SONOMA, Calif. (September 18, 2016) – Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) drove to his second podium finish of the Pirelli World Challenge Series (PWC) weekend at Sonoma Raceway this afternoon. The young college student finished third in GTA.
Based upon his fast lap from race one yesterday, MacNeil took the green from third on the grid. When the flag flew he was aggressive at the start and went by Martin Fuentes in his Ferrari. A couple of laps later as he drove through Turn 1 he hit a greasy spot and had to gather the WeatherTech Racing Porsche backup and drive through a piece of wine country to rejoin the race. He was able to keep the momentum going and rejoined in third where he finished after 50-minutes of racing.
“I had another really good start,” MacNeil said. “I was able to move into second place on the first lap. I was battling with Michael at the beginning. I tried to carry a lot of speed through Turn 1 and I hit a greasy spot on the track and had to take to the dirt and lost second place. For the first time in PWC leaving with two podium finishes is a good weekend.”
Teammate Gunnar Jeannette (Salt Lake City, Utah) had another trying race. He was caught up in a first lap incident in the carousel which forced him to pit as body work was rubbing on a tire. He would return to the race and be classified in 16th at the finish.
“Another tough race for me here at Sonoma,” Jeannette said. “That first lap was pretty crazy. Everyone went into the carousel and got bunched up, I got hit in the rear and that caused the body work to rub the tire and I had to pit. It is too bad, I think we improved the car from yesterday and I was looking for a good run today.”
Team owner, Alex Job, is happy with the weekend.
“Cooper did a nice job getting on the podium twice,” Job said. “He picked up on the fast starts of the PWC series very quickly and his aggression paid off and then it got him back a little. Gunnar had a tough day, but we leave here and head to Monterey with a much better understanding of the series and the Pirelli tires.”
The Pirelli World Challenge series will travel to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the season finale to run, October 7-9. The race from Sonoma will be televised on the CBS Sports Network September 25 at 4:00 p.m. ET.