Cooper, Leist Claim GT4 Poles at Indianapolis

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

Michael Cooper and Matheus Leist claimed overall poles for the pair of season-ending Pirelli GT4 America races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Cooper, in his Pro-Am class Blackdog Racing McLaren Artura GT4, recorded a best lap of 1:29.456 to edge out the No. 9 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Loek Hartog by 0.497 seconds.

Siver class pole for Race 1 went to the No. 39 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo of Luca Mars, who qualified third overall, ahead of Jesse Webb’s No. 3 JMF Motorsports Aston, while Matt Bell completed the overall top-five in the NO. 43 P1 Groupe McLaren.

Gresham Wagner will roll off sixth on the grid in his Silver class No. 68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, ahead of super-sub Jan Heylen in the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche.

Am class pole honors for Race 1 went to Darius Trinka in the No. 98 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO, qualifying 16th overall.

Q2 saw Leist take his Pro-Am class No. 47 Nolasport Porsche to a 1:29.584 lap time to outpace six Silver class entries, the first being category pole-sitter Tyler Gonzalez in the No. 68 RAFA Toyota.

Dylan Dyszelski will start Race 2 from third on the grid in the No. 77 VPX Motorsport Porsche, with Jonathan Neudorf (JMF Aston Martin) and class points leader Kenton Koch (Random Vandals BMW) completing the top-five.

Koch’s co-driver Kevin Boehm will need to only start Race 1 to clinch the Silver class title.

Alex Garcia, meanwhile, claimed the Am class pole for Race 2 in his No. 07 Skip Barber Racing BMW, placing 15th overall.

The first GT4 America race of the weekend is set for Saturday at 9:40 a.m. EST, with Race 2 on Sunday at 9:45 a.m. Both races will be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1/Qualifying 2

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