Bowmanville, Ontario 08 July 2019
Cooper MacNeil and Toni Vilander fought to a ninth-place finish for the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari in Sunday’s SportsCar Grand Prix at Mosport Park. The high-speed Canadian circuit played host to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as the series returned to sprint format racing with a two-hour, forty-minute race on Sunday.
MacNeil started ninth in the white No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3, and was able to hold that position throughout his 46-minute stint.
Vilander was looking to add to his strong results at the track after winning in Blancpain GT competition earlier this season, and took over the controls from 12th in the order during a green-flag pit stop. He quickly got back into the top 10, but could not get the Ferrari into contention on the demanding circuit.
“It was a tough day today; we struggled a little bit with the pace of our car compared to the others,” MacNeil said. “I try to drive the wheels off the thing in a smooth manner and managed to be within a few tenths of the leaders, but just couldn’t keep up. Toni got in and had some issues with the switches of the steering wheel, but he stuck with it and in the end we finished where we started, ninth.
“It was not ideal, but the car is in one piece and we will work with the team to get more speed out of it for the Bull Ring that is Lime Rock in two weeks.”
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM and GTD classes will visit Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn., for the Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 20.