LEXINGTON, Oh. — Pit strategy put Ibiza Farm Motorsports’ Michael Cooper in the overall lead Sunday (June 7). Once there, that was all Cooper needed as he was able to pull away and win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio with Moisey Uretsky. It is the duo’s second win of the year after a triumph at Sebring in March.
Cooper and Uretsky won by seconds over Turner Motorsport’s Luca Mars and Dillon Machavern. CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal were third, followed by AutoTechnic Racing’s Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer. Koch-Copeland Motorsports’ Jaxon Bell, Jeremy Fletcher and Ford Koch were fifth in their Supra.
Westphal started from pole in his BMW and led early. Meanwhile, van der Steur Racing’s Trenton Estep was able to jump McAleer for second.
Further back, the first caution of the race flew almost immediately when JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Chris Miller spun exiting turn 9 after contact from The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Greenemeier. He was then hit by Medusa Motorsports’ Athan Sterling and KohR Motorsports’ Evan Slater.
All three drivers were able to drive back to their pits. Sterling’s Aston Martin was the most heavily damaged and was out on the spot. There was an investigation, but the stewards couldn’t conclusively assign blame, so no action was taken.
After the result, McAleer was able to retake second from Estep. Westphal and McAleer then pulled out a few seconds on the rest of the pack.
The order held firm until the first round of pit stops 55 minutes into the race. Westphal got out of the No. 39 BMW in favor of McAlister, while McAleer exited in favor of Krainz. stayed in his car. Despite the CarBahn team not changing tires, McAleer got out five seconds quicker. That was enough for Krainz to take the lead once the round of stops was complete.
McAlister ended up back in third, behind Winward Racing’s Daan Arrow, who pitted seven laps before the leaders. After the stops, Arrow was able to run down Krainz and take the lead in the Keyhole.
Arrow having to pit earlier than the rest of the leaders allowed the AutoTechnic squad to retake the lead on the next pit stop when McAleer got back in the car. However, Winward Racing’s chances for victory ended when the Mercedes developed alternator issues. That resulted in a trip to the garage for repairs. Arrow and Bryce Ward would ultimately finish 11 laps down in 34th overall, 24th in Grand Sport.
McAleer led until Czabok Simpson Motorsports’ Morgan Burkhard went wide exiting the final turn and got in the grass. With the amount of rain that has fallen this weekend, that grass was very slippery. Sure enough, he lost control of his Porsche and nosed into the Armco barrier, busting both radiators on his Cayman and littering the track with debris to bring out the second caution.
This brought all the leaders into the pits for service and more or less decided the race. Cooper was able to win the race off of pit road and take the lead over Bell and The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Grisham.
Once the green came out, the clean air played directly into Cooper’s hands. While Bell fought it out with Grisham, McAleer, Westphal and the others, he just drove off into the distance.
The AR Motorsports Aston Martin of Martin Sarukhanyan stalled exiting the Keyhole with a little under 40 minutes to go. This brought out a caution and wiped out a 16-second lead for Cooper.
Despite that, Cooper still had the lapped car of Robby Foley between himself and Mars. As a result, he was able to have a comfy gap shortly after the restart.
In TCR, KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Rocco Pasquarella started from pole in his Honda Civic Type-R TCR. The rookie racer was able to lead early, but Victor Gonzalez Racing’s Tyler Gonzalez was able to move up from fourth on the grid to second early on.
30 minutes into the race, Gonzalez started putting the pressure on Pasquarella and eventually took the class lead a few laps later. Pasquarella was able to keep in touch until the first round of stops.
Here, Gonzalez gained multiple seconds on Pasquarella’s Honda. By the time the pit sequence ended, Gonzalez’s teammate Franco Girolami had a lead of over five seconds.
The only thing that can derail VGR’s form Sunday was a quirky instance. Sure enough, quirkiness showed up in the second hour when the hood of the No. 99 Cupra started flapping.
The flapping meant a loss of downforce and desreased pace. That allowed Pasquarella to come back into the picture. He was able to retake the lead shortly before halfway
Ultimately, the race was turned upside down when Girolami ran into Bryan Herta Autosport’s Bryson Morris in the Keyhole. Morris spun out, while Girolami ended up with significant front end damage. That ended his day.
Pasquarella’s teammate Tim Lewis Jr. was in good position to take the win until he slowed with 25 minutes to go in the Keyhole. There was no attempt to try to fix the pole sitting Honda in the pits. Lewis simply drove it straight to the paddock, ending his day.
Lewis’ misfortune elevated BHA’s Denis Dupont to the class lead in his Hyundai. However, Dupont was already under pressure from Montreal Motorsports Group’s Karl Wittmer.
Dupont and Wittmer battled for the final 25 minutes of the race. The key place to get a move done was turn 4 at China Beach. Wittmer would attempt to go the outside of Dupont there (Dupont was defending, meaning that the inside was closed off) multiple times, but was unable to get past.
On the final lap of the race, Wittmer got an excellent run off of the Keyhole and managed to get all the way past on the outside prior to braking for turn 4. That way, he was able to make the move stick. From there, he held on to take the win with Louis-Phillippe Montour and Daijiro Yoshihara.
MMG’s margin of victory was .801 seconds over Dupont and Preston Brown. Maddie Aust and Mark Wilkins were third in the No. 98 Hyundai, a career-best finish for Aust. Lance Bergstein, Harry Gottsacker and Jon Miller were fourth in the No. 18 Hyundai, while Stallion Motorsports’ Celso Neto and Raphael Reis were fifth in their Cupra.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio Unofficial Results
Next up for Pilot Challenge teams will be Watkins Glen International in three weeks for two hours of racing on the 3.4-mile road course. Coverage of the LP Building Solutions 120 will stream live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and on Peacock starting at 1 p.m. ET on June 27.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.
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