The JMW/WeatherTech Ferrari team finished the 86th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in fifth position in the LM GTE AM category.
Drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.), Jeff Segal (Miami, Fla.) and Liam Griffin (Britain) raced the No. 84 JMW/WeatherTech Ferrari hard to be in sight of the overall class lead for more half of the race. In the early morning hours an off in a gravel trap and the resulting time it took to extricate the black and white Ferrari thwarted the run for a podium position. Each of the three drivers ran maximum laps and posted quick times that had them running as high as second into the evening hours. The competition level of the AM category is unforgiving and coupled with the slow zones it is nearly impossible to make-up lost laps.
“It was a pretty good race for us up until we had the off in the gravel,” MacNeil said. “We were in podium contention for well over half of the race. That is a big testament to the JMW team that performed at a high level in the pits and with the preparation of the JMW/WeatherTech Ferrari. Liam did a great job in the car, he stayed out of trouble and ran some good lap times. He really progressed throughout the week. I did my fastest lap times here by more than three seconds in the race. The car was really good, we had good strategy and it was fast. If you go down laps here, it is impossible to make that up. You have to rely on the misfortune of others. That is the way it goes. We will work hard to come back next year.”
“What could have been,” Griffin said. “Just looking at it you can’t help but take away ten-minutes fifty from where we finished. That is the frustration and challenges of motorsport. If only? I had expectations of what I could achieve with pace, and I am happy to say I blew that out of the water. I was really pleased with my drive. We had the pace to be on the podium. That is what will be frustrating tomorrow morning, I should have been on that Le Mans podium.”
“A podium was a big ask this week,” Segal said. “It was nice to be in it there for most of the race fighting for the podium, if not for that mistake. We closed out the race strong. A top five is a good rebound with some misfortune to a couple cars in front of us. We may have to rename the Mulsanne Corner the WeatherTech corner maybe for all of the wrong reasons. The JMW team was flawless. You can see why they won the race last year. The JMW/WeatherTech Ferrari ran flawlessly all day, that is what you need to win here.”
WeatherTech Racing will rejoin the IMSA WeatherTech Championship schedule at Watkins Glen International Raceway in two weeks, June 28-July 1. JMW Motorsport will return to the European Le Mans Series for their next event at the Red Bull Ring July 20-22.
Source. Kyle Chura/WeatherTech Racing
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