IMSA - Ferrari Takes Hard-Fought Fourth at VIR

DANVILLE, Va. (19 August 2018) – Scuderia Corsa drivers Cooper MacNeil and Gunnar Jeannette gave Ferrari a hard-fought fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway (VIR). The result is the third consecutive top-five finish for the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.   MacNeil ran ninth in the opening stage of the two-hour, 40-minute race before moving up one position 45 minutes into the race and then snaring two more positions before taking to pit lane on lap 31 and turning the Ferrari over to Jeannette.   Fast work by the Scuderia Corsa pit crew allowed Jeannette to gain six positions on a stop under the lone caution period at the midway point of the race. That moved the Ferrari up to second, with Jeannette working his way past Andy Lally to lead lap 57 with 54 minutes remaining.   A green-flag stop on lap 59 dropped Jeannette to seventh. He clawed his way through the field, passing three cars for position in the closing laps to take fourth.   MacNeil arrived at VIR with a pair of third-place finishes at Lime Rock and Road America, and now holds fourth in the provisional GTD point standings.   “Considering the overall performance package on the WeatherTech Ferrari it was a maximum finishing position for us today,” MacNeil said. “Big thanks to the Scuderia Corsa/WeatherTech guys for working their butts off and putting us in a position with strategy to get, probably, more than we deserved today. We also made up some points in the championship.”   “Now I am disappointed we are not on the podium to carry on the streak,” Jeannette said. “It was an amazing call to short fill us on the second stop to move up several positions on the field. The guys did a great job in the pits again to get me back up there. We did not have a car to race today but we showed a lot of heart and never gave up.”   Only two more races remain in 2018 IMSA WeatherTech Championship competition. All three classes next compete in the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday, September. 9. The season wraps up with the Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on Saturday, October 13.