Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing Entrant Team Korthoff Motorsports and Driver Stevan McAleer Build IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar GTD Championship Lead with Fourth-Place Finish in FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park
LAKEVILLE, Connecticut – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing entrant Team Korthoff Motorsports extended its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) class points lead Saturday at Lime Rock Park with a hard-fought fourth-place finish in the FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix with co-drivers Stevan McAleer and Mike Skeen in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. The finish, Team Korthoff’s best result in IMSA GTD competition since a third-place showing at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, was two positions higher than the No. 32 team’s nearest challenger in Saturday’s two-hour and 40-minute race on the 1.474-mile Lime Rock road course. Coming into the race five points ahead in the championship race, the No. 32 team and McAleer unofficially leave Lime Rock 40 points clear of the closest competitor.
Korthoff was the highest finishing Mercedes-AMG GT3 on Saturday for the fifth time in the seven WeatherTech Championship races this season, but joined two other Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams in leaving Lime Rock feeling better results were just out of reach.
The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, co-driven by Philip Ellis and Russell Ward, took the white flag leading in GTD only to see Ellis slow with a mechanical issue with the finish line in sight.
Skeen was running in third in the No. 32 as Ellis fell off the pace and joined the rest of the lead pack competitors in darting around the stricken No. 57. Unfortunately, Skeen fell to fourth in the frenzy and came up just short of securing Korthoff’s first podium finish in more than four months.
The No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Cooper MacNeil and Jules Gounon also hit trouble late after a competitive run in the team’s first GTD class race this season. Gounon was looking to seal a likely top five or better result but instead settled for seventh after being assessed a drive-through penalty after what race officials determined was avoidable contact with another competitor.
The two-hour Pilot Challenge race earlier on Saturday was as demanding as the featured WeatherTech Championship FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix, but one entry from Murillo Racing stepped up for the Bronze Cup class victory.
Brent Mosing and Tim Probert co-drove the No. 65 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 to the Bronze Cup win for the second time this season after winning at Mid-Ohio for the first time in May. The victory gave the Mercedes-AMG GT4 a perfect seven-for-seven win record this season in the new Bronze Cup class which is designed to allow sportsman or “am” drivers battle each other in a separate championship while still competing in the overall GS race.
The top Mercedes-AMG GT4 finisher in the Pilot Challenge race was the No. 55 FCP Euro by Ricca Autosport Mercedes-AMG GT3 co-driven by Skeen and Trevor Andrusko. Competing in the lead pack throughout the two-hour race, closing driver Skeen jumped to fourth from fifth on the final lap for the FCP Euro team’s best finish in just its third race in a select schedule of events this season.
Murillo’s sister No. 56 and No. 72 Mercedes-AMG GT4 entries provisionally hold second and third, respectively, in the overall GS championship standings after Lime Rock despite a pair of challenging races.
The No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Eric Foss and Kenton Koch failed to finish a race for the first time this season after a rock punctured a hole in the car’s oil cooler halfway into the race.
Kenny Murillo and Christian Szymczak finished eighth in the No. 72 Mercedes-AMG GT4 after finishing on the podium in the last two races with a third place at Watkins Glen in June and second to their No. 56 teammates earlier this month at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in IMSA WeatherTech Championship and IMSA Pilot Challenge competition is the IMSA Fastlane SportsCar Weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 4 – 7.
Stevan McAleer, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “You have to take the positives. We gained some points in the championship, our Mercedes-AMG GT3 was pretty decent, and Mike is obviously fantastic. He was really strong at the end there but unfortunately the No. 57 car broke on the last lap and Mike had no choice but to go around the outside and another car further back had the advantage of going to the inside. If I would have been told earlier today we would have finished fourth, I would have been quite happy with it, but the podium was so close. We are still fighting for this championship.”
Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 and No. 55 FCP Euro by Ricca Autosport Mercedes-AMG GT4: “Two P4 finishes on the day. Those are solid results. A disappointment in some ways to be so close to the podium twice and not get there, but I am thrilled with the Korthoff guys. They had excellent strategy, excellent pit stops, and we had great pace. A great points day, really solid performance with the team, but we are just dying to get back to the podium.”
Cooper MacNeil, Driver – No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Tough race, going almost all green. I was able to make up some positions during my stint. It wasn’t without incident. When I was pitting, I got hit from behind and got crossed up, but made it to pit lane safely. Jules put in some fast laps and the car was good in clean air. Unfortunately, he got caught up with another car and we got put back to seventh. I hope we can carry the positives of today over to Road America, our home race, in three weeks.”
Jules Gounon, Driver – No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I was on the radio with the team, and we agreed on a ‘full send’ to go for a podium finish at the end. I launched an attack on another car who moved a little under braking and I got into him. I thought it was a racing incident. We had a lot of fun today. We were quick, but luck wasn’t on our side. I was happy to be back with Cooper, he drove a great stint. I hope to go for a podium when I return with the team at VIR.”
Brent Mosing, Driver – No. 65 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “This is a really big win for me because I have not had good luck at Lime Rock in the past. This changed all that, Lime Rock was good to me this time. I kept the car clean, turned it over to Tim, and he drove the lights out of it again for the second race in a row. I am going to put this thing on Tim’s back! All I have to do is hand him over a clean car.”
Tim Probert, Driver – No. 65 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “With two wins behind us now, we are certainly pushing for more victories in the year’s last three races. The team really gave us a wonderful car today. The pit stops were flawless. We had a really good run until a restart. We picked up some rubber build up on the tires and that created a bit of an issue with a few cars getting by, but we were delighted to pick up the Bronze Cup win.”
Trevor Andrusko, Driver – No. 55 FCP Euro by Ricca Autosport Mercedes-AMG GT4: “The Mercedes-AMG GT4 is awesome, super comfortable, super drivable and awesome to race. I think we are starting to prove that we are meant to be here. Sebring was our first race together and a bit of shakedown for us, but we are starting to make a little more progress, do some testing and get a little more familiar with the Mercedes-AMG GT4. Today was absolutely insane. This weekend has been really tight on the schedule and on the track. Tight quarters, but we came with some notes from testing and had a quick car at the end, and that’s really what we showed up with. I am very comfortable in GT4 cars. Doing a couple of years of Super Trofeo has really helped me progress a little bit.”
Kenny Murillo, Driver – No. 72 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “Road America can’t come soon enough. Lime Rock started off OK, but we had some bad luck with a cut tire in qualifying that put us in a tough situation with the race strategy as it was never apparent on which way to go with it. The last yellow flag didn’t fall for us, but we just kept our heads down and tried to do the best we could on track. The car came out pretty clean in the end, so you have to be happy with that, and we couldn’t be happier with the Mercedes-AMG GT4 and the Michelin tires. Lime Rock is a bullring, we came out with the car intact, and we are really looking forward to Road America.”
