Maxson Extends Points Lead With Indy Race 1 Win

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche

Tyler Maxson extended his championship lead in Porsche Carrera Cup North America wth his sixth win of the season on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Topp Racing driver claimed a flag-to-flag victory in the caution-free 40-minute contest, finishing 1.301 seconds ahead of the No. 40 ACI Motorsports Porsche 911 Cup of Janne Stiak.

Stiak took second at the start of the race from the No. 24 Kellymoss Porsche of Aaron Jeansonne, who slipped to third and was unable to recover, despite making a late-race charge on the young German.

Jared Thomas made a late-race pass on Callum Hedge only to spin in Turn 13 on the second-to-last lap, which dropped the JTR Motorsports Engineering driver to eighth at the time.

Callum Hedge was handed incident responsibility for making contact with Thomas, and received a drive-through penalty as a result.

The late-race chaos promoted Paul Bocuse to fourth, with Lockie Bloxsom, in his series debut, netting a top-five.

Thomas was classified in sixth after a bevy of post-race penalties for others, including Cole Kleck, who initially came home sixth but was assessed a ten-second post-race penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 60 JDX entry of Bloxsom.

Mid-race contact between Alan Metni and Sabre Cook led to a drive-through penalty to Cook, who was running tenth at the time.

Patrick Mulcahy, who looped his sole Pro-Am class ACI entry at the start, rebounded to finish 10th overall and is set to clinch the class title tomorrow by just starting the race.

In Masters, an early race incident essentially handed the win to Richard Edge.

Edge drove the No. 18 ACI Porsche to a seven-second class win over Rob Walker’s No. 53 JTR Porsche, who dropped to third after receiving a ten second post-race time penalty for repeated track limits violations.

It came after class pole-sitter and championship leader Marco Cirone was hit from behind from the No. 74 ACI entry of Matt Smith entering Turn 1 on the third lap.

Cirone, whose car sustained nose damage as well, limped home to finish fourth in class, while Smith was handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

Walker’s penalty gave second in class in the race to the No. 45 Ruckus Racing Porsche of Scott Blind.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 11:20 a.m. EST with live coverage on Peacock as well as both Porsche Motorsport North America and IMSA’s YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Race 1

Source: Sports Car 365