Marco Cirone Sweeps Road Atlanta Rounds to Lock Down Carrera Cup Masters Class Championship with Two Races Remaining
BRASELTON, Georgia (October 4, 2026) – ACI Motorsports locked down its second IMSA Porsche Carrera Cup North America title of the 2026 season when Marco Cirone and the No. 88 Mark Motors Porsche 911 Cup swept the doubleheader Thursday and Friday during Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Cirone fought hard in hot and muggy twin races to capture a pair of pole positions, a pair of wins and the fastest race lap in Thursday’s sprint to extend his Masters class point lead. Cirone walks away from Road Atlanta with a 68-point lead in the championship with only 56 points available in the finale at Circuit of the Americas later in October.
It didn’t come easy. Cirone was fighting for grip at the end of the first 40-minute race, but still crossed the finish line ahead of his nearest championship rival, Scott Blind, by less than a second. Round two featured its own challenges, but Cirone won that race by 1.4 seconds to secure the title.
The victories were the 11th and 12th Porsche Carrera Cup class wins for Cirone. The champion-elect earns his first crown with one doubleheader round remaining in the season.
The title is already the second Porsche Carrera Cup title for ACI Motorsports. Pro-Am class driver Patrick Mulcahy clinched his championship one race weekend ago at Indianapolis. Mulcahy swept his class in the No. 54 Juice Head Porsche 911 Cup.
The Cirone and Mulcahy titles are the second and third for ACI Motorsports in the six-year history of Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
Janne Stiak and John Jodoin added top 10 finishes overall and in the Pro class at Road Atlanta.
Stiak started race one by sweeping around the outside to jump from fourth on the grid to second place. He kept his No. 40 Scooter’s Coffee Porsche 911 Cup in that position for 24 of 29 laps while defending hard. Two of his competitors slipped by to drop the 19-year-old to fourth, and an additional 10-second penalty for blocking post-race dropped him to seventh in the final standings. Stiak rebounded from that on Friday to earn a fourth-place finish.
John Jodoin finished 11th in his No. 39 Race Caddy Porsche 911 Cup on Thursday, then climbed forward one position to earn a top 10 in race two.
Richard Edge and Matt Smith earned identical finishing positions each race in the Masters class. Edge scored a pair of fourth-place class finishes at Road Atlanta, while Smith finished sixth on both occasions. Edge and his No. 18 ACI Motorsports Porsche 911 Cup car crossed the finish line in second, but an unfortunate penalty from race control deemed Edge to be blocking in the battle. The ensuing 10 second punishment relegated him to fourth.
Next up for ACI Motorsports in Carrera Cup is the season-ending and eighth doubleheader race weekend of the year at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), October 23 – 25.
Curt Swearingin, ACI Motorsports Team Principal: “Across the whole team, the effort has shown. The guys at the workshop, the guys at the track, the drivers, everyone, it’s a team effort. It’s been week to week to week, we have another race next week and then we come back and finish this off after that at COTA. It’s been a tough stretch, but everything has been awesome with the success we’ve had. Marco did a great job to wrap up this championship, we’re so proud and happy for him.”
Marco Cirone, Driver – No. 88 ACI Motorsports Porsche 911 Cup: “Nothing is over until it’s really over. My competitor is a fabulous driver and I know they won’t give up right until the end. We have one more weekend to go, if the team keeps giving me a fabulous car it will be a great year. The two wins were critical. The team has stepped it up and I want to thank all of my friends back home. Mark Motors especially, I couldn’t do it without them.”
Richard Edge, Driver – No. 18 ACI Motorsports Porsche 911 Cup: “It was a really intense battle. I did my best to defend against Scott Blind, but the tires were going away from me there at the end. I kept my eyes forward. He was beating me in certain sectors and I would pull away in certain turns. I kept getting closer to Marco, but we had Walker behind Blind. I am so tired.”
About ACI Motorsports: ACI Motorsports is a professional Porsche racing team and motorsports preparation shop headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with additional operations at Road Atlanta in Georgia. The team actively competes in several prestigious racing series, including Porsche Carrera Cup North America, SRO Pirelli GT4, GT America Powered by AWS and more. Additional information can be found at www.acimotorsports.com.
