LONG BEACH, California – A pair of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams persevered to the finish of a hard-fought 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sprint at the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday. The No. 79 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Cooper MacNeil and Raffaele Marciello finished fourth in the GT Daytona (GTD) Pro category while the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mike Skeen and Stevan McAleer rebounded from a late-race contact incident for a sixth-place finish in the GTD class.
The No. 79 team’s fourth place finish came despite starting deep in the overall GTD field and followed a season-best third place showing in last month’s 12 Hours of Sebring. Starting driver MacNeil successfully avoided the mistakes and contact incidents that sidetrack several competitors and handed the No. 79 off to Marciello 36 minutes into the 100-minute race.
In his Long Beach debut, Marciello quickly lapped on pace with the GTD Pro field and came out of more than one race-slowing caution period on the lead lap and tracking the class frontrunners. Marciello was closing on fourth place when the checkered flag flew but the No. 79 was later elevated to that position when the competitor that took the checkered flag fourth was assessed a post-race penalty.
Team Korthoff showed why they are the IMSA WeatherTech Championship GTD championship points leaders at Long Beach, which was the opening round of the IMSA Sprint Cup. A championship within the overall WeatherTech Championship, the Sprint Cup awards the top performers in the year’s sprint races.
Skeen qualified third in the No. 32 on Friday and quickly moved up to second after Saturday’s race start. McAleer took over from Skeen at the 37-minute mark and continued to challenge in the lead pack as the No. 32 team has all season.
McAleer was running fourth and in tight formation with the other GTD leaders when he was tapped from behind by another competitor and sent into a tire barrier with 18 minutes remaining. The No. 32 was damaged in the hit, but McAleer was able to rejoin the race and continued on the lead lap as the caution flag flew. McAleer picked up two positions in the final run to the finish and capped the rebound with a sixth-place finish just over 20 seconds behind the GTD race winner.
The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis turned in a rebound of their own Friday after a contact incident in practice. Ward turned in a top-five qualifying effort later Friday afternoon and took the green flag from fourth on the grid in Saturday’s race.
Ward quickly moved up to third after the start of the race and pitted from that position at the race’s 37-minute mark. Ellis took over and continued to keep the No. 57 in the top five. He was running fourth with just under an hour remaining only to skim the wall exiting Long Beach’s tight hairpin after the No. 57 suffered a technical issue. Ellis quickly dashed into the pits where the No. 57 was retired from the race.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship is the Monterey Sports Car Championship weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, April 29 – May 1.
Cooper MacNeil, Driver – No. 79 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was a good hard race. Raffaele did a good job. He drove hard and made up some positions. The WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3 is in one piece, and we will go onto WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in three weeks looking for another podium result.”
Raffaele Marciello, Driver – No. 79 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was a tough race, and we got a bit unlucky with the pass-around during a caution period. I lost some track position, and it was difficult to recover. I tried my best, it was a challenging weekend, but we had some fast lap times and our Mercedes-AMG GT3 was quick. Long Beach is not as quick as the Macau and Bathurst temporary circuits I have raced on, but when there are walls, it is always nice to go close. It’s fun. The team did well and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 performed well.”
Stevan McAleer, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was obviously a bummer. I don’t know if we would have had a chance to battle for first place, but we were certainly in the mix for the last couple podium spots. I was having a great battle with the car in front of me, and was feeling pretty good, but right at the end there, the guy behind me got a little bit excited. He caught the right rear of me, I corrected, but ended up in the marbles, and around here that isn’t good. I went into the tires and man the car was stuck. I kept going from first gear to reverse, first to reverse, and I looked out the side window and there was a ratchet strap hooked on the door! I managed to get it going and got a little lucky when the yellow flag came out. I was able to catch up but had to reset the ABS and there was a fairly good amount of cosmetic damage. But in all honesty, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 still drove great. We managed to pick up a couple of spots there at the end. This is part of performing like a championship team. We had a really good car even with the damage to still fight back. This is a team that works hard.”
