WeatherTech Racing took the checkered flag in 12th position in GTD in today’s running of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International Raceway.
Leh Keen (Charleston, S.C.) put the No. 22 WeatherTech Racing Porsche on the pole for the six hour race. Starting from the first grid positon in GTD Keen handed the black and white Porsche over to Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) on lap 35. Eighteen laps later going down into the Boot section, he downshifted the WeatherTech Porsche which briefly locked up the rear of the car sending into the wall. The damage forced the team to take the car back to the garage area for repairs. MacNeil returned to the action some 22 laps down to the GTD leader. On lap 113 Philipp Frommenwiler (Kreuzlingen, Switzerland) got in and turned impressive laps proving the solid repairs made by the Alex Job crew. At the checkered flag the car crossed the line for valuable 12th place points.
“It was a shame,” MacNeil said. “We had a very fast car. I was running some good lap times feeling comfortable. I went down into the Boot section, downshifted and the rear-end came around and I hit the wall. It was my first crash in nearly three years. The team worked really hard to get the car back out to salvage some points for us. We are off to Mosport where we won last year. We know that we are very competitive there and we will be motivated.”
Keen showed a lot of speed this weekend.
“It was one of those weekends where everything was looking so good,” Keen said. “We were fastest in practice and on the pole. Unfortunately Cooper got caught out on a down shift. It couldn’t have happened at a worst place on the race track. It is a part of racing, the ups and downs. We had the fastest Porsche this weekend and all three of us turned some really fast laps in the race. I am looking forward to running Mosport with this strong car in two weeks.”
Frommenwiler played a role to salvage championship points.
“We had a great weekend up until the race,” Frommenwiler said. “That is racing they say. Leh had the car on pole and Cooper was really running some strong laps when he had his accident, but that happens. When I got in the steering wheel was not straight, but the car was still handling pretty good. I was able to run some fast laps as I did in practice and help Cooper and Leh get as many points as possible from this race.”
Alex Job, team owner, doesn’t have these days often.
“What a day,” Job said. “We went from being very optimistic with the speed of the car and having it on pole, to bringing it to the garage for repairs. Leh did a great job to start the race and proved the speed of the car all over again. Cooper was running some fantastic laps, faster than he ran in practice. He got caught with a downshift at a tough part of the track and put it into the wall. The crew did a great job to get the car back out. I think we will look back at Petit and be thankful for these points.”
The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship will travel to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for round five, July 11-13.