Kay van Berlo secures pole position for Porsche Carrera Cup North America opening race weekend at Sebring

Kay van Berlo made it a clean sweep of sessions on Wednesday at Sebring International Raceway as he topped both practice sessions and continued his form to take pole position with a lap of 2:03.330 in the Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

It was another Kelly-Moss car that would lead the way in the Pro-Am class as Efrin Castro also topped all three sessions of the day, claiming pole position in class with a time of 2:05.299, which was good enough for fourteenth overall, ahead of JDX Racing’s Peter Atwater and Kelly-Moss teammate Alan Metni. The top nine drivers would end the session within one second of each other in the Pro class.

The 2021 runner-up opened the session with the fastest lap, putting in a time pf 2:05.349 before teammate Riley Dickinson outpaced him, improving to 2:04.697. 311RS Motorsport’s Leh Keen briefly put himself in contention for the top spot with a time of 2:04.467 before van Berlo set his fastest lap to take pole position on his third flying lap.

“It’s been a pretty smooth day with first place in all of the sessions so far, obviously very happy with pole,” van Berlo told The Checkered Flag. “It’s a big priority, especially with 43 cars on the track, if you start mid-field or even a couple of cars back you are in a really risky position, especially the opening laps of the race, and especially the beginning of the season, you just don’t want to be in that position.

“We knew that we had a good car, free practice was good, we were in the right direction, within the window already, we just had to put it together, which is not that easy, especially with so many cars out on track, its easy to catch traffic at the wrong moment.

“The team and me were able to pull it off today, two decent laps, especially the first one, the second one I’m not completely satisfied with because I made a mistake, still, I had a big doubt on that one, so even though I made a mistake I was still fast enough to take the pole for the second race as well.

Looking ahead to the races, van Berlo knows what he has to do, after winning seven races last season and missing out on the title due to a handful on non-finishes, the Dutch driver is aiming for consistency.

“Race tomorrow is more important, lots of points up for grabs; I just want to be consistent, of course I am going for the win, but it’s all about getting points, being consistent, staying out of trouble and that should give us the best result by the end of the season.

“Tomorrow is going to be a dry day, I’m feeling good, happy so far, the team is happy, so lets keep the momentum going and see if we can pull it off in both races.”

MDK Motorsports team-owner/driver Mark Kvamme made it three-in-a-row for the class leaders as he dominated the day in the Am class, setting an impressive time of 2:05.980, putting him twenty-first on the grid and in pole position for the class.

For the second race of the weekend the second fastest time of the session from each driver is taken to decide the grid, unsurprisingly van Berlo, Castro and Kvamme will lead the way in their respective classes for that race.

Porsche Carrera Cup North America – Sebring International Raceway – Qualifying – Race 1

