MONTEREY, Calif. (May 1, 2016) – WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Leh Keen (Charleston, S.C.) fought back to eighth in today’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey grand Prix presented by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
MacNeil had the controls of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche for the start. Taking the green flag for the two-hour race from 17th position on the grid, MacNeil made some aggressive moves to hand the WeatherTech Porsche over to Keen in ninth position. Keen was able to pass the Stevenson Audi to improve one more position to finish eighth.
“My stint went pretty well,” MacNeil said. “I was able to make up eight positions. The car was really good. I was able to drive it pretty hard. The Continental tires stayed under me the whole time. It was a nightmare not to post a qualifying time, but he Alex Job crew fixed it and we had a good warm-up which gave us confidence for the race. We go onto Detroit next. We have done well there in the past and I am excited to go back.”
Keen likes the drive from MacNeil.
“We made up a lot of ground from starting at the back of the field. Hats off to Cooper, he did an awesome job. He passed a ton of cars by making some great moves. It is some of the best driving and race craft I have seen from him. There wasn’t a lot of passing going on up and down the field the whole time while I was in the car. No one made any mistakes and there were no yellows, so it was kind of tough to move-up any more. The crew did a great job to get the car fixed from qualifying.”
“Cooper had a great drive today,” team owner, Alex Job said. “From starting at the very back of the field to handing the car over in eighth was a great drive. When Leh took over the field was pretty much set, not a lot of movement. The team worked on the car long into the night to get the brakes sorted out and made it a positive weekend.”
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will travel to Detroit for the Chevrolet SportsCar Classic to run June 3-4.
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.
