By Mark Robinson
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Kay van Berlo bolted into the lead on Lap 9 and led the rest of the way to win Friday’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America race at Watkins Glen. Driving the No. 3 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, van Berlo pulled away to win by 9.038 seconds over pole sitter Max Root (No. 7 Moorespeed-Wright Motorsports Porsche).
The victory in the fifth race of the season for the new series sanctioned by IMSA pushed van Berlo into the unofficial points lead, 10 better than teammate Seb Priaulx (No. 15 Kelly-Moss Porsche), who finished eighth after being assessed a drive-through penalty for changing lanes before crossing the start/finish line at the beginning of the 45-minute race.
Efrin Castro (No. 65 Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche) won in the Pro-Am class, edging Alan Metni (No. 99 iFly/Kelly-Moss Porsche) by a mere 0.188 seconds. Jeff Majkrzak (No. 24 Goldcrest Motorsports) was victorious in Pro-Am 991 by 6.304 seconds over teammate Matt Halcome.
The second Porsche Carrera Cup of the weekend streams live on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold and IMSA.com at 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday.