MONTEREY, California – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams won three pole positions in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge qualifying this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca where Team Korthoff Motorsports continued its strong performance this season with a fifth-place GT Daytona (GTD) class finish in Sunday’s featured two-hour-and-40-minute WeatherTech Championship race. Stevan McAleer shook off a bout of race-weekend food poisoning to join substitute co-driver Dirk Müller in bringing the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 up from eighth at the start for the team’s third top-five finish in as many races this season.
Korthoff’s latest strong showing followed an unprecedented run of qualifying success Saturday for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in both the IMSA WeatherTech Championship and IMSA Pilot Challenge series. Russell Ward and Winward Racing secured their first GTD pole for Sunday’s WeatherTech Championship race while Murillo Racing swept both Grand Sport (GS) class poles in Pilot Challenge qualifying.
Kenton Koch, in his first race filling in for the injured Jeff Mosing, won the overall and GS pole in the No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 while Brent Mosing – Jeff Mosing’s brother – secured the GS Bronze Cup pole position in the No. 65 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4.
The pole-winning efforts in both series were backed up by a second-place WeatherTech Championship GTD Pro qualifying run by Daniel Juncadella in the No. 79 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3 and fourth in Pilot Challenge GS by Kenny Murillo in the No. 72 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4.
Both Juncadella and Ward comfortably settled into running in second place in their respective classes after Sunday’s race start, but both teams unfortunately encountered trouble in the early going.
Ward slipped a wheel off course in the fast, uphill run to the Corkscrew and was uninjured after crashing hard into the safety barrier.
Juncadella pitted from second late in the race’s opening hour to hand the No. 79 off to MacNeil, but a faulty wheel gun resulted in a lengthy stop from which team was never able to recover. The No. 79 took the checkered flag in the sixth and final GTD Pro finishing position.
After Winward’s early exit, both the Korthoff No. 32 and the No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 carried the challenge in GTD.
Daniel Morad led 10 laps in the No. 28 early in the second half of the race only to be called to the pits to put starting driver Michael de Quesada back in the car. De Quesada was just shy of meeting the 45-minute minimum drive-time requirement, but he and the Alegra team did well to return to the race in sixth before a brief off-course excursion less than 10 minutes from the end dropped the No. 28 to ninth at the finish.
Meanwhile, the No. 32 continued its typically steady run in the GTD lead pack as McAleer powered through the Friday night food poisoning in both Saturday qualifying and Sunday’s race.
McAleer’s malady was the second driver issue Korthoff encountered at the Laguna Seca race. Early in race week, McAleer’s full-season teammate Mike Skeen was sidelined with COVID-19 and replaced by Müller, who is slated to be back in the No. 32 for the upcoming Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and Motul Petit Le Mans endurance races.
In Saturday afternoon’s two-hour Pilot Challenge race, Koch took the lead from the pole at the start to pace the field for the opening 15 laps. His pole was the first for Murillo Racing in GS competition and Koch’s first in GS since Mid-Ohio in 2019.
Kenny Murillo stepped up to the front of the GS field in the No. 72 after Koch pitted and went on to lead the next 16 laps. The Murillo entries were the only two-car GS team to lead the race overall, combining for a total of 31 laps up front.
Despite the race-leading pace, a series of poorly timed yellow flags, bad breaks in traffic and pit stop timing kept both Murillo entries from challenging for the win. The teammates crossed the finish line nose-to-tail and just over six seconds behind the race winner. Closing driver Christian Szymczak took the checkered flag in sixth in the No. 72 and Koch’s co-driver Eric Foss was seventh in the No. 56.
For the third-straight race, the GS Bronze Cup victory was secured by Gary Ferrera and Kris Wilson in the No. 11 Capstone Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4. The Bronze Cup is a new championship within the overall 10-race GS schedule for Bronze-rated drivers, which most commonly designates sportsman or “Am” competitors.
Bronze Cup polesitter Brent Mosing handed the No. 65 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 off to co-driver Tim Probert who pressured the second-place finisher all the way to the checkered flag enroute to a third-place showing.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing competitors in both WeatherTech Championship GTD and Michelin Pilot Challenge GS and Bronze Cup is the Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, May 13 – 15. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams in GTD Pro return to the series at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in late June.
Stevan McAleer, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “This weekend was obviously a battle. Mike getting COVID was a big hit on the team and then myself not feeling great because of some food poisoning, but overall, it was a great result for us. I am sure Dirk will be happy with a P5 and the guys did great on the pit stops. We were the highest Mercedes-AMG GT3 again. We are looking forward to getting to some tracks that will favor us a little better and we’ll attack them, as well. I’m really excited about the progress we’ve made. It’s getting to the middle of the season and we’re still right in the mix and having fun. The first result in Daytona might have been luck of the draw if you want to call it that, but the team is going after it to win this thing.”
