Bolingbrook, ILL (July 18, 2017) - WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Gunnar Jeannette (Salt Lake City, Utah) are heading to Lime Rock Park for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix, July 21-22.
Lime Rock is the shortest track on the IMSA WeatherTech Championship schedule at just 1.5-miles and seven-turns, with just one of those being a left-hander. Last year lap times were just 53-seconds. The GTD cars will share the racing surface with the GTLM competitors. The duo of MacNeil and Jeannette will have 20 additional kilos riding in the WeatherTech Mercedes than they had a Canadian Tire Motorsport Park just two weeks ago.
"Lime Rock is a fun little track that can bite you," MacNeil said. "The lap times are so fast that you barely have time to take a breath. The fast downhill Turn 7 is where you want to focus the set-up on the car as it leads onto the front straight and Turn 1 is really the only passing zone. With lap times around 53 seconds, any little issue in the pits will take you down a lap and make the rest of the race quite difficult."
"We'll be heading into Lime Rock with a few extra pounds on our WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3" Jeannette said. "We were hoping to be going the other way with our struggles the last few races, so it's really unfortunate that IMSA thought otherwise. Lime rock is a short track with lap times that are under one minute, which means you can't afford to spend much time in the pits without going a lap down. It's also very difficult to pass, so track position will be very important. It's one of America's classic road courses and it's fun to drive. I hope we can have a good run!"
The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship from Lime Rock Park qualifying will take the green at 5:15 p.m. and can be viewed live at IMSA.com. Live flag-to-flag race coverage begins at 3 p.m. (EDT) Saturday, July 22 on FS2.