New Zealand’s Ryan Yardley has finished as the runner-up in the opening race of this weekend’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America round on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
Yardley followed home championship leader Loek Hartog for his sixth podium of his 2024 campaign, which sees him close in on second in the championship standings.
Hartog was in a class of his own in the opener, leading from the start until the chequered flag and putting over eight seconds on the field in doing so.
The fight for second was much closer, with Jimmy Llibre, who qualified second, initially holding the position over Alex Sedgwick, who started fourth, and Yardley, who qualified third.
The trio ran line-astern over the opening 15 minutes before Yardley took third off Sedgwick with a tidy move up the inside at Turn 12.
The Kiwi moved within striking distance of Llibre in the final 10 minutes, and the two fought for the runner-up position for several laps, with Hartog a distance 7 seconds up the road.
In the final minutes, however, Llibre suffered heartbreak as his ACI Motorsport Porsche slowed down with apparent issues. Yardley shot by before Llibre returned to the pit lane and withdrew from the race.
Llibre’s withdrawal elevated Sedgwick, who was, by then, a distant 4.5 seconds behind Yardley, to the final podium place.
Madeline Stewart ran a tidy race to finish a respectable 15th in the 30-car field.
Hartog’s victory extends his championship advantage over Sedgwick to 68 points, with Yardley closing in on the latter and only 11 points adrift.
The Porsche Carrera Cup North America returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Race 2 at 3.10 am NZST on Sunday, which will be streamed live on YouTube.
Header Image: Porsche Motorsport North America
