MONTEREY, Calif. (April 30, 2016) – WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Leh Keen (Charleston, S.C.) will start from the back of the GTD field for tomorrow’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey grand Prix presented by Mazda.
MacNeil had the controls of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche for qualifying. On the out lap he reported an issue with the brakes. Trying to continue to post a time he opted instead to bring the white and black Porsche to pit lane for the Alex Job Racing team to diagnose the problem. The team decided that the repairs could not be completed in the 15-minute time allotted for qualifying. The car took no time and will start 17th on the grid in GTD.
“I think we had a mechanical issue with the brakes, maybe something broke,” MacNeil said. “The car was really good in practice this morning. We figured out some issues with the brakes we had yesterday. We were happy with the handling and the way the car drove. The Alex Job Racing crew has worked hard on the car. It is unfortunate that qualifying went the way it did today for us. I had 10% braking pressure and it was just locking up the rear tires. It is a mystery to me. The team will get into it tonight and we will see what we have in the warm-up. We start from the back on new rubber for tomorrow.”
Keen has faith in the Alex Job led team.
“It has been a real up and down weekend,” Keen said. “We ended the day yesterday really good. Today it was tough. We have had two completely different issues with the brakes that we have never seen before. With Cooper in qualifying it looks like a mechanical issue on the left rear. It is locking the tire and the brake is not releasing. Cooper did a good job to keep the car on the track and get it to pit road safely. If we can get the car back to where we were yesterday afternoon we will be able to make up some ground in the race. The Alex Job Racing guys are working hard and will give us a car we can go and race with. We have some work ahead of us.”
Team owner, Alex Job, has the team sorting through the WeatherTech Porsche.
“We are looking into every aspect of the braking system,” Job said. “We had a good car yesterday and Cooper and Leh were happy with the speed and drivability. Today a brake issue crept up and really manifested itself in qualifying where Cooper couldn’t turn a single lap. We will get it sorted and be ready to race tomorrow.”
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will be televised live on FOX Sports 2, Sunday, May 1, starting at 6 p.m. ET.
For more information on WeatherTech Racing, including race recaps, photos and team gear, please visit the newly designed team site at www.WeatherTechRacing.com. The new team site can now be accessed on any device and is quicker, easier to navigate and features extensive photo galleries, videos, team updates and more.