WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil, Leh Keen and Craig Stanton are one step closer to a championship. The trio will start the No. 22 WeatherTech Racing Porsche from the fourth row for tomorrow’s running of the season ending TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
With just 10 hours of racing left in the TUDOR Championship season Keen (Charleston, S.C.) and MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.), with support from Stanton (Hollywood, Calif.), are focused on winning the GTD championship, which means a win at Petit Le Mans. Keen had the wheel of the No. 22 WeatherTech Racing Porsche for qualifying. The newly engaged driver did not let the weight of future matrimony slow him down. He turned a lap of 1:23.237 around the 2.4-mile, 11-Turn Road Atlanta circuit that will have him starting from the fourth row in eighth.
“We got a lot of rain today, so much so that we didn’t go out for practice this morning,” Keen said. “In qualifying the track changed and we made some changes to the car so we may have to go back to what we had on Thursday. In relation to the cars that we are battling for in the championship we are not too bad. Not the same car we had in practice where we were fastest on Thursday morning and second fastest in the night session. It was the least comfortable car we’ve had so far this weekend. Some of that is track condition, maybe the moves we made on the set-up. We will get it right for the race tomorrow.”
MacNeil turned some strong laps in practice and is motivated to go after his third championship in as many years.
“Practice so far has been pretty good,” MacNeil said. “I have turned some good laps. The rain changed things for Leh in qualifying, but we are up on the fourth row. Not too worried about where we are starting. We took the green in last place at COTA and had a good run. We are focused on running to the end and winning the GTD Championship tomorrow.”
Stanton brings a lot Petit experience and laps to his supporting role with the team.
“It as an honor to be running with Alex Job Racing here at Petit,” Stanton said. “The car is so developed and the team is just so polished all I have to worry about is doing my job behind the wheel. Greg (Fordahl, team engineer) tells me what he wants me to do and I go out there and do my job. It is a real precise organization. The team is in contention for the championship and I want to help anyway that I can. I brought my A-game.”
Team owner Alex Job has won Petit Le Mans four times, 2004, 2003, 2002 and 1999 and knows what it takes to succeed in the series’ third longest event.
“Leh, Cooper and Craig have been fast all weekend,” Job said. “Obviously the track changed with all of the rain we had today. We are in the front quarter of the field so that is a good place to start a 10 hour race. We will adjust on the car for the warm-up and be ready to go when the green drops at 11:15 a.m. tomorrow.”