Cooper, Cadillac Top Friday Long Beach PWC Practice

Friday’s opening Pirelli World Challenge practice for Sunday’s 50-minute sprint on the Long Beach street circuit is in the books and Michael Cooper topped the GT class in the No. 8 Cadillac ATS V.R. GT3.

Cooper turned a quick lap time of 1:19.671 and was 0.374 seconds ahead of Alvaro Parente who was second fastest in the No. 9 K-PAX Racing McLaren 650S GT3 at 1:20.045.

Jon Fogarty posted the third fastest lap of the session with a time of 1:20.086 in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing McLaren 650S GT3 only to make hard contact with the wall at the beginning of the Seaside Way straight on the following lap. Fogarty was uninjured but the No. 99 “Red Dragon” sustained heavy damage.

Martin Fuentes turned the fastest GTA lap time of 1:20.288 in the No. 07 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, which was good enough for fourth overall in the combined GT/GTA field.

Frankie Montecalvo was second fastest in GTA in the No. 66 DIME Racing Mercedes AMG SLS GT3.

Reigning IMSA GTD Champion Bill Sweedler showed well in his Pirelli World Challenge on-track debut and helped Scuderia Corsa take two of the top-three GTA spots with the third fastest lap in the No. 11 Ferrari F458 Italia GT3.

Next up for Pirelli World Challenge is a 15-minute practice session Saturday morning at 8:15 a.m. PDT which rolls straight into a pair of 15-minute group qualifying sessions that start at 8:40 a.m. PDT.