Blackdog Speed Shop’s Michael Cooper and Tony Gaples came away with a fifth-place Pro-Am finish Sunday as the Pirelli GT4 America season resumed at Virginia International Raceway.
The duo piloted the No. 9 Blackdog Speed Shop Nissan Z NISMO GT4 to two top-10 finishes in the series’ return following a two-month break since the previous round at Circuit of The Americas.
Cooper led Sunday’s second one-hour race for the first 10 minutes before getting side-by-side contact from the eventual class-winning BMW. He held second through the race’s first full-course yellow with 33 minutes to go and handed over Gaples.
He restarted fourth in class with 22 minutes to go as the top five cars in Pro-Am bunched up under the race’s second caution with the race restarting with six minutes left. Gaples hung tough to finish eighth overall.
The duo also worked their way through the field in the weekend’s opening race to salvage a top-10 finish in the deep and competitive Pro-Am field. The pairing made up 10 spots in the order from the race’s start to score valuable championship points at the end of the hour-long contest.
Gaples took the start and drove the first 26 minutes after advancing five spots in the overall order. He handed off to Cooper, who drove a solid and quick stint to get the No. 9 Nissan in the points.
Blackdog Racing and the No. 9 Nissan Z NISMO GT4 return to Pirelli GT4 America competition August 16-18 at historic Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
MICHAEL COOPER, NO. 9 BLACKDOG RACING NISSAN Z NISMO GT4: “Saturday was tough but it was good to get back toward the front Sunday like we hoped. We can be happy with a top-five in this class. A place like VIR amplifies the advantages and disadvantages of each car, and I felt like we were on the back foot for most of the weekend. Still, it was fun to be back with Tony and the team. We’ll keep working to get better for when we get to Road America and the team’s home race.”
TONY GAPLES, NO. 9 BLACKDOG RACING NISSAN Z NISMO GT4: “We ended the weekend well, which is how you want to close out an event. Driving for the first time in this car at VIR was a big challenge with the different types of turns and elevation changes with this car. We learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work with this chassis at places like VIR. That should help us for the next couple of tracks.”