Braselton Ga., (Sept. 30, 2022) – WeatherTech Racing drivers Maximilian Götz (Germany), Maximilian Buhk (Germany), and Mikaël Grenier (Canada) will start sixth in GTD Pro for tomorrow’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale Motul Petit Le Mans.
Buhk had the wheel of the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG with Mercedes-Benz of Billings, Montana support for the 15-minute qualifying session around the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit located an hour north of Atlanta.
The German was able to post a lap time of 1:19.620 under near perfect conditions of overcast and 70-degree temperatures. The time will have the WeatherTech Racing/Proton Competition team starting from sixth in the GTD Pro class for the 10-hour race that will take the green flag at 12:10 p.m. ET tomorrow.
“I needed to adapt a bit from practice without all of the traffic,” Buhk said. “I tried to push as much as I could during the session on my clear laps. Maybe I missed like two-tenths because I pushed too much in a couple of the corners but overall, I think it was not too bad. It’s not an ideal starting position but we have 10-hours of racing.
“The track is good fun. It is kind of old school, especially the walls that are close to the track like through the esses. So, if you go off it is going to hurt. It is quite technical. From the outside it looks easy to drive, but when you are out there it is very technical, especially the first and second sectors. So, you need some balls to get a good lap time.”
Of the three drivers, only Buhk has raced at the track before. Each had maximum seat time in the three practice sessions including 90-minutes of night practice last evening.
The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans race will be televised on Peacock, entire event, starting at 12 p.m. ET, NBC will broadcast from 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., and USA will broadcast from 7:00-10:30 pm ET. The full race can be viewed on the Peacock app. The race can be heard streaming on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM Radio (XM 207; Web/App 992).