Photo by: Richard Sloop
BALTIMORE, MD, - Alex Job Racing's (AJR) Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen drove their No. 22 WeatherTech Racing Porsche to a second-place finish in GTC at today's running of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT.
MacNeil (Hinsdale, ILL) had the wheel of the WeatherTech Porsche for the start. As is typical in closed street course racing he had to avoid a first turn melee. Taking the conservative approach, as he has a healthy lead in the championship, he had to take evasive action to keep the car between the walls. Coming around the next lap in fourth he began to make his comeback. By lap 11 he was second and by lap 24 when he turned the car over to Keen (Charleston, SC) he was leading the GTC field.
Keen exited pit lane and soon was in a nose-to-tail battle with the 66 Porsche. Again, taking the conservative championship leading approach, he let the car go. With just eight laps remaining the top four GTC cars were in a battle for all positions. Keen stepped up his lap times and brought the WeatherTech Porsche home in second place.
"My stint was crazy," MacNeil said. "There was a big pile up in Turn One, just like last year. I kind of predicted that at the beginning. I got stuck out there, dropped back to fourth, and by the time I pitted we were back in the lead. Leh did a great job to finish the race out in second. We placed ahead of the 34 car, who are second in points. So I couldn't be happier with our seventh podium of the season."
Keen ran his stint according to plan.
"My run was pretty straight forward," Keen said. "The race went to plan. We wanted to get to the 70% mark to make sure we got full points for the race. Cooper did an awesome job at the start keeping it clean during the hectic start. The walls are right there waiting for you. The first half of my stint I was being careful to get to the 70% mark of the race. We ended up P2 and gained championship points, which is our priority. It would have been nice to get the win, but we come away with a good points day from a tough track in Baltimore."
Alex Job, team owner, had a plan and it came to fruition today.
"Our race went according to plan," Job said. "Cooper did a great job to negotiate his way through the craziness in Turn One. He then turned some really good laps to make up the positions on the track that he had to give up keeping out of the walls. Leh got in and ran to the 70% completion mark, and we had a good second-place finish. Our points pursuers were behind us, and that is all that counts with just two races to go in the series."
The American Le Mans Series Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT race broadcast can be seen on ABC on, tomorrow, Sept. 2 starting at 12:00 p.m. EDT.
The penultimate round of the American Le Mans Series will run, for the first time, at Virginia International Raceway Sept. 13-15.
Source: Alex Job Racing
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