Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen are ready for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Lone Star Grand Prix to run at the Circuit of the America’s (COTA) in Austin, Texas, September 17-19.

MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Keen (Charleston, S.C.) sit in fourth in the GTD Class points standings at 215 just 17 behind leader Christina Nielsen in her Aston Martin. The duo are determined to get the WeatherTech Porsche back on the podium. The 3.2-mile, 20-turn COTA circuit is a challenging circuit designed to host Formula 1. With summer still in full force in Austin, the team will be challenged by temperatures approaching 100-degrees all weekend.

“COTA should be a good track for our WeatherTech Porsche this year,” MacNeil said. “The Alex Job guys have been working really hard all season to get all of the time out of the car, so hats off and big thanks to them. My favorite turn on the track is Turn 1. The braking zone is all uphill so you can really brake way later than you would think. With two races left in the season our goal is to get back on the podium. I am looking forward to the race this weekend.”
 
Keen likes the COTA circuit, although not necessarily a sports car course.

“It’s getting close to the end of the season and things are heating up pretty good,” Keen said. “We have been up towards the front of the championship fight all year and really shooting for a top three for the end of the year. COTA is a huge, big time F1 race track. It’s really designed for F1, so for sports cars some of the corners don’t flow as well, which can be really challenging in a GT car. There is also some long straights that lead to really tight corners. So we will be using our brake package to its fullest. The esses are a lot of fun, but my favorite part of the track is probably turns 1 and 2. The huge uphill into Turn 1 creates a super late braking zone that we really see the maximum G-forces in brakes that we will see all year. It’s pretty amazing how quickly we can slow our AJR WeatherTech Porsche down. It looks like it’s going to be a hot one out there too. So it will be a challenging weekend all around, but ultimately we won’t be happy with anything less than a podium on Saturday.”

Alex Job, team owner, is looking for the team’s work to pay off this weekend.