PCCNA: Sabré Cook returns to the top-10 at Watkins Glen
- LIAM REDFORD
- 16 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Sabré Cook secured her third top-10 finish in the last four races in Porsche Carrera Cup North America following a positive weekend at Watkins Glen, where she finished race one in tenth, banking a solid haul of championship points and will now be looking to carry this momentum into the second half of the season.
Sabré Cook secured her third top-10 finish in the last four races in Porsche Carrera Cup North America following a positive weekend at Watkins Glen. The JDX Racing driver finished race one in tenth, before taking the chequered flag in 11th position in a heavily-disrupted race two. Cook banked a solid haul of championship points and will now be looking to carry this momentum into the second half of the season.
Fresh from her season’s best results last time out in Montreal, Cook was aiming to continue this momentum at Watkins Glen. It was an extremely fast turnaround for the Porsche Carrera Cup North America drivers with just three days of off-track action between the race two at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and free practice one at Watkins Glen.
The iconic circuit located in New York state has been a successful one for Sabré in the past as she secured two points scoring finishes in 2023, before taking a further step forward last season. Across the pair of races in 2024, Cook twice finished inside the top-10 with a best result of eighth equalling her season’s best. Therefore, she arrived at the track with a 100% points scoring record at Watkins Glen.
The opening practice session took place on Thursday morning and with the Porsche Carrera Cup North America drivers first on circuit, track evolution was significant. Cook’s fastest time came on her penultimate lap with her best time of a 1:50.711 placing the JDX Racing driver in 11th position overall.
The second session took place early on Thursday afternoon with a further forty-minutes given to the drivers to work on car setup. With slightly higher track temperatures, Cook was unable to quite match her time from the earlier session, however the JDX Racing driver ended the session in a solid 14th position overall, 13th within the Pro class. The competitiveness of Porsche Carrera Cup North America was underlined by the fact that Cook was just one second away from third-place driver Tyler Maxson.
Qualifying took place on Friday morning and with cool track temperatures, improvements were substantial from Thursday’s pair of free practice sessions. Just one-third of the way into qualifying, Cook was already a whole second quicker than she had gone the previous day.
As each run progressed, the JDX Racing driver continued to improve and her consistency was excellent throughout the session. At the end of qualifying, Cook had set the 13th fastest lap overall, 12th in the Pro class on a time of a 1:48.944.
Race one of the weekend was held on Friday afternoon with Cook starting from 13th position overall, 12th within the Pro class. It was an excellent start from Sabre who crucially passed Pro-Am class leader Alan Metni on the opening lap. This meant that only her Pro class rivals were now ahead and Cook soon built up a comfortable gap behind her.
As this margin increased, Cook could focus forward and her race pace was good as the top-12 drivers ran in a leading train. On lap six, the race entered its first full course yellow period as Marco Cirone spun and hit the barriers. Due to some remedial work required on the barriers, it was an extended period behind the safety car before the race resumed on lap 10.
With the battles in the Pro class closely contest on the restart, Michael McCann and Jared Thomas made contact at the Toe with the latter spinning. This promoted Cook into tenth position and she was enjoying another good race to continue her momentum from Montreal. Three laps later, a second full course yellow period was required as debris needed to be cleared from the circuit.
The restart came with eight minutes remaining and Cook was right on the tail of JDX Racing teammate Paul Bocuse. Cook was regularly within just a few car lengths of her rival and was consistently applying the pressure. Although she was just unable to make a move on Bocuse, Sabre secured her third consecutive top-10 finish with a smart drive at Watkins Glen.
Race two of the weekend took place early on Saturday morning with light rain beginning to fall as the cars made their way out onto the circuit. Cook lined up from 12th position and was looking to make progress from the sixth row of the grid. As the drivers exited the first corner, a sizeable incident occurred just behind Cook and this resulted in an instant full course yellow period with a number of cars stranded out on circuit with damage.
Ahead of Sabré, contact between Jimmy Llibre and Riley Dickinson had resulted in the Kellymoss driver hitting the wall and although Dickinson could continue, Cook was up to 11th. Due to the extensive clean up required, it was a lengthy period behind the safety car with the race resuming with twenty-minutes left on the clock.
At the restart, Cook’s teammate Paul Bocuse was directly ahead while the Allegra Motorsport machine of Michael De Quesada was her nearest pursuer. As the lap times in the Pro class remained extremely close, Sabre was continuing to look for an opening to claim back-to-back top-10 finishes at Watkins Glen. On lap ten, Bocuse passed Mattheus Leist and therefore Cook had a new rival to chase.
De Quesada then came under pressure from a recovering Dickinson who had made his way through from the rear of the field after a pit stop following the lap one contact. Cook did a superb job to soak up the pressure from both her experienced rivals behind as the race entered the final five minutes.
As the drivers began the final lap, De Quesada was just a tenth of a second behind and he was able to complete the move after some light contact into turn one. Nonetheless, Cook defended well from championship leader Dickinson to bank another good haul of championship points with a 11th place result.
It was a strong weekend for Cook at Watkins Glen as she continued her good form from Montreal. After a tough start to the season, the JDX Racing driver is now consistently contending for top-10 finishes and racing competitively against former race winners. The Porsche Carrera Cup North America drivers will now take a short break before returning at Road America on the weekend of July 31st/August 1st.