Pos.	#	Class	Driver	Time	Gap
1	3	Pro	Kay van Berlo	2.03.330	–
2	53	Pro	Riley Dickinson	2.03.507	0.177
3	9	Pro	Parker Thompson	2.03.535	0.205
4	11	Pro	Dimitri Dimakos	2.04.003	0.673
5	6	Pro	Trenton Estep	2.04.039	0.709
6	12	Pro	Leh Keen	2.04.170	0.840
7	8	Pro	Michael McCann	2.04.173	0.843
8	13	Pro	Varun Choksey	2.04.204	0.874
9	58	Pro	TJ Fischer	2.04.257	0.927
10	7	Pro	Michael McCarthy	2.04.413	1.083
11	88	Pro	Hutton McKenna	2.04.704	1.374
12	81	Pro	Grant Talkie	2.05.084	1.754
13	2	Pro	Sean Varwig	2.05.196	1.866
14	65	Pro-Am	Efrin Castro	2.05.299	1.969
15	77	Pro	Travis Wiley	2.05.634	2.304
16	26	Pro-Am	Peter Atwater	2.05.722	2.392
17	99	Pro-Am	Alan Metni	2.05.726	2.396
18	55	Pro-Am	Matt Halcome	2.05.766	2.436
19	84	Pro-Am	Marco Cirone	2.05.810	2.480
20	16	Pro-Am	Pedro Torres	2.05.812	2.482
21	43	Am	Mark Kvamme	2.05.980	2.650
22	47	Pro-Am	Justin Oakes	2.06.263	2.933
23	56	Pro-Am	Jeff Mosing	2.06.321	2.991
24	24	Pro	Adam Adelson	2.06.344	3.014
25	57	Am	John Goetz	2.06.432	3.102
26	22	Pro-Am	Carlos De Quesada	2.06.540	3.210
27	44	Pro-Am	Moisey Uretsky	2.06.652	3.322
28	69	Pro-Am	Thomas Collingwood	2.06.806	3.476
29	17	Pro-Am	Curt Swearingin	2.07.201	3.871
30	28	Am	Bob Mueller	2.07.340	4.010
31	4	Am	Robert Hanley	2.07.380	4.050
32	95	Pro	Conor Flynn	2.07.407	4.077
33	29	Am	Jeffrey Majkrzak	2.07.785	4.455
34	18	Pro-Am	Richard Edge	2.07.913	4.583
35	42	Am	Bill Smith	2.07.935	4.605
36	21	Am	Grady Willingham	2.08.710	5.380
37	89	Pro-Am	Mike Zoi	2.08.856	5.526
38	92	Am	Joseph Lombardo	2.09.374	6.044
39	10	Am	Vernon McClure	2.11.258	7.928
40	19	Am	Tom Balames	2.11.502	8.172
41	80	Am	Joe Still	2.12.362	9.032
42	30	Pro-Am	Dominique Lequeux
43	97	Pro-Am	Craig Conway

Porsche Carrera Cup North America – Sebring International Raceway – Qualifying – Race 2

Pos.	#	Driver	Time	Gap
1	3	Kay van Berlo	2:03.356	–
2	53	Riley Dickinson	2:03.698	0.342
3	9	Parker Thompson	2:03.859	0.503
4	6	Trenton Estep	2:04.196	0.840
5	58	TJ Fischer	2:04.395	1.039
6	11	Dimitri Dimakos	2:04.424	1.068
7	12	Leh Keen	2:04.454	1.098
8	7	Michael McCarthy	2:04.510	1.154
9	13	Varun Choksey	2:04.583	1.227
10	88	Hutton McKenna	2:04.976	1.620
11	8	Michael McCann	2:05.219	1.863
12	2	Sean Varwig	2:05.358	2.002
13	65	Efrin Castro	2:05.363	2.007
14	77	Travis Wiley	2:05.680	2.324
15	26	Peter Atwater	2:05.780	2.424
16	81	Grant Talkie	2:05.806	2.450
17	99	Alan Metni	2:05.939	2.583
18	43	Mark Kvamme	2:06.139	2.783
19	47	Justin Oakes	2:06.443	3.087
20	24	Adam Adelson	2:06.574	3.218
21	16	Pedro Torres	2:06.645	3.289
22	57	John Goetz	2:06.662	3.306
23	22	Carlos De Quesada	2:06.746	3.390
24	44	Moisey Uretsky	2:06.796	3.440
25	84	Marco Cirone	2:06.828	3.472
26	69	Thomas Collingwood	2:07.140	3.784
27	28	Bob Mueller	2:07.353	3.997
28	17	Curt Swearingin	2:07.387	4.031
29	56	Jeff Mosing	2:07.415	4.059
30	95	Conor Flynn	2:07.489	4.133
31	55	Matt Halcome	2:07.677	4.321
32	29	Jeffrey Majkrzak	2:07.864	4.508
33	18	Richard Edge	2:08.406	5.050
34	4	Robert Hanley	2:08.432	5.076
35	89	Mike Zoi	2:08.975	5.619
36	42	Bill Smith	2:09.271	5.915
37	21	Grady Willingham	2:09.495	6.139
38	92	Joseph Lombardo	2:09.869	6.513
39	80	Joe Still	2:12.582	9.226
40	19	Tom Balames	2:12.737	9.381
41	10	Vernon McClure	2:31.257	27.901
42	30	Dominique Lequeux
43	97	Craig Conway

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