Cooper: Would Be ‘Honor to Fly Flag’ as All-Time Win Leader

Photo: Blackdog Racing

Michael Cooper says becoming the all-time win leader in SRO America competition would be an “honor to fly that flag” if and when it happens.

Cooper tied Peter Cunningham for the most career series victories, at 43 wins, last time out at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, following his and Tony Gaples’ weekend sweep in Pirelli GT4 America Pro-Am competition in their Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4.

It came as a memorable weekend for Blackdog owner/driver Gaples as well, who broke James Sofronas’ record for all-time starts in the first race of the weekend, where he and Cooper took an overall win.

Gaples, meanwhile, extended the record the following day with his 274th start.

For Cooper, a four-time series champion who got his start in then-named Pirelli World Challenge in 2012 in the TC ranks, enjoyed the majority of his success with the Chicagoland-based team in both GTS and GT4 competition, through its various iterations.

“That was when there was really only one championship to win a year,” Cooper told Sportscar365. “The series has gone through a lot of different iterations of single driver, double driver, back to single driver.

“Now pretty much everything is two drivers.

“A lot of the success has come in the single-driver format as well.”

The 36-year-old New York native, who also has a PWC GT SprintX title to his credit with Cadillac, said he owes much of his success to Gaples for his perseverance through the various car, class and rules changes through the last decade-plus of competition.

“The most wins I have with a single team is definitely with Blackdog,” he said. “I owe Tony Gaples, [team manager] Ray Sorenson and all the Blackdog guys a lot of credit for that.

“As my career has gone on, it’s become more and more apparent how much of a team sport it is to have just a good group of mechanics and engineers, people that believe in you, around you.”

Gaples was widely known in the paddock for not being a fan of the two-driver format when it was introduced initially through SprintX competition, in both GT and GTS in the late 2010s.

“Much like my initiation into the team, he was forced into it,” said Cooper. “In order to do the whole championship the first year of GT4, it was split half single driver (Sprint), half two-driver (SprintX).

“So he needed a teammate. That ended up being me.

“I was kind of forced upon him my first year with the team in 2015.

“He came around to it a lot the last couple of years. He sees how much competition there is. The fields have been as big as 30-40 cars. It’s just the pace to be racing a GT4 car.

“I think actually since we’ve started driving together, his performance has only increased.

“Being in the same car, the same conditions and being able to reference that data has helped him a lot, compared to being in two separate cars and maybe they’re acting a little bit differently.”

When asked what it would mean to break Cunningham’s long-held record, Cooper said: “I think it would be an honor to fly that flag.”

He added: “It’s been my home for racing for the majority of my career. I just have a lot of respect and pride in that series and I think there’s a lot of stiff competition over in that paddock.

“I think it will be a special moment when and if it happens but I’m certainly not stopping anytime soon. I feel like we’re just getting it going.

“Even going into Road Atlanta, it was not something I was thinking about at all.

“I’ve always just had a very calculated approach to race weekends that I haven’t ever changed, even when things aren’t going well. I’m very confident in it. I’m sticking with that, approaching everything the same exact way.”

Dual McLaren Program Paying Dividends

Cooper believes his dual series program with the McLaren Artura GT4, in both GT4 America with Blackdog and Ibiza Farm Motorsport in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, has led to significant gains, especially focusing exclusively on the V6-powered machine as a driver.

“It was a goal of mine,” he said. “This is the only race car I’ve driven for the last 18 months. I haven’t tested or coached or practiced in anything else.

“That was something I wanted, so once both teams were on board and on the same platform, just in my head, I think it helps a lot with how tight and close and fierce the competition is in GT4.

“We do stuff over [in IMSA] that works and stuff over there that works and I’m just constantly in the loop of what’s going on with this car.

“We have different engineers for the cars, but in terms of the support engineer from McLaren, it’s generally the same rotation of people.”

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