Panoz Returns to Victory Lane; Cooper Wins on Friday at COTA

Photo: SRO America

Team Panoz Racing returned to victory lane in Friday’s opening Pirelli GT4 America SprintX round at Circuit of The Americas.

Roman De Angelis and last-minute sub Parker Chase took the Silver class No. 51 Panoz Avezzano GT4 to a 2.211-second win over the No. 21 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Michael Dinan and Robby Foley, who picked up Pro-Am class honors.

De Angelis took over the lead of the 60-minute race when the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Harry Gottsacker was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for a minimum pit lane time infringement with seven minutes left on the clock.

It dropped Silver championship contender Gottsacker and Nick Wittmer to a 15th place finish overall.

The No. 36 Andretti Autosport McLaren 570S GT4 of Jarett Andretti and Colin Mullan completed the overall podium after contending early, followed by the No. 50 Panoz of Ian James and Matt Keegan, who finished second in Pro-Am.

Am class honors went to the No. 7 Nolasport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Sean Gibbons and Zac Anderson.

The second and final GT4 SprintX race of the weekend is set for Saturday at 10:15 a.m. CT.

RESULTS: Race 1

Photo: SRO

Michael Cooper scored his ninth victory of the GT4 America Sprint season with a dominant run in Race 1.

The Blackdog Speed Shop driver pedaled the No. 10 McLaren 570S GT4 to a 10.017-second margin over the No. 12 Ian Lacy Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Drew Staveley.

Dinan doubled up on Friday to score GT4 Am class honors with a third place overall finish in his No. 210 Flying Lizard Aston GT4.

An opening lap incident between the No. 11 Blackdog Mclaren of Tony Gaples and No. 59 Rearden Aston GT4 of Paul Terry resulted in retirement for Gaples.

Terry managed to continue to finish seventh overall, fifth in the Am class.

The No. 91 Rearden Aston of Jeff Burton finished second in Am, with Sean Quinlan completing the class podium in third.

Race 2 of 3 this weekend for GT4 Sprint is on tap for Saturday at 4:10 p.m. CT.

RESULTS: Race 1

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