DETROIT – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing entry Team Korthoff Motorsports and team driver Stevan McAleer increased their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) team and driver championship leads Saturday with a fifth-place finish in the Detroit Grand Prix. Co-driving with Mike Skeen, McAleer and the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 team came to the Motor City atop the driver and team point standings and extended their championship leads at the halfway point of the 10-race season.
One of the two shortest races of the season, Saturday’s 100-minute sprint on the tight 2.3-mile street course on Detroit’s Belle Isle Park has always been a high-risk and high-reward affair. Starting driver McAleer proved it from the drop of the green flag when he boldly passed three competitors to move from eighth to fifth.
The triple pass was the decisive move of the race. No other competitor improved more than two spots, but each of those advances were due in part to others dropping out of the race. All three of McAleer’s position improvements were passes in full competition.
Skeen took over from McAleer at the 36-minute mark and continued in fifth place after a fast pit stop by the Team Korthoff Motorsports crew. The race was run caution free, and Skeen defended the top five position to the checkered flag, finishing at least two spots ahead of Team Korthoff’s nearest championship rivals.
Coming into Detroit with a 12-point lead, the No. 32 team and McAleer – Skeen missed Round 3 of this year’s championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca due to COVID-19 and unfortunately trails his teammate in the standings – now provisionally lead the team and driver championships by 33 points, 1520 – 1487, over the second-place team and drivers.
The Korthoff No. 32 team has now earned the manufacturer championship points for Mercedes-AMG in four of this year’s first five races. Mercedes-AMG leaves Detroit just four points out of the GTD manufacturer championship lead, 1619 – 1615.
Winward Racing was the top Mercedes-AMG finisher and manufacturer points-earner one race ago at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and came to Detroit looking to build on that season-best finish.
Russell Ward qualified the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 seventh, one spot ahead of McAleer, but was 27 minutes into his race-opening stint Saturday when his car met the turn 10 wall. Ward was uninjured in the contact incident, but the No. 57 was unable to continue in the race.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship is the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International, June 24 – 26.
Stevan McAleer, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I think what’s cool is that we are halfway through the season now and we are not third or fourth in the standings with a mathematical chance. We are leading the championship, and the only thing I feel bad about is that I wish Mike was leading with me. There’s still a little disappointment from him missing Laguna Seca. The race was great. I had a good start and managed to get by three cars on the opening lap, and that was huge for us. It proved to be the finishing position for us in P5. The race showed I wasn’t particularly strong in qualifying because I went faster than my qualifying lap as well. I gave the car to Mike clean and in fifth and he did an amazing job. He was super strong all weekend, faster than me, and overall, it was a great weekend. We have seen a run of fifth place finishes lately but hopefully we will get back to thirds, seconds and get the first win coming up soon. It’s multiple races now we are finishing ahead of the cars we need to be beating, so overall we extended the championship leads a little and now we move on to Watkins Glen next and Mike and myself probably agree the car will be quite strong there.”
Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “This was a great weekend from the start. We knew we had excellent pace all through practice and knew we had a really good car. We maybe missed it a little in qualifying, but Stevan got a killer start and picked up a bunch of positions right on the first lap. It really made the race easy for me. He fell into fifth place, the guys did a great pit stop, and we just held position. We had great pace but there were huge gaps in front of and behind me. It was kind of lonely just driving around by myself, but it is nice to get out of here with a clean car and know we have good speed. It gives us confidence heading into the next one.”
