ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 9, 2015) - Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen crossed the finish line in seventh at today's TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America.
MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) had the controls of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche for the start of the two-hour-and-forty-five minute race this afternoon. Putting in a 29 lap stint that included one full course caution period MacNeil handed the car over to Keen (Charleston, S.C.) in fifth. Keen drove the final stint under full green conditions and just couldn't get close to the front runners at the 4-mile, 14-turn undulating road course located an hour north of Milwaukee.
"l had a good stint," MacNeil said. "I was comfortable in the car. We had a pretty good Porsche all day. Our brakes held up well, which is a move in the right direction. We need to keep making improvements and bring a little faster car to VIR. Leh drove hard, he just didn't get a break to be able to really race with anyone."
Keen needed some help to get bunched up with the rest of the GTD field.
"We were a little off with the speed of the car today," Keen said. "I didn't get an opportunity to bunch back up with the rest of class and do some racing. I was pretty much doing laps. We did some solid times, but we just didn't get a chance to really race anyone. We improved the car this week and we are looking forward to VIR in a couple of weeks."
Alex Job, team owner, had a solid car, just needed some luck.
"We had the early yellow when Cooper was in the car and that was the only caution of the race," Job said. "At a long track like this, once the field gets strung out and all of the pit strategies play out you just can't make up any ground. You need some help from the yellows and we just didn't get that today."
The highlight of the weekend was the announcement that the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and WeatherTech signed a multiyear agreement for the naming rights of the series. On Nov. 1, 2015, the series will be called the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The TUDOR United SportsCar Series will travel to Virginia International Raceway for the Oak Tree Grand Prix to run Aug. 21-23.