Shift Up Now Athletes Ashley Freiberg and Sabré Cook opened up the 2025 Porsche Carrera Cup North America season at Sebring International Raceway on March 12-15, 2025, with Freiberg earning a top-ten finish in her series debut.
As a lead-in to the Mobil1 12 Hours of Sebring race weekend, the Porsche Cup cars first hit the track on Wednesday for practice. Driving the No. 22 “Be Your Own Hero” livery for Kellymoss Racing, Freiberg spent her practice time - and the official testing time a week prior - learning the car for her series debut race.
Cook, a Hagerty-supported Athlete, piloted the No. 37 privé products/ PenFed Credit Union entry for JDX Racing, and continued to get acclimated with her new team.
The 32-car field had two practice sessions Wednesday in the hot Florida weather, followed by qualifying on Saturday morning. Freiberg ran in the top ten for her first official Carrera Cup practice session, and both racers were inside the top 15 later that day, with Cook in 11th and Freiberg in 12th.
Cooler track temperatures on Thursday morning meant fast lap times around the 3.74-mile, 17- turn race track. Unfortunately, a red flag interrupted the session and thwarted many drivers’ attempts. Nevertheless, both Shift Up Now Athletes qualified inside the top 15 on their Yokohama tires. Cook would start 13th and Freiberg 15th for Round 1 of the 2025 season.
The first 40-minute race began at 4:55pm EST on Thursday. After one pace lap, the green flag flew and the field went four-wide heading into turn one. Cook made it through safely, then fought side-by-side through multiple turns before completing a pass on the outside of turn seven. She then put the pressure on the car ahead for the remainder of the lap, and made the pass midway through the final corner. When she caught the pack in front of her, she made another pass heading into turn 10.
Right behind them, Freiberg was engaged in her own side-by-side battle, where she completed a pass onto the front straight. The cars in seventh though fourteenth formed and maintained a tight pack for the first third of the race. Freiberg advanced another position and started to lay down faster lap times than the cars ahead.
In what would end up being a green-flag race all the way through, Cook continued to stay with the pack until she picked up a braking issue. It would cause her to fall back to 14th place, maintaining that position until the checkered flag. Freiberg finished in 13th.
The following evening, race two began at 6:25pm EST on Friday. The 40-minute race into the sunset saw Freiberg starting 13th and Cook 14th, based on their second-fastest qualifying laps.
Once again, the field completed one pace lap before coming to the green flag, with the front row nearly touching as they pushed the boundaries of side-by-side racing.
Freiberg made a strong start as the field fanned out to four-wide again, heading into turn one. She picked her lines through the first several turns, gaining two places and advancing to 11th. As the field exited turn five heading toward the back straight, Freiberg was at the back of the lead pack, with minimal distance behind her to the 12th-place car.
From turns one through seven, Cook fought side-by-side before making a pass. However, as she and the field approached turn 10, a slow car on track caused all the drivers to check up. This resulted in Cook’s 992 getting hit from behind, pushing her into the car ahead and causing too much damage to continue. She was forced to retire her car for the day.
The full-course caution left 26 minutes remaining on the restart. Freiberg advanced to 10th place, once again immediately attaching herself to the back of the lead train. The top ten then continued to create a gap to the remainder of the field.
Freiberg’s lap times continued to improve as she looked to start putting pressure on the ninth- place car. Without enough time left to make the pass, she crossed the finish line with a top-ten finish in her Porsche Carrera Cup debut weekend.
“I’m really happy with a top-ten finish in my first Porsche Carrera Cup North America race,” said Freiberg. “The field is stacked with incredible drivers, past champions and race winners, so I’m definitely going to be pushed this year, which really excites me. I felt like the whole weekend was full of growth, and I’m really excited about the rest of the year. Qualifying was tough with the red flag, as I was on my flier going into turn seventeen when it came out. It didn’t give me the full opportunity to show our pace, but lesson learned!
“I have to give a huge thank you to my team, Kellymoss Racing. They are the heart and support behind this result and my program, and I couldn’t be happier to have such a strong foundation of people behind me. Thank you to my sponsors, Yokohama, Mobil1, Shift Up Now, Dream Giveaway, Radius Drive, my family, Josh and Enzo, and my fans. I absolutely love representing the ‘Be Your Own Hero’ car out on track!”
Next up, Freiberg, Cook and the Porsche Carrera Cup North America series will head back to Florida for Round 2 at the Miami International Autodrome on May 2-4, 2025.
