WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.), Gunnar Jeannette (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Shane van Gisbergen (New Zealand) are ready to take on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen International Raceway, June 30-July 2.
MacNeil is coming off of a third place finish at Le Mans and is ready to carry that motivation to The Glen this weekend. He and Jeannette are rejoined by V8 Supercars Champion van Gisbergen for the quarter day run at the 3.4-mile, 11-turn track located in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.
“I like The Glen. My favorite section has to be the high speed esses through the carousel,” MacNeil said. “It is superfast and our WeatherTech Mercedes should handle exceptionally well through that section. I am super excited to have Shane back with us. We have some unfinished business to take care of after Daytona and Sebring. We had a really good test at The Glen a month ago, so we should be up to speed fairly quickly.”
“Watkins Glen should be a good track for our WeatherTech Mercedes AMG GT3,” Jeannette said. “The circuit has lots of fast flowing corners which our Mercedes likes. The one place it won’t be too good is the long straight uphill after the esses, but everywhere else I think we’ll be pretty dialed in. I think the last round of BoP was a bit harsh on us pre-Detroit, so we are going to suffer a bit on the straights, but there’s not much we can do about that at this point. It’s great to have Shane back for this weekend. He hasn’t been to The Glen before, but I’m sure after the first session he’ll already be up to pace. It will be great for all three of us to get up on the podium together this weekend!”
Defending Australian V8 Supercars Champion van Gisbergen is a Glen rookie.
“I have been doing a lot of laps on the computer studying the car and lines getting a general feel for the direction of the track,” van Gisbergen said. “Also I have downloaded last year’s qualifying and race to watch on the plane so that when I get on track on Friday I should be close to the pace. Being a six-hour race with three drivers in the minimum time just under two hours the strategy seems relatively simple, but as we know anything can happen in racing and usually does. For me, I’m excited to get back to America rejoining the WeatherTech team and hopefully getting a result after showing so much promise at the first two endurance rounds.”
The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International event will air on FS1 Sunday, July 2, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EDT and transition to FS2 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
