| Cupra Tops TCR For First U.S. and IMSA Victory September 20, 2025By John Oreovicz and Mark RobinsonIMSA Wire Service |
| Race Results INDIANAPOLIS – Competitors in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge left the best for last Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Michael Cooper guided the No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsports (formerly Accelerating Performance) McLaren Artura GT4 past Robert Noaker in the No. 60 KOHR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 to take the lead of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120 with just one minute remaining in the two-hour contest. Cooper almost immediately took the white flag and completed one more tour of the 2.439-mile stadium road course to finish 1.279 seconds ahead of Jesse Lazare (No. 21 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4), who also made a late pass on Noaker to claim second place and cement McLaren’s first 1-2 finish in Michelin Pilot Challenge competition. It was the second win of the 2025 campaign for Cooper and co-driver Moisey Uretsky, who also triumphed in the four-hour BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona International Speedway to open the season. Almost every GS competitor made a pit stop for fuel, tires, and a driver change under caution just under an hour into the race. After three more laps behind the Safety Car, the Ibiza Farm team called Cooper in for an additional stop, lessening any concerns about making fuel or tires last to the finish when the race restarted with 56 minutes left on the clock. Turned loose, Cooper moved from 17th place up to third, his cause aided by a brief caution that bunched the field and set the scene for a 17-minute sprint to the finish. Noaker, who dominated the IMSA-sanctioned Mustang Challenge series in 2025 and recently clinched the Dark Horse championship, held a five-second lead when the final caution flew. He maintained the lead after the restart, but was never able to pull away from Lazare, who took over the No. 21 McLaren from Alexandra Hainer. With four minutes to go, Cooper nipped past Lazare into Turn 1 for second and immediately latched the No. 44 McLaren onto the No. 60 Mustang’s tail. Noaker held the inside line down the back stretch and held the advantage through the left-hand Turn 10. But Cooper was able to put his nose in front entering the next right-hander to take the lead, and Lazare quickly also forced his way past. He was unable to challenge Cooper on the final lap. The victory was the second in Michelin Pilot Challenge competition for both Cooper and Uretsky. “Credit to the team and credit to McLaren, but also a lot of credit to Cooper, because I don’t know how he pulled that out,” said Uretsky. “Fantastic job. I was having some brake issues, so I don’t know what he was doing to make it work.” Cooper, a 36-year-old New York native, was naturally satisfied after the dramatic victory. “I just took any opportunity I was given, whether it was inside, outside, wherever,” he said. “I was willing to try anything to get that win. We got a win at Daytona to open the season and haven’t had a podium since, so I thought it was worth risking for. “I think everyone was really struggling with braking and grip overall,” Cooper added. “So maybe I just managed that a little better early in the stint and had a bit more in the end.” Ford Racing Junior Team pilot Noaker and Super2 Series standout McLeod, who swept the Mustang Invitational at Circuit de La Sarthe in Le Mans in June, almost pulled off a sensational debut victory in the GS class. Either way, it was the No. 60 car’s second straight new lineup podium finish (Nick Persing and Sam Paley finished second last race at VIRginia International Raceway). “I was giving it everything I had and defending as hard as I could, but the tires were starting to give up a little bit,” Noaker said. “Those cars behind us were able to brake so much deeper. I was hoping it wasn’t going to happen, but I think it was just a matter of time before it did.” Championship leaders Jan Heylen and Luca Mars (No 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS) battled brake problems and then lost a lap when Heylen was hit from behind and sustained a punctured tire. They finished 19th in class, which unofficially cuts their advantage from 240 points up to now only 100 points clear of Jeff Westphal and Sean McAlister (No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT4) and 120 points over Jenson Altzman (No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing with Aerosport Ford Mustang GT4) heading to the season concluding Fox Factory 120 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. TCR: Breakthrough Win for VGRT and Cupra in TCR Class History was made in the Touring Car (TCR) class race with Cupra becoming the latest manufacturer to add its name to the list of IMSA winners. Co-drivers Eric Powell and Tyler Gonzalez overcame an early setback to win by 6.998 seconds in the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Cupra Leon VZ TCR. Cupra is the 16th of the 18 manufacturers competing in an IMSA-sanctioned series to claim a race victory in 2025. Based in Spain, Cupra joined IMSA competition this year and is the first new manufacturer to add its name to the sanctioning body’s victory list since Alfa Romeo in 2021. “For us to prove that we can be competitive in any brand that we race is big,” said team owner Victor Gonzalez, whose operation’s two other series wins came with Honda in 2022. “Most important to bring the first win to Cupra in the U.S. is huge. … I want to say thanks to IMSA because they support always my team. It’s been two and a half weeks, really hard for us, my guy has put more than 200 hours working in the cars to prepare them. And to win at Indy, there’s no way that I can express how grateful I am.” The victory was anything but easy. Powell qualified the No. 99 on the class pole in the morning (another Cupra first) but was penalized for incident responsibility 30 minutes into the race, dropping to the rear of the 16-car TCR field. The car was still mired in 13th place when Tyler Gonzalez took the wheel at the midpoint, but the talented 21-year-old methodically moved his way forward with help from penalties assessed other frontrunners for blocking and incident responsibilities of their own. Gonzalez had the No. 99 in fifth place for a restart with 35 minutes to go. Less than 10 minutes later, he roared past the No. 7 Precision Racing LA Audi RS3 LMS TCR for a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. It delivered the first Michelin Pilot Challenge win for both VGRT drivers. “I’ve been in that position many times throughout my career,” said Tyler Gonzalez, a winner in multiple other IMSA series but not in Michelin Pilot Challenge until Saturday. “Just keeping the car clean, trying to keep the tires together. It’s a lot hotter this year than it usually is in Indy, so we knew tire deg was going to play a big factor. Luckily, the Cupra is really easy on tires, so that definitely helped this out, helped us keep pace in the car in the end. Just super happy for the team and for Cupra as well.” The TCR season standings took on a new look with the final results. Karl Wittmer completed a last-lap pass to push the No. 93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR into second place at the checkered flag. The move vaulted Wittmer and co-driver LP Montour into the points lead, unofficially 10 ahead of the driver Wittmer overtook, Harry Gottsacker in the No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR. “I sort of managed early on, and I knew the car would be stronger at the end of the race,” Wittmer said. “Five minutes remaining, OK, we’ve got three laps. Where can I get him? And I clearly knew it was either (Turn) 1 or 7. Last lap had come out, had a good run, committed early in the brake zone. I don’t know what happened. We connected, kept racing, it was clean apart from that and just went home with it. Pumped to be here at Indy and get on the podium.” Co-driver Montour admitted to extreme nervousness watching Wittmer race to the finish. “It’s my first full season in IMSA, first time in Indianapolis, we do a podium and we get the championship lead, so can’t ask for another thing,” Montour said. “I think today we played the championship race very well. We stayed patient, we stayed clean and safe to make sure we run good on points. I probably aged 10 years just watching this last lap.” The No. 76 BHA Hyundai entered as the points leader but was classified in 11th after the race after being penalized twice late – once for blocking and another for incident responsibility. Co-drivers Preston Brown and Denis Dupont are now unofficially 100 points out of the lead heading into the season finale, the Fox Factory 120 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on October 10. |
