Sabré Cook achieved a pair of eighth place finishes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, marking her eighth top-ten finish of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America season, as she continues her impressive sophomore campaign.
Sabré Cook continued her streak of top-ten finishes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where she finished eighth in both races at the sixth doubleheader of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America season, marking her eighth top-ten finish this year.
In her second season in the Porsche one-make series—and her second in full-time GT racing—Cook has made remarkable progress and is now a consistent front-runner in one of the most competitive Porsche Carrera Cup championships in the world.
Since the second round at Miami International Autodromo—where she had collected her personal best last year—Cook has so far finished in the top ten at every following round.
With eighth-place finishes at Miami, Montreal, and Watkins Glen as personal bests in her sophomore campaign, the Colorado native was now aiming to continue the positive streak at the Racing Capital of the World, Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Shift Up Now driver, in fact, returned to the 3.925 km road course, which unfortunately saw her 2023 season come to an early end last year, when she was collected at high speed by another car, requiring recovery from a concussion that meant Cook's season was over with two rounds to spare.
Sabré, however, was more than ready to tackle the iconic circuit and started her weekend strongly, with seventh and eighth fastest times in the two practice sessions, running steadily in the top ten and showing good pace to battle at the front, just three tenths off the pace setter—in only her second weekend as part of the ERA Motorsport team, following a team change midway through the season.
In qualifying, however, Cook was unfortunate with traffic and couldn't get the most out of her flying laps: she would have to start from P12 on the grid.
At lights out, Loek Hartog led from pole position, while Cook skillfully avoided early contacts just ahead, though she couldn’t quite get past them, slotting into P12.
She soon started to gain positions, moving into the top ten by the end of lap 1, and then went for a move on Elias De La Torre at Turn 1. She took the inside and completed the move, although De La Torre turned in and the two made contact. Both continued, with Cook losing no positions in the process.
Hartog, meanwhile, continued to stretch his lead over Jimmy Llibre, Alex Sedgwick, and the rest of the pack. Cook had clean air ahead but had to defend from Yves Baltas. After some battling, Baltas went past on lap 7, taking P10 from Cook.
Sabré, however, stayed close, improving her sector times and closing back in on Baltas by lap 10, aiming to reclaim her spot in the top ten.
With a damaged car from the contact in the opening laps, Cook couldn’t quite get close enough and fell a couple of seconds behind the car ahead—while retaining a safe gap to Jake Pedersen behind.
With 15 minutes to go, Pedersen started gaining a few tenths on Cook, but she responded with some solid laps. As the race entered its final five minutes, Pedersen was again getting closer.
While Hartog checked out, Ryan Yardley and Jimmy Llibre continued to battle for second place throughout the race, until two laps to go when Yardley got past. Soon after, Llibre slowed down and pitted with issues—the same happened to ACI Motorsports teammate Yves Baltas with one lap to go.
On the final lap, Sabré Cook therefore moved up to ninth and crossed the finish line with yet another strong top-ten finish, earning great points for the championship. She was later promoted to eighth place following a post-race penalty for Michael Cooper.
Lining up again 12th on the grid for Race 2 on Saturday morning, Cook aimed to keep her streak of top-ten finishes alive. She made another good start, avoided contacts in the midfield, kept it clean and moved up to tenth right away.
The ERA Motorsports driver tried to catch Michael McCann but had Yves Baltas right behind her. On lap 5, Sabré was in the thick of the action, with a four-wide battle for position: she defended perfectly and ended up gaining one place, moving up to ninth as Zachary Vanier dropped behind.
Cook continued her strong drive, picking up another position and moving up to eighth.
While she couldn't quite stay with McCann and fell a couple of seconds behind, Cook nevertheless kept a consistent pace and managed the gap to Jake Pedersen.
The latter also had to defend from Michael Cooper, who was recovering from a first-lap contact, and Cooper eventually went past. Sabré gained a second and held on well, but Cooper was soon right behind, forcing the Shift Up Now athlete to defend. Cooper went past on lap 20, with Cook now having a two-second margin to the car behind. She managed to open a three-second buffer as Pedersen now had Madeline Stewart in his mirrors.
After two clean, uninterrupted race, Loek Hartog won again, unchallenged, followed by Alex Sedgwick and Dan Clark. Sabré Cook managed her position well, and with a penalty for Michael Cooper, she was back into eighth by the end of Race 2, securing another top-ten - the eighth of the season to date.
“Thanks to all the guys from ERA Motorsport, my incredible partners, and all the fans for coming out to support us here at the Racing Capital,” said Cook after another successful weekend in Porsche Carrera Cup North America. “Looking forward to continuing to improve our pace and clinch more great results in the last rounds of the season next month!”
Sabré Cook now sits 12th in the drivers' standings, with 64 points to her name. Two rounds remain on the calendar, with the next one scheduled for October 9-11 at Road Atlanta, where the series will support the IMSA Petit Le Mans event.
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