Cooper Makes Late Pass for Win at Indy in Ibiza Farm McLaren

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Michael Cooper made a last-gasp pass on Robert Noaker to take a dramatic victory in Saturday’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120.

Cooper, in the No. 44 Ibiza Farm Racing McLaren Artura GT4, passed Noaker’s No. 60 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 on the second-to-last lap after the Ford Racing Junior Team driver was out front for most of the final 40 minutes in his and co-driver Cameron McLeod’s first race with the Multimatic-built car.

Noaker initially held off a hard-charging pair of McLarens in the closing stages of the two-hour contest, which saw Cooper get around Jesse Lazare in the No. 21 Motorsports In Action McLaren for second with four minutes to go.

However, Cooper then made the winning pass less than two minutes later.

He shared top GS honors with Moisey Uretsky, while Lazare, in the McLaren shared with Alexandra Hainer, also got by Noaker, who struggling on worn Michelin tires but crossed the line third in the two-time Mustang Challenge champion’s GS class debut.

A fourth place run for the GS championship-leading and pole-sitting No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Jan Heylen unraveled when contact was made with the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Jeff Westphal with 24 minutes remaining.

No further action was made from the incident by race control.

It dropped Heylen a lap down and en route to a 19th class finish, compared to title rival Jenson Altzman’s seventh place result in the No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Mustang GT4, which was served with a drive-through penalty for a pit stop infraction that initially put him outside of the top ten in a rough-and-tumble race.

The No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martn of Robin Liddell was fourth after late-race passes on Westphal and the No. 19 Stephen Cameron Racing Mustang GT4 of Gregory Liefooghe.

Westphal completed the top-five, ahead of the No. 27 Auto Technic Racing BMW of Stevan McAleer and Liefooghe, who faded after contact with the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Dan Arrow on the final lap.

Arrow, who had two previous two drive-through penalties for blocking while then leading the race, maintained his eighth place result, with the last-lap incident deemed inconclusive by race control.

It came after the No. 23 Copeland Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Jaxon Bell was forced to the pit in the final laps for fuel after running solidly in the top-ten in only his second Pilot Challenge race.

Provisionally, Heylen and co-driver Luca Mars how hold a 100-point lead over CarBahn’s Westphal and Sean McAlister, who moved into second, with Altzman dropping to third, 20 points further behind.

Victor Gonzalez Racing Delivers CUPRA Maiden IMSA Victory

TCR class honors went to the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing CUPRA Leon VZ TCR of Tyler Gonzalez and Eric Powell, in a stunning comeback drive from the class pole-sitting entry.

It marked the first IMSA victory for the Spanish brand in its first season of series competition.

Gonzalez bounced back from an early drive-through penalty for co-driver Powell due to incident responsibility with the No. 14 AR Motorsports Porsche of David Hampton, dropping to 16th at the time.

The team, which switched to CUPRA two races ago at Road America, then benefited from a series of late-race yellows to move back up the running order.

The No. 7 Precision Racing LA Audi RS 3 LMS TCR of Ryan Eversley and Celso Neto was second, with the No. 93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR completing the class podium.

A late-race penalty for the No. 76 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Denis Dupont, who had incident responsibility with the No. 89 HART Honda of Chad Gilsinger in Turn 8, dropped him to an 11th place class finish.

Dupont and co-driver Preston Brown entered the weekend as the class points leaders but provisionally leave third, behind MMG’s LP Montour and Karl Wittmer and BHA’s Harry Gottsacker, who is just ten points behind in second ahead of next month’s season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

RESULTS: Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John