TAVARES, Fla. (April 29, 2014) – WeatherTech Racing has put the Sebring controversy behind them and are looking forward to this weekend’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix to be run at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca May 3-4.
Drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Leh Keen (Charleston, SC) are motivated to get back behind the wheel of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche and take on the 2.2-mile, 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca circuit. With all that has been written and discussed about the officiating mistake at Sebring, where the WeatherTech Porsche was mistakenly penalized, the team has remained positive in their ability to perform and is ready to move forward and get back to racing this weekend.
“Laguna Seca is definitely on my top five list of favorite tracks in the world,” MacNiel said. “My favorite memory has to be winning my first wrist watch after a long battle in the second Rennsport race a couple years ago.”
“After the controversy that happened at Sebring, all I can hope for is that Laguna goes smoothly,” he continued. “We will keep pushing our hardest, just as we always do however, I really hope the officiating has improved because we have too much invested and my crew works too hard for another disaster to happen. My WeatherTech Porsche has always been great at Laguna and I am confident that Greg Fordahl (team engineer) will have it at the top of the time sheets.”
“Unfortunately for me, I have a final exam at 4:30 p.m. MT on Saturday, so I will not be in Monterey until late Saturday night,” MacNeil said. “My first laps in the car will be on Sunday morning for the 20 minute warm-up, then I have to start the race. It will be a little bit difficult for me to get up to speed right away because I have never driven our new 991 at Laguna. I know the track well, but with the new car there will be a slight learning curve. But I will try my best to push hard from the start.”
Keen is ready to visit the west coast.
“It’s always nice to get out to the west coast and spend time at Laguna Seca,” Keen said. “The area around the track is some of the nicest real estate in North America with Monterrey and Carmel right down the road. My best memory is winning the Rolex race in the GT class there in 2011. We went on to win the championship that year. This will actually be my first time at Laguna with Alex Job because there has always been a conflict in the past.”
“We were super strong at Sebring and I am looking forward to being just as competitive and running up front again,” he continued. “Alex and the guys have been doing some great things with the car and the speed at Sebring showed that effort. It has been a while since we were on track, so the guys have had plenty of time to massage the car and get it ready for this race. Porsches have been strong in the past at Laguna, so I expect us to be right there in the thick of the fight.”
Alex Job, team owner, is ready to get back to racing.
“It seems like an eternity since we were at Sebring,” Job said. “With everything that happened there and the fallout afterwards, we are just ready to get back to doing what we do best and that is racing. Cooper and Leh are motivated and may have a little chip on their shoulder after Sebring. We will use that to keep the fire lit throughout the season and keep our focus on winning a third straight championship.”
The TUDOR Championship next heads west to Monterey, Calif. May 3-4 for the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The race will be televised live on Fox Sports 1 starting at 1 p.m. ET.
This weekend’s race will be unique as IMSA has adopted split races. The GTD and LMPC cars will race at 10 a.m. PT with the GTLM and Prototype cars running at 1 p.m., both running two hour events.The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship will travel to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca May 3-4.
The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GTD (GT Daytona) Class is made up of some the world’s most sophisticated cars, including the Porsche 911 GT America, Ferrari 458, Aston Martin, BMW Z4, Viper SRT and Audi R8. All GTD Class cars run on the spec Continental tire.
Alex Job Racing is one of the most successful teams in sports car racing with 70 wins (since 1995); including two Rolex 24 GT Class wins in 1999 and 2013. This record is supported by 48 pole positions and 106 podium finishes. The team has won five championships (GTC 2013, 2012, GT in 2004, 2003 and 2002) complimented by their two GT class wins at Le Mans. The team also boasts nine Sebring 12-hour wins.
WeatherTech®: WeatherTech, headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois, has long been recognized by the discerning automotive enthusiast as a supplier of accessories of unparalleled quality. In addition to the WeatherTech brand, the company supplies products to many automobile manufacturers (OEM) as an original equipment supplier. More information can be viewed at www.weathertech.com.
For more information about AJR, visit www.alexjobracing.com, or visit our fan page on Facebook by searching WeatherTech Racing.
Further inquiries, please contact Kyle Chura at kyle@kcapr.com or (248) 821-0468.
{fcomment}
Discussion about this post