Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Mathieu Jaminet (France) are ready for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix to run at Lime Rock Park, July 16-17.
Lime Rock Park is the shortest circuit on the IMSA schedule measuring 1.5-miles and just 7-turns, one of which is a left hander. The No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR GTLM car will be turning sub one-minute lap times. MacNeil and Jaminet will have to navigate the tight circuit located in Lakeville, Connecticut with 16 other cars on the track. The Proton Competition team and drivers will have to run a mistake free race on the track and in the pits.
“Lime Rock is a tight and fast track,” MacNeil said. “A lap at the Bull Ring is a fast one, with lap times under one minute. You really have to be smart navigating the traffic as there is really only the front stretch to get by a pack of GTD cars. The Proton Competition team will have to be quick and efficient in the pits, any mistake on pit road or on the track will send us down a lap. I am really looking forward to driving the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche down the hill into the fast Turn 7.”
For Jaminet it will be his first visit to the classic northeast short track.
“I am looking forward to racing at Lime Rock,” Jaminet said. “It is a new track for me. The lap times will be less than 60-seconds, so that makes the field in GTLM and GTD very close. GTLM will be in for the overall win with no prototype cars racing there this weekend. We had a tough Watkins Glen six-hours, so I am looking forward to getting back in the WeatherTech Porsche. I have been studying onboard video as well as driving the track on the simulator. The target is to bring the fight to the Corvettes on Saturday.”
The IMSA WeatherTech Championship Northeast Grand Prix will take the green flag at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Source. Kyle Chura/WeatherTech Racing