Bell Fastest in GR Cup Practice in Austin
Copeland Motorsports leads charge across both Friday practice sessions at COTA...
Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO
Copeland Motorsports’ Jaxon Bell set the fastest overall practice laptime across a pair of Friday sessions to kick off the Toyota GR Cup North America weekend at the Circuit of The Americas.
Bell topped the times with a 2:27.135 benchmark in Practice 1 on Friday morning, which would stand as the quickest time of the day, despite an additional 30 minutes of running in second practice that afternoon.
Westin Workman brought his No. 13 BSI Racing Toyota to within 0.306 seconds of Bell’s pace to finish second-fastest.
TechSport’s Ethan Goulart finished the day as the third-quickest driver, with both drivers also setting their quick times in Practice 1.
Lucas Weisenberg, meanwhile, was fourth for his eponymous team ahead of Spike Kohlbecker’s RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate entry, which completed the top five fastest times on Friday.
John Dean set the best time of the Legends class drivers, finishing 0.838 seconds off Copeland stablemate Bell’s leading pace to record the sixth-best overall time of the day.
Notably, Bell also set the pace in Practice 2, but failed to dip below the 2:27 threshold in warmer afternoon conditions.
The 31 GR Cup drivers appeared to favor track conditions in the slightly cooler morning session, with the vast majority of the field setting their best laps of the day in Practice 1, when ambient conditions were roughly 8 degrees Fahrenheit less than in the afternoon.
Track limits have been a topic of discussion over the GR Cup weekend at COTA thus far, with no fewer than 18 penalties issued for track limits violations during the morning session, with a further 15 penalties assessed in Practice 2.
A brief off-track excursion at Turn 11 for Zach Hollingshead brought out a brief red flag in Practice 1. However, running was only delayed for four minutes. Second practice also saw a red flag when TechSport’s Ayden Kirk went off in Sector 2.
Qualifying 1 is set for Saturday at 8:55 a.m. CST.
RESULTS: Practice 1/Practice 2
