Porsche Carrera Cup North America celebrated its return to Road Atlanta today with the opening pair of practice sessions for this weekend’s 13th and 14th round of the 2024 championship.

The fast-flowing GA circuit was not part of the championship last year, but that did not stop Topp Racing’s New Zealander Ryan Yardley from impressing today on the first weekend he competed here.

Championship leader Loek Hartog (Kellymoss) set the pace in the morning session as one of four drivers to dip into the 1-minute, 21-second mark. Yardley was sandwiched in third position with JDX Racing teammates Alex Sedgwick (P2) and Zachary Vanier (P4), who also broke that benchmark.

In the afternoon session, most teams failed to improve their time, but Yardley went faster and was the only driver to break that 1-minute, 21-second mark again. He also finished the session more than ½ a second quicker than Dan Clarke (Era Motorsports), Jimmy Llibre (ACI Motorsports and Elias da la Torre.

“It was a nice practice two for us here at Road Atlanta with Topp Racing,” Yardley said.

“The car is pretty good. It’s my first ever race here at Road Atlanta, so I’m excited for the weekend.

“It’s nice to finish on top this afternoon in the second practice session, but tomorrow with qualifying and the first race – those are the sessions that really count.

“Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Pro-Am championship leader Alan Metni (Kellymoss) continued his impressive recent run of form to top the timesheet this morning.

In the afternoon session, however, the 2022 Pro-Am champion was pushed back fourth on the timesheet. Marco Cirone (ACI Motorsport) topped the session ahead of teammate Pedro Torres and Efrin Castro (Kellymoss)

The only driver to take a sweep of both sessions today was Chris Bellomo for Kellymoss.

For Masters championship leader Matt Halcome, the race at Road Atlanta is a home event – he made his racing debut here at the same circuit. The GA resident was strong in both sessions, finishing third in the opening practice and second behind Bellomo in the second.

“It’s great to be home. It puts a little bit of pressure on me ’cause I’m going to have friends and family here watching me, but it’s great,” Halcome said.

“This is obviously a track I’m very familiar with and one where I have done a lot of laps.

“Hopefully, we can come away with a couple of wins. This year has been an awesome season with ACI. I’ve had a great time, and there is an awesome group behind me.”