Ferrari Looking to Race Forward in Detroit

With track time at a premium, an issue with the clutch on No. 63 Scuderia Corsa WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 ultimately kept the team from taking more advantage of qualifying for Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic. With not enough time between sessions to make major changes, Cooper MacNeil elected to take three laps to qualify for the 100-minute race. His best lap was 1:31.953-seconds in the Ferrari he shares with Toni Vilander. The time will slot the duo on the fifth row for the start of Saturday’s race, which is round two of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Sprint Cup Championship. “It’s really a shame,” MacNeil said. “We had a clutch issue in free practice two that took us out half way through the session. We had no time to replace it before qualifying. The Scuderia Corsa guys did a great job to ‘band-aide’ it and it lasted about 60 percent of a lap.” Despite the effort to score a strong grid spot, the challenge was too great as the team will focus on forward movement in Saturday’s race. “Then the last four corners I had a lot of wheel spin,” said MacNeil. “If you can’t accelerate you can’t put the power down and go fast to get a good time. Besides the mechanical issue the WeatherTech Ferrari is handling well. We will get it fixed, get things right in the warm-up then put our heads down and get a result tomorrow.” The Scuderia Corsa team planned to change the clutch following qualifying. Saturday begins with a 20-minute warm-up at 8:20 a.m. The Sports Car Classic  will be televised live on NBCSN beginning at 12:30 p.m.