COOPER SCORES BIG POINTS IN SLIPPERY SANDOWN

Cooper Murray made big gains in a frenetic wet-weather Sunday race in Sandown to complete one of his biggest points hauls of the season.

Cooper’s weekend started strongly with dual top-eight appearances in Friday practice, and his strong single-lap pace continued into Saturday, when he put his Erebus Camaro 12th on the grid, eight places ahead of his teammate.

It was the 11th time this season Cooper out qualified his teammate and the seventh time he’d done so in the previous nine races.

His start was strong, earning him one place on the first lap, and he moved up to ninth before making his first stop on lap 24. He spent most of the second stint in the same position.

However, an early pit stop, on lap 49 of 81, left him without the tyre life to defend late in the race. He had 11th place snatched from him on lap 75, and he lost another two positions before the chequered flag, leaving him 14th.

Sunday qualifying in Melbourne’s changeable conditions was more difficult, with Cooper lining up 19th on the grid, but in a wet-dry race the rookie excelled.

Though a too-early switch from slicks to wets, on lap 5, didn’t pay dividends, a perfectly timed switch back to slicks on lap 37 was a boon to his race.

Having toiled outside the top 15 in the early laps, Cooper sliced his way up the field early in his long final stint before reaching 11th on lap 55 of 81.

In a second half of the race dictated by managing the car to the flag, he held the position to the finish in a strong performance in difficult conditions.

Cooper took home 116 points for the round, a career-best haul at a multi-race weekend and his third-best total of the season behind only the two single-race Enduro Cup rounds in Tailem Bend and Bathurst.

“Good points at Sandown for the Sandown 500 — P13 on Saturday and P11 on Sunday. I just struggled a little bit in both qualifying sessions unfortunately. I got a little bit unlucky and missed the window in Sunday’s qualifying, which meant we had to start from the back.

“The car was really quick; the TotalEnergies Camaro was on rails. To come away with P11, up from P20, with some rain and some dry, it was a crazy weekend. I’m looking forward to Adelaide and hoping to finish the season on a high.”