07 May 2018
LEXINGTON, Oh., (May 6, 2018) – It was a fast return to a fabled circuit as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship staged its first race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in five years. The Ohio event saw the two-hour, forty-five minute race run at a flat out pace from green flag to checkers on Sunday as Scuderia Corsa drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Alessandro Balzan (Italy) brought the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 home in eighth.
MacNeil, who won Saturday’s Ferrari Challenge race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, opened the race from eighth on the grid and after getting bottled up by another GT-Daytona at the start, was able to move forward in his opening run.
“Hat’s off to IMSA for bringing us back to Mid-Ohio, this is an iconic place and a high speed track where you can not afford to make any errors,” said MacNeil. “I had a good stint and was able to pick up a couple of positions and drove to about an eight second gap to the cars behind us at the first pit stop. Unfortunately, our strategy of staying out and hoping for a yellow didn’t work out today. That is racing, you take chances and risks. We ended where we started. I think the Ferrari 488 will be well suited to Detroit the island circuit so I am looking forward to our next time out in IMSA.”
The result moved Ferrari to fourth in the provisional manufacturer championship standings in pursuit of a remarkable third consecutive IMSA title.
“We had more expectations for the race today,” Balzan said. “The traffic here at Mid-Ohio was really the key. We finished ahead of the no. 33 Mercedes today, which is important for the championship. When you have a race that goes green all the way you need to try and stay in the top five. Cooper got stuck behind the 58 Porsche for like 20 minutes. When he got by he was able to put some time on them. We will come back strong for the race in Detroit at the end of the month.”