Long Beach, Calif., (April 8, 2022) – WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill) and Raffaele Marciello (Switzerland) will start tomorrow’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach sixth on the GTD Pro grid.
The team was in the top four in practice all day. With Marciello, Long Beach first timer, getting maximum seat time to learn the nuances of the 1.9-mile, 11-turn concrete lined circuit the duo put in impressive lap times in the ultra-competitive GTD Pro category in both sessions.
In qualifying MacNeil had the wheel of the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Mercedes-Benz of Billings, Montana support. He put in a lap time of 1:19.743 good for sixth in the category for the 100-minute sprint race.
“I did my fastest lap of the day in qualifying,” MacNeil said. “Seven-tenths of a second off my teammate Raffaele’s time, so I’m pleased with the effort. We improved the car from practice to qualifying which was good work by the WeatherTech/Proton team. We have a few cars ahead of us to get around. Some good driving combined with sound strategy will get us right into contention. Based upon the amount of caution and red flags during practice we will need to stay out of trouble and have a clean race and bring the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes to the front.”
The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship Long Beach Grand Prix can be viewed on the USA Network and Peacock, Saturday, April 9 starting at 5 p.m. ET. The race can also be heard live on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com.