WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (July 1, 2017) - WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.), Gunnar Jeannette (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Shane van Gisbergen (New Zealand) will start from the eighth row in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class for Sahlen's Six Hours at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.
Under overcast skies and drying track conditions from this morning's rain, MacNeil was behind the wheel of the No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 for today's 15-minute GTD qualifying session. MacNeil's session did not start well. He had to serve a drive through penalty for speeding on pit lane before he could record his first qualifying lap.
From there, MacNeil used most of the session to improve his best lap time, which he set on his sixth circuit around the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course. In fact, he was on pace to shave even more time off his best lap of 1:49.879 when the red flag flew on the session with about three minutes remaining.
"Qualifying was not ideal because the track was drying and a lot of the curbs were still wet," MacNeil said about his qualifying session. "Actually, a lot of the track was still wet. I was taking my time, working up to speed. I had two more laps to go before the end of the session. I was ready to do a quick lap. And unfortunately, the session went red because somebody crashed. The good news is the car is in one piece and it's a long race.
"The car [Mercedes] was developed in Germany. And, we all know that Germany has some great race tracks like Hockenheim and especially Nürburgring, where there's a lot elevation change. It's very similar to this place. The car suits this track well. It's designed for it. So far so good. It's handling pretty well. Mercedes really did their homework with the car."
The green flag will drop on the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen will start at 10:10 a.m. (EDT). Live racing action begins at on FS1. Live coverage will continue on FS2 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.