Topp Racing’s New Zealander Ryan Yardley handled intense pressure en route to his second series victory in Porsche Carrera Cup North America at Road Atlanta today.

Yardley converted his pole position to an early race lead but soon came under intense pressure from Kellymoss racer Loek Hartog, who had his eyes set on celebrating his championship victory with a race win.

Hartog was shuffled back to fourth place at one stage early in the race but then began a charge to loom right onto the tail of Yardley. The tall Dutchman threw everything he had at the diminutive Yardley, but the Kiwi continued to hold him at bay.

Yardley eventually was able to relax after he and Hartog ran wide, coming onto the main straight at Road Atlanta. Yardley dropped two wheels in the dirt, but Hartog went even wider, putting all four wheels off track.

From that point forward, Hartog’s challenge became tougher, but he eventually crossed the line and clinched the 2024 Pro championship, finishing ahead of Thursday’s winner, Zach Vanier (JDX Racing).

Alex Sedgwick (JDX Racing) and Yves Baltas (ACI Motorsports) completed the top five.

JDX Racing actually had two cars in the top five and four in the top ten, with Elias De La Torre and Madison Stewart finishing ninth and tenth, respectively.

The Texas-based Yardley is eagerly awaiting the chance to return to Circuit of The Americas for the final two rounds of the championship next week. Yardley scored a podium at COTA in the final race of the season last year and has gone on to score eight podiums in 2024.

“That was a pretty fun race – it’s always good to start from pole position, lead every lap, and then get the win,” Yardley said.

“I have to say a massive thank you to everyone at TCS, Apex Capital, and Topp Racing for all the support this year.

“It’s nice to get our second win, and I’m looking forward to COTA next week to get some more. I got a podium in the last race last year, and that’s where things really started for me.

“This year, we started pretty strongly with two podiums at Sebring, and things have gone well with us sitting third in the championship. It’s quite tight between second, third, and fourth, so there is still plenty to play for. So I’m looking for a strong weekend next weekend and finishing on a high.”

Efrin Castro has leaped back into championship contention in the Pro-Am class after scoring his second victory of the week at Road Atlanta.

The reigning class champion led home his teammate and fellow former champion Alan Metni in both races. Remarkably, Marco Cirone also scored his second consecutive third-place finish at Road Atlanta.

The result has pushed Castro to within 10 points of Metni with only two races remaining – setting up another title-race showdown between the pair. In 2022, Metni defeated Castro by only a single point in the championship.

“It’s amazing. I just want to take this moment to give thanks to God – to the man above. He set me up to have a great weekend,” said Castro.

“I’ve had so much support from my pastor, my family, my friends – everybody has been behind me, and I’m glad I was able to get this win because it still gives us a chance.

“I’m racing for the kids in Alabama with the Racing for Children’s program this year. My goal is to give them a good year – something for them to be proud of because they fight so hard with cancer – fight way harder than we do.”

Masters racer Chris Bellomo took back-to-back victories at Road America, but since that time, he had only collected one podium before charging back to victory lane today.

Bellomo (Kellymoss) led home yesterday’s winner, Richard Edge (ACI Motorsports), with Scott Blind (Ruckus Racing) across the line in third.

“To try to get back to where we finished today, I looked at a lot of video, did a lot of visualization – just really trying to focus and not get too depressed on how that start was yesterday for me,” Bellomo said.

“I just had to focus forward, and things worked out at the start today. I had a really good race managing what was going on in front of me and behind me.

“For the championship, I’m still pretty far behind, but I’m going to give it my best shot at COTA. We had a really good test there, so I’m going to stay positive.”

The Porsche Carrera Cup North America teams now pack up and head to Circuit of the Americas in Austin where the series’ final two rounds will be run in conjunction with the US Formula 1 Grand Prix.