British racer Alex Sedgwick earned his first pole position in Porsche Carrera Cup North America with the JDX Racing at the Miami International Autodrome.
After a disrupted session with an early red flag and then an early finish due to separate incidents on course, Sedgwick edged out Jimmy Llibre (ACI Motorsports) and Ryan Yardley (Topp Racing) with a lap of 1.57.164.
The British racer debut in the championship last season and finished fourth in the points after collecting three podiums in the final six rounds.
“This is my first pole in Carrera Cup – in fact, I think double pole for both races. Obviously, I’m super happy,” Sedgwick said.
“The car was incredible, and my team at JDX did a great job. It is all starting to come together. Our season feels like it’s really been started, and I’m really excited about the race today.
“In qualifying, we had a red flag halfway through the session, which was a bit nerve-wracking.
“I knew that I was in a good position, but I didn’t know whether we were going to go green again. We ended up getting back on track, and some people improved but we were lucky to hold on.”
Sebring winners Gustav Burton (MDK Motorsports) and Loek Hartog (Kellymoss) rounded out the top five.
After winning both Pro-am races last year, Efrin Castro again showcased his Miami speed to lead qualifying today. The Dominican Republic racer headed Kellymoss teammate and rival Alan Metni with GMG Racing’s James Sofronas in third.
“I’ve been working hard with Riley Dickinson working with me as my coach. He pushed me to go out and set a fast lap straight away and thank God that we accomplished that with the first set of tires,” Castro said.
“Afterwards, it got really tricky with the red flag. After we went green, we went back out on new tires and were on a good lap, but there were some fluids on the track, and we had to bail out.”
The Masters class was headed by Kellymoss racer Chris Bellomo who took pole ahead of MDK Motorsports’ Mark Kvamme – the man who won both races here in the class last year.
“I love Miami. It’s super unique and very challenging. I really like this track a lot,” said Bellomo.
“Qualifying was eventful, that’s for sure. I had some contact on the first lap and some issues. Then I did my first lap, and my second was my fastest lap.
“We went back out, and I had a really good lap going, and unfortunately, the red came out right before I was going to cross start finish.
“So that was a little bit of a bummer, but super happy and thankful for P1.”
Round three of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America will go green today at the Miami International Autodrome at 5:50 pm.