Cooper MacNeil, Driver – No. 79 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was an unfortunate first stop with the wheel gun breaking. These things happen. We’ll learn from it. Mechanical things break all the time. It is unfortunate it happened when we were in a position to fight for a podium. The Proton guys bounced back and had a couple of good pit stops after that first one. We never got the yellow we needed at the end. We will be back at Watkins Glen with new wheel guns.”
Daniel Juncadella, Driver – No. 79 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was a tough break with the wheel gun issue, but that is racing sometimes. Everything has to come together and sometimes the luck is not there. It is a shame because we had such a strong WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3 this weekend. I want to thank WeatherTech Racing because we had a proper weapon. It was good fun and I look forward to racing with Cooper again in the future.”
Kenny Murillo – No. 72 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “It’s the same deal weekend after weekend. We put on a good show in Practice 1 and Practice 2, showed our speed, and showed our speed in qualifying. The cars were up in the front, so to get the results we did was a little disappointing, but we know what we can do. It’s very motivating to know we can go out and win races. It’s just a matter of execution. We got really unlucky with the yellows. Even that last short yellow didn’t allow us to get into the top three, even a top five. We were really unlucky on that because the strategy was there, but I don’t think anybody is leaving here too disappointed. We’re just happy we’re out on the track and in the Mercedes-AMG GT4. The results don’t show all the work we put in and how fast are cars are, but we’re happy that we’re in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 and are able to go for wins.”
Eric Foss – No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “With Jeff Mosing getting hurt when he fell on his boat, we were able to bring in a quality replacement in Kenton Koch. He’s one of the best in the business. He was my first choice. It was awesome to work with him this weekend and I look forward to having him for the next couple of races. We have really good synergy. He was phenomenal in his first stint, so when I got in the car, I felt we were in a really good position. Unfortunately, we had a yellow that got a little dicey. The restart was a bit tricky, and I had a little bit of a tough time trying to get the balance back in the car. It took a couple of laps, I lost a few spots, and every time I made a decision, it just ended up working out the wrong way. It’s kind of funny because I’m usually good at picking the right lane, but today for some reason it was just one of those deals. The Murillo Racing guys did a great job. With a little better luck in the next couple of races, you’ll see a lot better results.”
Kenton Koch – No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “It’s good to be back with what I call a family. I have a lot of history with Ken, Eric and Kenny, and literally the whole program here from 10 years ago. Through those 10 years I’ve had five testing sessions with them and keep in touch. We’ve had so many good times, between going to dinner and at the race track and to actually driving with them at the track. It is always good. It’s nice to come into a program and know that everything is going to be on, the guys are going to be it on and literally all you have to do is drive. You don’t have to think about anything. There was a bit of a learning curve for me to figure it out, but they made it easy for me to get that learning curve out of the way very quickly. I was glad I got to qualify the car and get that extra seat time I needed to fully get myself to pace. When we get to Mid-Ohio, we’ll be even stronger.”
Gary Ferrera – No. 11 Capstone Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “It was great. We couldn’t be happier with everything and the way it worked out. We wound up winning the Bronze Cup for the third time and finishing 11th overall. Placing as high as we did, even with a little bobble in the pits, the team did a phenomenal job. This is three times in a row without any mistakes. We’re very happy and the Bronze Cup is very exciting. It’s a good bunch of good guys, so it’s good to be a part of it. I’m very happy.”
Kris Wilson – No. 11 Capstone Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “Gary really stepped up this weekend. He was a little disappointed after practice, but then today he came with new life, qualified way better than he’s ever qualified before – he was more than a second faster than in qualifying here last year – and his race pace was awesome. He got up to 16th or so before we pitted. He was on fire. It was great. We had more difficulties getting here than in the race. The race actually went pretty well, but we had pre-race transporter problems again this weekend. My teammate and buddy Jon Berry and I drove all the way to Amarillo, Texas just Tuesday afternoon to get our car when our transporter broke down. We brought it in behind Jon’s pickup truck in a small trailer that we worked out of all weekend, but we got the win!”
Tim Probert – No. 65 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “First things first, the Mercedes-AMG GT4 was perfect. Ken Murillo set us up with a wonderful car, and it’s always great to have a great platform to deal with underneath you. To be honest, I love the Bronze Cup. It’s a great innovation that IMSA brought in because it adds another level of interest and excitement. It was fun running against a champ like James Sofronas at the end. It was pretty close there, but I couldn’t get by him. We ran together about 20 years ago, believe it or not, so it was kind of trippy to race against him again Saturday. Really enjoyed a fantastic weekend.”
