Blackdog Racing’s Michael Cooper and NOLASPORT’s Matheus Leist won the pole positions for this weekend’s Pirelli GT4 America races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Cooper will start on the pole for Race 1 on Saturday morning in the #33 Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4 (shared with Tony Gaples). He set a 1:29.456 on his second flying lap to take the top spot from RAFA Racing’s Gresham Wagner, and put it out of the field’s reach.
That included Loek Hartog, the Porsche North America Selected Driver, who qualified second in the #9 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport with a 1:29.953.
Luca Mars was third-fastest in the #39 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo, which was the leading Silver class car in the first Qualifying session. He’ll start ahead of Jesse Webb’s #3 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin in fourth.
Matt Elwin Bell was fifth-quickest in the #43 P1 Groupe McLaren, while Wagner’s top time in the #68 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 was good enough for sixth on the grid.
The rest of the top ten from the first Qualifying session featured Jan Heylen (#7 ACI Motorsports Porsche), Mike David Ortmann (#4 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin), Hannah Greenemeier (#26 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin), and Alex Ellis (#77 VPX Motorsport Porsche).
In 16th was the leading Am class car, the #98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Darius Trinka.
The battle for Race 2 pole was a fight between RAFA Racing’s Tyler Gonzalez, and Leist, a veteran of two IndyCar Series campaigns and a past winner of the Indy Lights Freedom 100.
Gonzalez’s best time in the #68 Toyota was a 1:29.685, but just a minute later, Leist came around to take the pole with a 1:29.584, putting NOLASPORT’s #47 Porsche on the pole for Sunday’s season finale.
Danny Dyszelski very briefly held the top spot in the #77 VPX Motorsport Porsche, but his 1:29.697 was still good enough for third-fastest, ahead of the #3 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin of Jonathan Neudorf.
Kenton Koch qualified fifth in the Silver class-leading #97 Random Vandals Racing BMW, following up on co-driver Kevin Boehm’s 12th-place run in the previous session.
Spencer Pumpelly was sixth-quickest in the one-off #12 Riley Motorsports Porsche, with the fourth row occupied by Hannah Grisham (#26 Heart of Racing Aston Martin) and Braydon Arthur (#4 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin), and the fifth row featuring Matt Million (#53 Auto Technic Racing BMW) and Tony Gaples’ #33 McLaren.
The Am class pole went to Alex Garcia in the #07 Skip Barber Racing BMW, new to the team this weekend after changing from their previous Aston Martin (though the team did practice with a BMW at Road America).
The Pro-Am championship-leading #94 Random Vandals Racing BMW (Sam Craven/Josh Green) will start 11th and 14th in Saturday and Sunday’s races, respectively. The #36 BimmerWorld Racing BMW (Charlie Postins/James Clay) starts 18th and 17th in those races.
Images © Fred Hardy II / SRO Motorsports America
