MacNeil fifth-fastest for Ferrari at Sebring
Sebring 13 novembre 2020
The Scuderia Corsa Ferrari will have a third-row starting position for Saturday’s Twelve Hours of Sebring, the final race of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign.
Cooper MacNeil turned a fifth-best lap of 2:01.802-seconds in the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 that will be co-driven by Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Westphal. Since then, MacNeil won a pair of races at the historic airport-based circuit en-route to capturing the Ferrari Challenge North American championship.
About to begin his first flying lap, MacNeil encountered slower traffic on the back straight – with three competitors weaving at slower speeds to put heat in their tires – and was forced to back off. A few laps later, he looped the Ferrari exiting Turn 4, and continued but lost a fast time on that lap.
MacNeil regrouped and posted his best time of 2:01.802-seconds, good for fifth overall in the 13-car GT Daytona field.
“I hate seeing two-tenths to P3, makes me think what could’ve been,” MacNeil said. “I tried to get more time out of the car and I had a little off. I was able to regroup, scrub the tires and put in my fast time a few laps later. We are starting fifth in a 12-hour race. Our WeatherTech Ferrari is strong over a stint, we proved that last night. There will be four or five hours of darkness here, so that is the most important time to have a good car. We are starting from a good position. I am looking forward to the race.”
This is the second race of the IMSA season at Sebring. Back in July, MacNeil finished second in the Grand Prix of Sebring, a two-hour, 40-minute race that did not count for GTD points in the WeatherTech Championship.
MacNeil, Balzan and Westphal won the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October, with the team finishing fourth at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in its last outing.
The 68th edition of the Twelve Hours of Sebring will get the command to start engines tomorrow morning from Grand Marshal Mario Andretti, with the green flag set to wave at 10:10 a.m. ET.