WeatherTech Racing Finishes Third in WeatherTech 240
Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Matt Campbell (Australia) drove to a third-place finish in GTLM in this evening’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship WeatherTech 240 at Watkins Glen International Raceway.
With weather in the area, MacNeil started the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR for the two-hour-and-forty-minute race at The Glen. He was able to complete his stint in the car and turn it over to Campbell who spent just 20 minutes in the car until the race was red flagged for lightning in the area. The IMSA officials called all of the corner workers in as the clock remained running. With 50-minutes left on the clock the field took to the track again. As the weather and track conditions changed the Proton Competition crew never put Michelin rain tires on the WeatherTech Racing Porsche. Campbell did a great job to bring it to the checker in third.
“It is a bit of a difficult weekend with the conditions,” MacNeil said. “The Proton Competition crew did a great job rebuilding the car from last weekend. The first real session we got to make sure everything was good with the car was in the race. We had some setup issues during the race, but the car is one piece and we will be back and ready to go for Lime Rock where we will compete for an overall race win. “I am racing in Italy with Gianmaria Bruni and Christian Ried next weekend. Monza is a track I know well. We will be looking for a podium run there too.”
“It wasn’t an easy day with the red flag and the lightning in the area,” Campbell said. “In the end we brought it home. We stayed out of trouble and learned some things for the next one. We never put rain tires on the car, always slicks. It was pretty treacherous at times, but I kept it on the track. I was quite surprised that there were no further yellows with a lot of guys on slicks.” The IMSA WeatherTech Championship will travel to Lime Rock Park for the Northeast Grand Prix to run July 16-17 for a GTLM and GTD only race weekend. MacNeil will compete next in the European Le Mans Series at Monza, July 10-11.