GMG’s Cook, Teoman Scoop McLaren Trophy Race 2 Win

Jeff Cook and Deniz Teoman claimed victory in the second McLaren Trophy America race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, which was disrupted by a caution just before the driver changes.

The Am class pairing’s No. 5 GMG Racing McLaren Artura Trophy EVO had qualified 18th and occupied 17th prior to the full course yellow in Teoman’s hands, but pitting at the first time of asking elevated Cook to a lead he would not cede.

The Race 1 pole-sitter held off Patrick Liddy and Tanner Harvey’s Forte Racing entry to win by 0.43 seconds, although the No. 24 crew took maximum points in the Pro class to cap a solid recovery from 17th on the grid.

Polesitter Michael O’Brien (GMG Racing) and Greystone GT’s Oliver Webb controlled the opening stages of the 50-minute race, as the Pro-Am duo looked to hand an advantage to co-drivers Randy Highland and Ryan James, but both lost out when Keegan Massey shunted his No. 812 RAFA Racing Team entry at Turn 12 and damaged the tire stack.

As Cook cycled to the lead once the stops were completed, the same strategy helped fellow Am class competitor Zach Lumsden’s Colarado Motorsport with Flying Lizard machine move up from 15th to second.

Having lost the chance of a good result in Race 1 with a penalty for a false start, Cook made no mistake once the field was unleashed from behind the safety car.

Liddy, who also lost a shot at victory in Race 1 when Harvey ran out of fuel in the closing stages, quickly moved up from fifth at the restart to second with passes on Forte team-mate Kaia Teo, Lumsden and Jon Miller’s No. 53 Forte entry.

That put him onto the tail of Cook, but although Liddy closed the leader’s advantage to less than a second in the closing laps, he was unable to find a way by.

Miller and Kevin Madsen took third overall and second in Pro, ahead of Am runner-up Cooper Broll’s No. 100 Forte machine.

Lumsden put in a strong rear-guard action against Race 1 Am winner Fabio Grecco (OMS) to complete the class podium in fifth overall, with Grecco’s attempted last lap move instead allowing Scott Sorbaro’s No. 3 OMS machine into sixth.

A trio of penalties, one for a short pitstop, one for incident responsibility and another for contact, demoted Grecco to tenth overall.

With James and Highland relegated to the rear of the field for the restart, Pro-am class honours were claimed by Cody Kishel and Spencer Schmidt’s No. 47 RWE Motorsport entry in 11th overall.

RESULTS: Race 2