Championship contender Ryan Yardley came out swinging in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America finale weekend, claiming his most significant Race Brew Pole Award of the year on Saturday morning ahead of fellow title hopeful Riley Dickinson.
At Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, Yardley will start first on the grid for Race 1 following a last-lap flyer of two minutes, 6.221 seconds in qualifying (a new Carrera Cup qualifying record at COTA). The session was crucial for Yardley, who no sits even in points with Dickinson in the ExxonMobil Pro class standings with two races remaining in the season.
Further to Yardley’s advantage, his rival will start fourth-in-class behind Tyler Maxson in second and Aaron Jeansonne in third, and Yardley will also start first in Race 2 on Sunday.
“It was awesome to get the double pole,” said the Topp Racing driver. “The laps were pretty good. It was an interesting track this morning; it felt a lot different from yesterday. I’m super happy with that, and now we go race.
“We knew we had a good test here a month or so ago, so we knew we were going to be quick. You never know what the Kellymoss team is going to throw at you, they are always super competitive as well. It’s nice to be on the front row today, myself and (teammate) Tyler. It’s exciting, but there’s a long way to go.”
It was a similar story in the Solairus Aviation Pro-Am category, as Alan Metni took the pole position with Kellymoss to start his final surge for the title. Metni’s time of 2:08.413 was more than half a second quicker than championship leader JP Martinez in second place. Four Pro class cars will separate the Pro-Am pair at the green flag.
“I’m pretty happy with that,” said Metni, who lives just down the road from COTA. “It was a good, solid performance and a lot of fun. I love this track, obviously, it’s my hometown, so I’m happy to be here.
“We’re coming to a strong finish.”
Metni will also start Race 2 from the top spot in his efforts to close the 19-point margin on Martinez.
Javier Ripoll Jr. and Patrick Mulcahy were third and fourth in the Pro-Am category, respectively, but will line up at the back of the field for working on their Porsche 992 GT3 Cup cars during the qualifying session.
And yet again, Scott Blind topped the Solairus Aviation Masters class charts with a fastest lap time of 2:09.295. It will be the fifth consecutive race that the Masters champion-elect will lead his class to the green flag.
“I had a couple laps that I think I was pretty close (to getting inside the top-15),” said the Ruckus Racing driver. “I just lost it there, but we had a really good qualifying. During the race, I think we can pick some off.”
Rounding out the top three starting positions in Masters were Rob Walker in second and Chris Bellomo in third.
Race 1 for Porsche Carrera Cup North America at COTA is scheduled for later on Saturday at 3:40 p.m. ET (2:40 p.m. local time). The final race of the season follows on Sunday at noon ET.
All Carrera Cup races, including replays from Circuit of the Americas, 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.
