PCCNA: Season’s best results for Sabré Cook at COTA
- LIAM REDFORD
- 11 hours ago
- 6 min read
Sabré Cook wrapped up her Porsche Carrera Cup North America campaign by achieving season’s best results at Circuit of the Americas, where she enjoyed an excellent weekend twice finishing in seventh position, in a career-best haul of points in the series.
Sabré Cook wrapped up her Porsche Carrera Cup North America campaign by achieving season’s best results at Circuit of the Americas. The JDX Racing driver enjoyed an excellent weekend in Texas as she twice finished in seventh position, claiming a career-best haul of points in the series.
Cook qualified in ninth and displayed excellent race pace as she confidently battled for positions on the fringes of the top-5.
Cook arrived at the season finale at Circuit of the Americas looking to end the campaign on a high. It has been a challenging second half of the year for the JDX Racing driver who had not always achieved the results that her speed deserved. Technical issues had taken away potential top-10 finishes at both Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Road Atlanta where Cook was confidently battling among her Pro class rivals.
Nonetheless, Cook had racked up five top-10 results prior to the final round and adding to this tally was her main priority. Last season, Sabré displayed good speed at Circuit of the Americas as she challenged for points scoring positions on her first appearance at the track in Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
Cook was now looking to put her knowledge to good use as the series supported Formula 1 for the final time in 2025.
On-track action in Texas got underway on Friday with the sole practice session which took place in hot and sunny conditions. Cook completed 13 laps, the most of any driver in the Pro class, on her way to a fastest time of a 2:10.618. The JDX Racing driver ended free practice in 14th position, while her speed through the first sector was particularly impressive. Cook was regularly setting top-10 times through this part of the circuit and this gave her encouragement ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning and with track temperatures lower than on Friday, the lap times were significantly faster. On Cook’s first flying lap, she was already below the 2:10 barrier and showing excellent pace in her JDX Racing machine. After briefly moving inside the top-10, Sabré was 14th position overall, 13th in the Pro class, at the halfway point of qualifying.
As the drivers fitted their second set of tyres, Cook took another jump forward as she set a new best time of a 2:08.249. The session was then red flagged, before resuming for a final six minutes. Cook was unable to improve in the closing stages of qualifying, however she secured an excellent result of ninth overall. Cook’s second fastest lap also placed her in ninth position in what was a hugely positive qualifying session in Texas.
The first race at Circuit of the Americas was held on Saturday afternoon with Cook targeting a season’s best result from ninth on the grid. It was a clean start from the JDX Racing driver who looked to the inside of turn one and held her position within the top-10 through the opening lap. Cook was showing good intent in the early stages as she chased both Jared Thomas and Yves Baltas.
Cook was in contention for seventh place as Thomas and Baltas were now losing touch with the group ahead as they continued to fight for position. This brought Cole Kleck into contention with the Topp Racing driver having made his way through the Masters and Pro-Am runners after starting from the rear of the field. By lap five, Cook had cut the margin to Baltas to just a quarter of a second as she looked to escape from a hard-charging Kleck.
Two laps later, Kleck made his move with Sabré now down into tenth position with teammate Paul Bocuse behind. After Kleck passed Baltas on lap nine, this allowed Cook to close in on the ACI Motorsports driver who was struggling for pace in the hot conditions.
Bocuse remained three-quarters of a second behind as he was keen to move forward should Cook and Baltas begin to lose time.
As the second half of the race progressed, Baltas settled into a rhythm and began to edge from Cook, however her margin to Bocuse remained stable. On lap 12, Kleck pitted with an issue and as a result, Sabré was back into ninth position. With a little over five minutes remaining, Scott Blind had a high-speed incident and this resulted in the race entering a full course yellow period.
With the recovery work extensive and the barrier having been dislodged, the race ended under the safety car with Cook finishing in ninth position. However, post-race penalties were then applied to both Baltas and Tyler Maxson and as a result, Cook was promoted to seventh position. This was a season’s best result for the JDX Racing driver who came within one spot of matching her career-high finish in Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
Following an excellent first race at Circuit of the Americas, Cook was looking to replicate this performance in the season finale. Sabré lined up from eighth position and as the lights went out, she was challenging for positions into the first corner. Cook dropped one spot through the opening turns,however she fought back against Jared Thomas with the pair running side-by-side down the back straight.
Following a nice pass around the outside of turn 12, Cook overtook Thomas and ended lap one in eighth position. The JDX Racing driver was showing excellent pace in the early stages as she now caught ACI Motorsports machine of Jimmy Llibre.
Cook wasted no time in passing Llibre as she moved into seventh position. Llibre remained in close company, however Cook began catching the battling duo of Yves Baltas and Aaron Jeansonne.
On lap three, Cook was the fifth fastest driver on track as she hunted down a maiden top-5 result in Porsche Carrera Cup North America. This speed was allowing her to hold off Llibre and by lap five, Cook’s margin to Llibre had extended to over half a second. On lap seven, Cook set a new fastest lap of a 2:08.965 as she continued to fight off the challenge from Llibre.
However, the former race winner responded and overtook Cook with a nice move to the inside of turn 12. This allowed Michael McCann to close in and at the final turn, he made a move to the inside. McCann then ran wide and Cook executed a perfect cut-back manoeuvre to regain the inside.
The drivers ran side-by-side to start lap nine with Cook protecting the inside line. This was a smart move as McCann out-braked himself and therefore Sabré could pull clear of her rival.
McCann’s pace remained strong and he fought back and cut the margin to half a second once more. At the conclusion of lap 10, McCann again attempted to pass Cook at the final turn, but Sabré was smart and got an excellent exit from the corner. Cook’s defence to the inside of turn one was again successful before McCann got a run down the back straight.
It was a textbook example of precision driving from Cook as she repelled McCann’s challenge throughout lap 11. To start lap 12, McCann fell a few car lengths adrift and coming through the Esses, the McCann racing machine hit a kerb and suffered suspension damage. Cook’s defence had paid off as she held eighth position with a sizeable gap behind to ninth-placed driver Paul Bocuse.
Just ahead, Yves Baltas had received a ten-second time penalty for exceeding track limits and therefore Cook was aiming to remain close to the ACI Motorsports driver. His penalty was then upgraded to a post-race drive-through and with Cook driving smartly to the chequered flag, she crossed the line in eighth position before being promoted to seventh once the penalty was applied to Baltas.
It was an excellent end to the weekend for Cook who arguably enjoyed her strongest weekend of her Porsche Carrera Cup North America career to date. Although it has, at times, been a challenging season, Cook showed her determination by collecting a pair of seventh-place finishes in the season finale.
Both her speed and racecraft was on show in Texas as Cook completed her 2025 campaign on a high.
