IMSA - Fourth Row Start for Ferrari at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Oh., (May 5, 2018) – After a five year absence from the natural terrain road circuit, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship makes its return to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend. The grid for Sunday’s two hour, forty-minute race was set on Saturday with a fifteen minute qualifying session.   Racing in the GT-Daytona class, Scuderia Corsa drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Alessandro Balzan (Italy) will start Sunday’s race from the fourth row with the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3.   After a rain- interrupted day of practice on Friday, Saturday brought ideal conditions as MacNeil took the controls of the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 machine for qualifying. His fast lap time of 1:20.846-seconds sill see him start the race from eighth on the grid.   “Qualifying was fun,” MacNeil said. “The WeatherTech Ferrari was pretty good. It got better and better as the session went on. My fastest lap was the last one of the session. By then I had lost the best of the tire, but still was able to improve on my lap time and we will be starting from row four. I am looking forward to improving a few positions during my stint.”   “Cooper (MacNeil) did a good job in qualifying,” Balzan said “The conditions were different for each of the three practice sessions this weekend, with rain, cold and sun. We didn’t test here prior to this weekend, but the Scuderia Corsa team is doing a good job with the car. The WeatherTech Ferrari was very good in the rain yesterday.   I think we will be able to run a nice consistent pace throughout our stints tomorrow.”   MacNeil has a busy schedule for the weekend as he will make his way from Mid-Ohio to compete in the Ferrari Challenge event at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca before returning for the IMSA event at Mid-Ohio.