In sweltering temperatures and stifling humidity weatherTech racing pilots Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Mathieu Jaminet (France) finished third in Saturdays running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.

MacNeil had the wheel of the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR GTLM for the start of the two-hour-and-forty-minute race under searing 90-degree temperatures. Due to a post qualifying engine change on the No. 4 Corvette, the WeatherTech Racing Porsche started second on the front row.

MacNeil was able to negotiate the GTD traffic around the tight and short Lime Rock track to turn the car over to Jaminet in contention. The Frenchman got in and posted lap times faster than the two Corvettes. However, with weather in the area the IMSA Officials red flagged the race to wait out a lightning strike. As the clock kept running the weather was still in the vicinity and that forced IMSA to throw the checkered flag at 5:30 p.m. giving the WeatherTech Porsche a third-place finish.

After a less than ideal qualifying session on Friday, the Wright Motorsports team put together a strong strategy to allow for the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R to work its way up through the field. The entire GTD field drove into turn one after the green flag, resulting in the No. 16 getting shuffled back several positions. Avoiding any contact, driver Trent Hindman kept his head down as the field spread out. The Porsche came alive in Hindman’s second stint, and the young racer and was able to climb back up to eighth before a weather-related full-course caution. With the eighth-place finish, Wright Motorsports unofficially maintains their fifth-place standing in the GTD class team points.

“It’s definitely disappointing that the red flag ate so much into the IMSA race,” said Team Owner John Wright. “However, I’m still proud of our team, on both programs. The WeatherTech guys had a strong car to finish that race, and the Michelin Pilot Challenge group had an awesome race to finish third and get that top spot in the championship standings. Great job all around.”

Starting the race in sixth position on the grid Pfaff Motorsports had excellent race pace, and great strategy and looked strong for a podium finish but there hopes where dashed after the race was cut short finishing in fourth place but the Canadian team will take plenty of positives to Road America in just a couple weeks

Team Hardpoints drivers never had the chance to shine and despite showing strong pace in the opening laps they where unable to find a way past the the strong field of cars in front eventually crossing the finish line in twelve place.

Quotes

Cooper MacNeil

“Not the way we wanted this race to finish,” MacNeil said. “My stint was alright. I was able to stick up with the Corvettes, then I hit some traffic with the slower GTD cars and got a little separation. I kept the car clean and handed it over to Mathieu in excellent shape. At the red flag we were in a good position to compete for the win. Mathieu was the fastest car on the track prior, so we had a chance at winning it. With that said, we have to be smart and safe about what we do on the track. It wasn’t safe to continue and that is a shame for us. I am looking forward to our home race at Road America in three weeks.”

Mathieu Jaminet

“We had good speed in the WeatherTech Racing Porsche,” Jaminet said. “Cooper did a good job in the opening stint. It’s just bad luck that the race was stopped. I think we could have had a really good fight with the Corvettes. The Proton Competition team really has the car performing. “It was fun to race here at Lime Rock. It was the first time for me. It is really quick. It suits our 911 RSR. It was fun to drive here this weekend.”

Patrick Long

Incidents aside, I’ve never had a race where I wasn’t able to get in. it’s unfortunate we didn’t get to run the final stint. We worked hard this week, and we were certainly hopeful that the final stint was going to come our way. I appreciate our partners and wish we could have put on a better show for our fans. Sometimes Mother Nature has another plan.

Trent Hindman

Big thanks to the Wright Motorsports crew. We showed a lot of speed in our Porsche 911 GT3 R this weekend. I’m not sure what happened in qualifying and our first stint. We need to investigate a little bit. Our first stint was dictated by a lack of pace in qualifying, and as soon as we got into the second stint in the race, the car just came alive. There are some things we can investigate and the sliver lining is that we did everything correctly and in the right direction. Something outside of our control dictated our result today. We have lots of positives coming out Lime Rock and going into Road America.

The WeatherTech Championship returns to action Aug. 6-8 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, with the IMSA SportsCar Weekend. All five classes – Daytona Prototype international, Le Mans Prototype 2, Le Mans Prototype 3, GT Le Mans and GTD – will compete. The race airs live on NBC Sports Gold TrackPass and IMSA Radio at 2:35 p.m. ET Sunday Aug. 8 with the NBCSN telecast starting at 8 p.m.