MONTEREY, Calif. (Sept. 23, 2017) – WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Gunnar Jeannette (Salt Lake City, Utah) will start from the fifth row in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class for Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Under sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s, MacNeil had the controls of the No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R for the 15-minute GTD qualifying session. He set his fastest qualifying lap of 1:25.643 on his eighth circuit around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn undulating road course, which put him 10th on the GTD grid.
“The car actually felt pretty good,” MacNeil said following qualifying. “We started out struggling yesterday and hats off to the Riley/WeatherTech guys for putting in a long night last night to get our Porsche handling properly. And, they obviously did. So, we picked up a lot of speed and closed the gap between us and the other cars, especially the other Porsches. All in all, it’s positive. We’re starting from a decent spot and we’re going to race hard tomorrow.”
“Much like VIR, we started out and struggled, and every session we’ve gotten better,” Jeannette said. “Cooper did a great job in qualifying. From what we were watching, he probably had another two-tenths [left]. Given the GTD class right now, that would have moved us up about for spots. But, he still did an awesome job. He went the quickest he’s gone all weekend by about half a second. So, we’re pleased. I think we’re going to have a good race car. Hopefully everything shakes out for us tomorrow.”
The green flag drops on the Continental Tire 250 gets at 2:05 p.m. (PDT) Sunday, Sept. 24. Race fans can watch all of the live racing action beginning at 2 p.m. (PDT) on FS1.