LIME ROCK, Conn. (July 25, 2015) - Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen are taking some positive points home from their seventh place finish at the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix run at Lime Rock Park today.
MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Keen (Charleston, S.C.) had a tough weekend at the equally tough 1.5-mile, nine-turn Lime Rock circuit. The 2012 Lime Rock GTC Class winners struggled with the handling and braking on the No. 22 WeatherTech Racing Porsche all through the weekend. Going through a number of set-up changes and trying to find a rear brake pad that was agreeable they managed a seventh place finish. The positive of the weekend was that they made up ground on the points leading 48 car and the third place 63 car as they had even tougher luck.
"It wasn't one of our better weekends for the WeatherTech Racing Alex Job Porsche," MacNeil said. "We fought set-up all weekend and a brake issue. We tried three different combinations of brake pads and in the race they just went away. We had understeer at times and oversteer at others. We just couldn't hit the sweet spot on the set-up. The good news is we made up points to the two guys ahead of us in the championship as well as the third place guys behind us."
Keen just had a Saturday drive in the country.
"We worked hard on the car all weekend," Keen said. "The Alex Job Racing crew did a great job trying just about everything we had in the parts bin and tool box. In the race Cooper had issues getting the car to turn in as well as with the braking and I had more of the same. I couldn't attack or defend in the car, I just wanted to bring it to the checker in one piece. We are off to Road America, WeatherTech's home track."
Alex Job, team owner, will take the positives and move on.
"Sometimes you just miss it," Job said. "We just couldn't get the car to Cooper and Leh's liking in practice and that carried over to the race. This is such a tough track. To get around here fast everything has to be just right. We have a little home work to do before Road America, but that is a place where we typically do well. We are leaving here better in the points than when we came and they all count toward the season ending championship."
The Northeast Grand Prix from Lime Rock Park race will air on Fox Sports 1, tomorrow, July 26, starting at 5 p.m. The TUDOR Championship will travel to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. For the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase to run Aug. 7-9.