New Zealander Ryan Yardley has started off his street track debut weekend phenomenally, qualifying third fastest for tomorrow’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America opener at Long Beach.
The TOPP Racing driver set a 1:19.742 on his final of nine laps in the 30-minute session, enough for the second row.
It provides a massive boost for the Kiwi, who admits it was an area he needed to improve on for the event to ensure he could battle the leaders.
American Riley Dickinson, who won both races in the season-opener, qualified on pole, narrowly pipping McElrea Motorsport’s Australian driver Tom Sargent by just .033 seconds.
Sargent finished second in both of those races, with today’s qualifying run seeing their battle set to resume come tomorrow’s 40-minute race.
The grid is set in Race 2 by taking a driver’s second-best lap from the weekend, most often their second-fastest qualifying time. Yardley will therefore start in the mid-field unless he can set a better lap time in Race 1.
Sargent has the upper hand for Race 2’s pole, with his next-best time being better than Dickinson’s.
An entire grid of 35 cars are competing at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, 20 of those, including Yardley, being in the Pro class.
Race 1 begins at 12.15 pm tomorrow, and Race 2 starts at 11.20 am on Monday, and will be streamed live on the Porsche Carrera Cup North America website.
Header Image: Yardley in action earlier this season (Supplied)
