Uretsky, Cooper Win Season Finale; RS1 Crowned Champions

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Moisey Uretsky and Michael Cooper took victory for Ibiza Farm Motorsports in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, which saw RS1 pairing Luca Mars and Jan Heylen capture the title with sixth-placed finish.

Cooper twice managed to overtake Jaxon Bell’s No. 23 Copeland Motorsport Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO en route to the team’s third victory of the season, eventually crossing the line with a margin of 4.323 seconds.

Cooper’s co-driver Uretsky started from pole aboard the No. 44 McLaren Artura GT4, but dropped to third place in the opening exchanges as the No. 23 Toyota took control early on in the hands of Ford Koch.

However, as Koch and Uretsky handed over to each of their respective co-drivers, Cooper fought his way past Bell at Turn 6 and recaptured the lead of the race.

The brightly colored McLaren would lose its leading spot not much later amidst a round of stops under Full Course Yellow, which reshuffled the order.

The sole caution of the race was caused when the No. 72 Pegram Racing Hyundai Elantra N TCR hit the Turn 12 wall after contact from Mikey Taylor’s No. 17 JDC-Miller Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS. No penalties were handed out for the incident.

As a result, Cooper took the restart in sixth position, but he rapidly made progress to fight his way back into podium contention.

Cooper did make contact with the No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 as he fought this way forward, ending Jenson Altzman’s outside title hopes, although no penalty was handed out.

After dispatching both the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO and No. 2 CSM Porsche to move up to second place, Cooper set his sights on Bell’s No. 23 Toyota.

The No. 44 McLaren then captured the lead for a second time as Cooper dove up the inside of Bell at Turn 7, remaining unchallenged for the remainder of the race.

The result marked Ibiza Farm’s third win of the season, having also triumphed at Daytona and Indianapolis.

Bell and Koch finished second, with the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley and Beltre Curtis coming home in third.

This notably resulted in a podium on debut for Curtis, who is the son of former Turner driver and two-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD race winner Bret Curtis.

BMW runners made up the remainder of the top five, with the pair of CarBahn entries finishing fourth and fifth.

Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal, sharing the No. 39 car, led home the No. 4 sister machine of Cameron Shields and NTT IndyCar Series driver Nolan Siegel.

Although McAlister and Westphal outscored RS1 pairing Mars and Heylen in sixth, it was not enough to stop the No. 28 Porsche crew from capturing the class title.

Heylen struggled after the safety car restart, dropping back to the lower edges of the top ten, narrowly avoiding disaster in a battle with Sam Paley for seventh place as Paley then hit and spun the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW of Dillon Machavern out of Turn 10.

However, the Belgian remained out of trouble and secured the title, succeeding Team TGM driver Matt Plumb.

Gottsacker Captures TCR Title; VGRT Secures Back-to-Back Wins for CUPRA

In the TCR category, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team took back-to-back class victories, while Bryan Herta Autosport driver Harry Gottsacker won the championship by finishing fourth.

The No. 99 CUPRA Leon VZ TCR driven by Tyler Gonzalez and Eric Powell crossed the line with a margin of 6.207 seconds over the No. 76 BHA Hyundai of Preston Brown and Denis Dupont.

This marked a second consecutive class victory for Gonzalez and Powell after they also triumphed in the penultimate round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Powell assumed an early race lead after passing the No. 98 Hyundai of Mason Filippi at Turn 10.

Filippi’s co-driver Gottsacker entered the finale in close contention for the TCR title and then looked on course for championship success when the points-leading No. 93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR retired with an engine issue.

However, after the safety car restart, a storming Dupont brought the No. 76 Hyundai into contention by moving up to second.

With Gottsacker in fourth place, Dupont and Brown would have won the title by winning the race, but Dupont proved unable to catch Gonzalez in the closing stages.

As a result, Gottsacker narrowly clung on to the championship, becoming a two-time TCR champion following on from his initial title back in 2023.

Filippi, Gottsacker’s co-driver for the final round of the season, did not win the title as he was no longer in contention after missing the Watkins Glen back in June round due to clashing commitments with the Nürburgring 24.

The class podium was completed by the No. 52 Baker Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR driven by Sam Baker and James Vance.

Source: Sports Car 365