DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Accelerating Performance’s Michael Cooper was able to get under Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen exiting turn 6 Friday (Jan. 24) to take the lead. From there, he was able to hold on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona International Speedway with Moisey Uretsky. It is the team’s first victory in Pilot Challenge and the first win for Cooper and Uretsky as teammates.
“We really worked on getting the car good on old tires [during the ROAR Before the 24],” Cooper told Frontstretch after the race. It was a struggle during the ROAR, but the cooler temperatures that we’ve seen this week…the car just came alive. That’s what helped us win this race.”
Cooper and Uretsky’s margin of victory was .327 seconds over Heylen and Luca Mars. KohR Motorsports’ Billy Johnson and Bob Michaelian were third in their Ford Mustang GT4, then McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman and Sam Paley. BGB Motorsports’ Thomas Collingwood, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly were fifth.
Mars started from the overall pole in his Porsche. He may have set a track record in qualifying, but his lead was very short-lived.
Paley caught Mars sleeping at the start and swept around the outside to take the overall in his Mustang. Meanwhile, Czabok-Simpson Motorsports’ Morgan Burkhard, in his Grand Sport debut, was able to get the lead in his Porsche at the beginning of the second lap.
The first caution flew 15 minutes into the race when KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Dr. William Tally got clipped exiting the infield and spun into the SAFER Barrier. The car then caught fire. Tally was ok, but he was out.
On the restart, TeamTGM’s Paul Holton went too hot into turn 6 and clipped CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister. McAlister spun and debris littered the track, resulting in another caution.
Holton was given a drive-through penalty for causing the incident. The car was also damaged in the crash and required repairs. Since the incident occurred less than 15 minutes from the restart, they wouldn’t have been allowed to make the repairs since only “emergency service” is allowed in that scenario. As a result, Holton had to serve a stop and 60-second hold penalty. By the time the penalties had been served, Holton was two laps down and out of the hunt.
Burkhard led until he made his first stop at the one-hour mark. The CSM team made a good pit stop and took the lead back once the sequence ended. Meanwhile, Mars had an issue with his gearbox that dropped him back.
90 minutes into the race, Rebel Rock Racing’s Robin Liddell lost his left rear wheel exiting turn 5. The car ended up stalling exiting the infield, which drew the race’s third caution.
That brought most of the leaders into the pits. Burkhard lost track of where his pit was and pulled into the wrong one before correcting himself. Unfortunately, it was too late to avoid a penalty for improper pit procedure. That dropped the CSM Porsche out of the top 20. They would eventually finish 14th.
Johnson eventually inherited the lead in his Mustang and pulled out to a decent lead. However, a pit stop sequence with 90 minutes to go saw him lose the lead to Heylen.
A fierce battle followed between the two veterans. It took 15 full minutes for Johnson to get the lead back from the smaller Porsche. Once he got the lead, Johnson was unable to get away from the Porsche, but able to keep the rest of the GS class at bay.
With 35 minutes to go, MDK Motorsports’ Slade Stewart crashed at pit out to bring out a caution, allowing the field to bunch back up. That brought Cooper, Morad and Altzman back into the mix.
On the restart, Heylen made his move at the Le Mans chicane for the lead. Not only was the move successful, but it pushed Johnson wide, allowing Cooper, Morad and Altzman to pounce.
Ultimately, Johnson was able to maintain second here, while Cooper dropped back to fifth. That only energized Cooper. He was able to get back to third, then began setting quick laps.
Cooper was able to take second from Johnson, then proceeded to run down Heylen. The two drivers ran each other hard, but Cooper was able to get past exiting turn 6. From there, he held on for the win.
In TCR, Bryan Herta Autosport’s Bryson Morris started from pole after setting a track record in qualifying. He ran well early on with teammate Harry Gottsacker giving chase.
The early stops resulted in a split strategy in the class. The BHA Hyundais chose to pit, giving the lead to Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Eric Powell.
Morris was able to get himself back up to second quickly. Gottsacker ended up cutting his right front tire and ended up crawling back to the pits. He ended up four laps down after a subsequent penalty.
Powell stayed out as long as he possibly could while holding off Morris. Unfortunately, it was too far as he ran out of fuel before pitting to hand over to Tyler Gonzalez. That put the No. 99 Hyundai a lap down. The team would later retire with mechanical woes.
Morris ended up with a 10-second lead over teammate Denis Dupont after Powell’s stop. Morris was able to maintain that margin until he pitted to hand over to Mark Wilkins.
Wilkins was not able to fully maintain that lead, but still had a three-second lead over Dupont when it came time to make his final pit stop. Unfortunately, a slower pit stop allowed Dupont to snatch the lead.
For the final 25 minutes, Dupont had to hold off Wilkins for the lead. Meanwhile, they were able to pull away from Precision Racing LA’s Ryan Eversley so that they could settle between themselves. Ultimately, Dupont was able to hold off Wilkins to take the win for himself and Preston Brown, their second career victory together.
Dupont and Brown’s margin of victory was .067 seconds over Morris and Wilkins. Eversley and Celso Neto were third, then Suellio Almeida and Maddie Aust in their series debut. HART’s Tyler Chambers, Steven Eich and Chad Gilsinger were fifth.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge BMW M Endurance Challenge Unofficial Results
Teams will now take a few weeks off. Next up will be the Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring International Raceway. The race will air live on Peacock at 2:10 p.m. ET on March 14.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.