Following her success in Porsche Sprint Challenge North America, Ashley Freiberg stepped up to Porsche Carrera Cup North America - and began the season on the front foot at Sebring, securing a superb tenth place to complete a productive first weekend in the series.
Ashley Freiberg made an excellent start to her debut season in Porsche Carrera Cup North America by securing a top-10 finish at Sebring International Raceway.
The Porsche Sprint Challenge North America race winner adapted well to the higher level of competition as she began the season on the front foot with Kellymoss. After qualifying 14th in the Pro class, Freiberg finished race one in 13th before improving to a superb tenth in race two to complete a productive first weekend in the series.
Following her success in Porsche Sprint Challenge North America, Freiberg stepped up to Porsche Carrera Cup North America for 2025. Now competing at the premier level of Porsche motorsport in North America, Freiberg was aiming to use the knowledge gained from the past two season to begin her campaign on a high.
In 2024, Sebring International Raceway also hosted the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America season opener and Ashley had fond memories of the circuit. Freiberg claimed a runner-up result at the track on her way to third in the 992 Pro/Am standings in a campaign which featured one race victory and six further podium finishes.
Remaining with Kellymoss, the team with which Freiberg closed out her 2024 season with, Ashley was targeting a strong start to the season. Both free practice sessions at Sebring were held on Wednesday with Freiberg immediately on the pace. In session one, Ashley set the tenth fastest time with her quickest lap only half a second away from the top-3. She followed this up with a 12th place result in session two, underlining her consistency on her debut weekend.
Qualifying was held on Thursday morning with Freiberg looking to extract peak performance from her new tyres. On her first run Ashley was comfortably inside the top-15, before returning to the pits to fit a second set of tyres.
As Freiberg returned to the track, the session was halted by a red flag while the Kellymoss driver was on a flying lap on her new tyres. This impacted her progress and although she was able to set one final lap in the closing stages of qualifying, the time of the stoppage was unfortunate. At the end of her first Porsche Carrera Cup North America qualifying session, Freiberg had set the 15th fastest time overall, 14th in the Pro class.
Freiberg’s debut race in the series was held on Thursday afternoon with the Kellymoss driver lining up from the eighth row of the grid. It was a confident start from Ashley who held her position on lap one, before overtaking Pro class rival John Jodoin on lap two. Despite JDX Racing driver Paul Bocuse moving ahead on lap three as he recovered from an early setback, Freiberg was setting good sectors which regularly matched those battling for top-10 positions.
Pro-Am class leader JP Martinez was running directly ahead of Freiberg and passing the ACI Motorsports driver was crucial to further progress. Martinez was keen for a Pro class car to remain between himself and second placed driver Alan Metni and therefore overtaking the Pro-Am driver was challenging for Freiberg. After a period of substantial pressure, Ashley made a clean move on lap seven and immediately began catching Sabre Cook, her next Pro class target.
On lap 11, Freiberg overtook Cook and followed this up with a personal best time on lap 12. Up ahead, a number of drivers were battling hard for positions just outside the top-10 and Ashley began closing in on this fight. Grant Talkie was the driver directly ahead and Freiberg cut the gap to less than two seconds with just a handful of laps remaining. Just running out of time to make a move, Freiberg completed her debut race in Porsche Carrera Cup North America in a credible 13th place overall.
For race two of the weekend, Freiberg started from 13th on the grid and made a confident initial start. By the end of lap one, she was up to 11th position as the race entered a full course yellow period after contact was made between Michael McCann, Sabre Cook and John Jodoin. As the drivers lapped behind the safety car, Jimmy Llibre pitted and this elevated Ashley into the overall top-10 for the first time.
When the race resumed, Freiberg made a good restart and immediately opened up a gap to the leading Pro-Am machine of JP Martinez directly behind. This allowed the Kellymoss driver to focus forward on mounting a challenge on her fellow Pro class rivals. A series of personal best times ensured Freiberg remained in touch with the drivers ahead as they set a fast pace at the head of the field.
Into the middle portion of the race, Jared Thomas was now the driver ahead and Freiberg began closing in on her fellow Porsche Carrera Cup North America rookie. By lap 11, Ashley had cut the gap to Thomas to just one second as she aimed to mount a late challenge on the JTR Motorsport Engineering driver.
The race ran incident-free to the checkered flag with Freiberg just unable to bridge the deficit to Thomas. Nonetheless, she secured an excellent tenth place result on her series debut to complete a successful weekend at Sebring.
Freiberg enjoyed a strong debut in the highly-competitive one-make series and showed her credentials by consistently challenging for top-10 results. Her pace in both qualifying and the races was extremely impressive and she will be targeting regular appearances in the top-10 as the season progresses.
For the next round of Porsche Carrera Cup North America, Freiberg will compete at a new circuit for her in the shape of Miami International Autodrome on the weekend of 3rd/4th May.
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