Uretksy, Cooper Victorious in Daytona Thriller

Moisey Uretsky and Michael Cooper took a hard-fought victory in the BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona, the opening round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season.

The No. 44 Accelerating Performance McLaren Artura GT4 took a narrow win of just 0.327 seconds over the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of Luca Mars and Jan Heylen.

The second half of the four-hour enduro was dominated by a three-way lead scrap between Cooper, Heylen and the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 in the hands of Billy Johnson.

After cycling to the lead at the penultimate round of stops, Heylen lost the race lead when Johnson charged past on the exit of Turn 6, with the two battling while Cooper closed in.

Cooper then jumped into second place with 48 minutes to go and briefly appeared to take the lead from Johnson in the same fashion two minutes later, only for Johnson and Heylen to immediately pit for their final stops.

The No. 44 McLaren came in one lap later and rejoined the race behind both Johnson and Heylen, dropping to third.

Minutes later, Slade Stewart’s No. 43 MDK Motorsports Porsche hit the wall at Turn 2 and triggered a caution, setting up a shootout for the race victory in the final 20 minutes.

While Cooper initially dropped back to fifth behind Winward Racing’s Daniel Morad and the No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford of Jenson Altzman, Heylen set off in pursuit of the race lead.

A dive up the inside of the No. 59 Ford granted Heylen the lead, while Johnson also lost second to the recovering No. 44 McLaren eight minutes later.

Cooper then began to steadily chip away at Heylen’s lead, setting the fastest lap of the race as he closed in on the No. 28 Porsche.

With under three minutes remaining, Cooper broke Heylen’s defensive efforts as the two cars accelerated out of Turn 6 and onto the oval.

The McLaren outdragged the Porsche heading onto the banking, grabbing the lead and holding on for the final few laps.

As a result, McLaren returned to the winners’ circle in Pilot Challenge for the first time since last year’s round at Laguna Seca.

Behind Heylen and Mars, the No. 59 KohR Ford of Johnson and Bob Michaelian completed the podium, finishing 1.341 seconds ahead of McCumbee McAleer Racing pairing of Altzman and Sam Paley.

Spencer Pumpelly crossed the line fifth in the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche he shared with Thomas Collingwood and Andy Lally, while Morad and Bryce Ward slotted into sixth aboard the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Seventh place went to the No. 17 Unitronics/JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche of Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor, with eighth and ninth picked by a pair of Fords from Stephen Cameron Racing and LAP Motorsports.

Hattori Motorsports, meanwhile, completed the overall top ten with its No. 16 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 piloted by Zach Veach and Harrison Goodman.

Bryan Herta Autosport Takes TCR 1-2 With Photo Finish

Bryan Herta Autosport took a commanding 1-2 victory in the TCR category, with the battle between its two lead cars decided by a photo finish.

After holding off stablemate Mark Wilkins for multiple laps in the closing stages, Denis Dupont’s No. 76 Hyundai Elantra N TCR finished just 0.067 seconds ahead of the sister No. 33 car after four hours of racing.

Wilkins and co-driver Bryson Morris had largely dominated the race, only giving away the lead to an off-sequence No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Hyundai, and appeared on course for victory.

That was until Dupont’s No. 76 machine leapfrogged Wilkins at the final round of stops, taking the lead.

After the final safety car restart, Wilkins repeatedly pressured Dupont as he sought to reclaim first place, but failed to do and came up just short as the two cars sprinted to the line on the final lap.

Remarkably, despite the team’s dominance in the TCR category since it joined the championship, it was Bryan Herta Autosport’s first-ever victory in the Daytona opener.

The result additionally marked the second time Dupont and co-driver Preston Brown took victory since joining BHA, adding to a previous triumph at Mid-Ohio last year.

The No. 7 Precision Racing LA Audi RS3 LMS TCR of Celso Neto and Ryan Eversley completed the podium, one place ahead of the No. 9 Hyundai piloted by Madison Aust and Suellio Almeida.

RESULTS: BMW M Endurance Challenge