Cooper Tops First Practice at COTA

Photo: Bob Chapman/Autosport Image

Michael Cooper made a flying return to Pirelli GT4 America competition on Friday, having posted the quickest time in opening practice for this weekend’s pair of races at Circuit of The Americas.

The former series champion, in the No. 2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4, reeled off a best lap of 2:15.368 to edge out the Silver class No. 51 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 of John Capestro Dubets by 0.146 seconds.

Cooper and co-driver Jason Bell are making their first GT4 America starts of the season after Bell concentrated on GT America powered by AWS competition until now.

Roman De Angelis set the third quickest time in the No. 24 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin, followed by the No. 88 STR38 Racing BMW in fourth and the No. 92 Random Vandals Racing BMW, which completed the top-five.

The No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW was sixth, followed by Black Swan Racing’s McLaren Artura GT4 and the No. 34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 in eighth.

Practice 2 gets underway at 5:15 p.m. CT.

RESULTS: Practice 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