Dickinson, Cooper Claim Road America Poles

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

Riley Dickinson and Michael Cooper claimed overall pole positions for this weekend’s pair of Pirelli GT4 America races at Road America.

Dickinson, subbing for Paul Bocuse in the No. 73 Kellymoss Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, reeled off a 2:15.437 in Q1 to outpace Pro-Am class pole sitter Tony Gaples by 0.219 seconds.

FIA Bronze-rated driver Gaples recorded one of his best-ever qualifying efforts, with the Blackdog Racing driver set to start on the overall front row in his No. 33 McLaren Artura GT4.

Westin Workman qualified third overall and second in Silver in the No. 68 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, followed by Practice 1 pace-setter Austin Jurs in the No. 130 Advance Motorsports McLaren.

Silver class points leader Spencer Pumpelly rebounded from an accident in Thursday’s test session to record the sixth quickest time in Q1 for RS1, in a borrowed Porsche chassis from Nolasport.

The No. 47 Nolasport Porsche of Yves Baltas completed the overall top-five, with James Walker Jr. edging out Kris Wilson for top pole honors in the Am class.

Q2 saw Cooper record a benchmark 2:14.182 in the Blackdog entry he shares with Gaples, leading a McLaren 1-2-3, with Jurs, who apparently took part in both qualifying sessions, and Mason Filippi second and third for Advance and Bryan Herta Autosport, respectively.

Thursday’s pacesetter Ryan Yardley was best of the rest in Q2 in his No. 25 ACI Motorsports Porsche, with Tyler Gonzalez completing the top-five in the No. 68 RAFA Toyota.

Am class pole honors for Race 2 went to Alex Garcia in the No. 21 ACI BMW M4 GT4 EVO.

Of note, Thomas Merrill qualified the No. 94 Random Vandals Racing BMW in 12th overall, after Kenton Koch had to leave Road America for the birth of his first child, per a post on his Instagram page.

It’s unclear if Koch will return for Race 1 of the weekend, which is scheduled to get underway at 3 p.m. CST.

Koch and co-driver Sam Craven currently lead the Pro-Am class championship by a hefty margin.

Race 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 1:10 p.m. Both 60-minute 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