Riley Dickinson scored his third Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America pole position of the season in qualifying at the F1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix event this morning, claiming the top spot by 0.330 in the #53 Kellymoss Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.
Dickinson carried his strong form from practice two yesterday evening into this morning’s 30-minute session, punching in his best time of 1:56.014 to secure the Pro and outright pole for race one later today.
The Kellymoss racer currently leads the class title fight, following two pole positions and three out of four wins so far. But with a fiercely competitive 40-car field, including Kay van Berlo on a cameo return to the series, Dickinson had to work hard for his third consecutive pole position.
“It’s great to have the Porsche Select driver in the series this weekend; it’s fun to have him back and see where we stack up relatively; it’s a good measuring stick for us,” said Dickinson.
“As far as qualifying went, it was a good session. Thank you to Kellymoss for their hard work of course, the car was dialed in as always. We’re really looking forward to the race this afternoon. The weather conditions are going to change a little bit towards the warmer side of things, so we’re going to make a few adjustments to cover that off, but overall we’re looking forward to it.
“This is a great facility, a great track, I think it will promote some very interesting racing, we’ll go with that, and we’re looking forward to getting after it later today.”
JDX Racing’s Will Martin took the fight to Dickinson, with the #9 car’s fastest lap 0.3s shy of the polesitter. Jimmy Llibre pushed his MDK Motorsports Porsche to claim third by the smallest of margins – 0.05 from Tom Sargent, who will start fourth for McElrea Racing.
The result from Llibre was impressive after suffering a crash yesterday and having his MDK team repair his car overnight.
Bringing another pole position to the Kellymoss crew, Efrin Castro took command of the Pro-Am contingent in dominant fashion, securing the top spot by over a second from Moisey Uretsky from Accelerating Performance. Fastest in yesterday’s practice, Topp Racing’s Jeff Mosling carried that form through to clock in third in class.
Continuing a dominant weekend in Miami so far, having topped the Am order in both practice sessions, MDK Motorsport’s Mark Kvamme came top again with a 1.58.467. Scott Noble came a close second in class, meaning he will start the first 40-minute race of the weekend just two slots away from his pole-sitting teammate on the overall start grid. John Goetz completes the Am qualifying top three in the #57 Wright Motorsports Porsche.
