Blackdog Speed Shop had its eyes on a pair of top-five class finishes in Pirelli GT4 America as the team and series made their return to Barber Motorsports Park.
Following a thrilling top-five class finish for Michael Cooper and Tony Gaples in Saturday’s opening one-hour race, the No. 9 Blackdog Nissan Z NISMO GT4 was part of a multi-car incident on Sunday’s opening lap that knocked the pairing out of the running.
Blackdog Racing made its first appearance at Barber since 2016. With no usual testing ahead of official practice, the No. 9 Nissan hit the track in Friday morning’s opening session for the first time. That 45-minute run ended up being the only dry running ahead of Saturday’s pair of qualifying sessions.
The story Saturday was Cooper’s charge through the Pro-Am field late in the race. After Gaples started and drove the first 28 minutes, Cooper took over under full-course caution and 10th in class. He picked up two spots to eighth before another caution period with 20 minutes to go.
Cooper went on the charge after a lengthy interruption with the race going green with eight minutes to go. He picked up three spots to fifth by the end, including two on the closing lap, to give Blackdog Racing its third top-five finish in four races.
Any thoughts of matching or repeating that result ended on the first lap of Sunday’s contest. Cooper took the start from seventh in class, the No. 9 Nissan couldn’t avoid a spinning car with heavy damage to the car’s front end and a subsequent retirement.
Blackdog Racing will close its season October 3-6 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the Indianapolis Eight Hours weekend.
MICHAEL COOPER, NO. 9 BLACKDOG RACING NISSAN Z NISMO GT4: “It was pretty obvious from Saturday’s race that things were going to be tight today. The nature of this track promotes close racing, and it gets even closer when you have to avoid spinning cars. I had no time to react and nowhere to go. It’s super-disappointing after we had a great run in the second half Saturday. I thought we could sneak out with another top-five but it wasn’t mean to happen today.”
TONY GAPLES, NO. 9 BLACKDOG RACING NISSAN Z NISMO GT4: “Disappointing and frustrating weekend. We didn’t have a lot of time to get the car dialed in with just the one dry practice. That meant I was still learning the track in this car during qualifying and in the race. I was feeling pretty good going into the second race but then we never got in a full lap. On to Indianapolis and trying to end our season on a positive note.”