alan Metni was fastest in the afternoon session.
In the newly-renamed Masters class, Chris Bellomo was the man to catch – going comfortably fastest in both sessions today. Driving for Kellymoss in 2024, Bellomo headed series returnee Matt Halcome in both practice sessions.
The Porsche Carrera Cup North America championship is back on track tomorrow morning for qualifying at 9:15 am before the first race of the weekend at 3:05 pm.
