WeatherTech finish Ninth in European Le Mans Series at Monza

Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale,Ill.), Christian Ried (Germany), and Gianmaria Bruni (Italy) finished ninth in Sundays running of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) race at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.

On Saturday, Bruni qualified the No. 77 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR in fourth out of the nine cars entered in GTE. All nine cars were within a second of each other in the 10-minute qualifying session.

Ried had the wheel of the red-white-and-blue WeatherTech Porsche for the four-hour long race start. Moving up to third and running strong lap times, the German was hit by a prototype car and sent into the gravel trap. After being extricated and going down two laps, Bruni and MacNeil were able to bring the car back onto the lead lap for a ninth-place finish.

“In free practice the car was pretty good,” MacNeil said. “Gimmi (Bruni) did a good job in qualifying getting P4, just a half of a tenth from pole. Christian started the race and moved up to P3. Then about 30-minutes into the race he got punted at Lesmo turn number two into the gravel. We went down two laps and ended up clawing our way back to finish on the lead lap. It was a shame to get sent into the gravel trap by a prototype. Without that incident, I think we had a podium car. Disappointing.

“Looking forward to Lime Rock and going for an overall win there in six days.”

The number 93 car of Proton Competition piloted by  Hollywood star Michael Fassbender, Richard Lietz and Felipe Fernandez Laser finished in fourth place. The number 93 sister car put in a strong performance but was unable to find a way past the trio of Ferraris who dominated in front taking all three podium places.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM cars will take to Lime Rock Park for a GT only weekend running the Northeast Grand Prix, July 16-17.