Bell Claims Pole for COTA Race 2
Copeland Motorsports wins qualifying battle for Race 2 pole at the Circuit of The Americas...
Photo: Fredy Hardy/SRO
Jaxon Bell claimed pole position ahead of the second Toyota GR Cup North America race of the weekend at the Circuit of The Americas.
The Copeland Motorsports driver laid down a 2:26.974 benchmark lap to secure the top spot on the grid for this afternoon’s race in the No. 7 Toyota GR86 Cup car, with Race 1 winner Lucas Weisenberg behind, 0.148 seconds off the pace.
Bell made a late charge up the timing sheets after Weisenberg had led the majority of the session around the 3.41-mile Austin road course.
Third-quickest overall was RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate’s Spike Kohlbecker in the No. 55 GR86 Cup car. Meanwhile, Ethan Goulart was fourth.
Copeland’s Ford Koch rounded out the overall top five best times in a tight 15-minute qualifying session, which saw the top eight drivers covered by less than one second.
In total, ten lap times were invalidated for track limits violations in the session, prompting drive-through penalties for offenders, with the esses and Turn 19 proving to produce the highest number of violations as drivers searched every inch of the track for lap time.
The session ran without interruption for the field of 31 drivers.
Race 2 of the GR Cup North America weekend takes the green flag at 12:15 p.m. CST with live coverage available on grcup.com and on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.
