Scuderia Corsa overcame changing track conditions and walked away with a refreshed sense of perseverance to finish seventh in the Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio in Round 3 of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship.
The No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari GT3 488 ran its first dry race of the 2019 season after running nearly all practices on a wet track at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The cold, rainy weather made race day a setup guessing game for the Scuderia Corsa crew, but the drivers persevered and consistently gained positions on the track, ultimately advancing four places over the course of the sprint race.
With the series switching to the two hour and 40-minute sprint race format after two endurance races challenged teams to fight for position quickly which resulted in a physical race. While fiercely battling their competition WeatherTech Racing driver Cooper MacNeil and Ferrari Factory driver Toni Vilander diligently avoided any damage and brought the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari back in near perfect condition.
For MacNeil, the race finish posed as a preparation starting point for the Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear coming up next month.
“We had tough and trying conditions all weekend long,” MacNeil said. “The race was the driest session we had so it was difficult to set up the car. Because of that, we had a lot of understeer in the car, especially when we got behind another car. The good news is that the car came back in one piece, and we finished significantly higher than we started. We have a few things to work on, but I know we’ll be ready for Detroit.”
For Vilander the weather conditions were frustrating, but his eyes are on the greater goal of a championship.
“This was a difficult weekend with variable weather conditions,” Vilander said. “The track was at its best during the race. We kept having small issues that prevented us from going faster. There were a lot of positive things to take from this race because the championship is long, so we have time to improve. Cooper did a good first stint. It wasn’t a boring race for me, but I needed to maintain the speed to conserve fuel. Let’s head to the next race and see what happens there as we keep working.”
For Team Owner Giacomo Mattioli his team’s handling of challenging races is a sign of strength.
“Once again Mid-Ohio has proven to be a tough track for our car,” Mattioli said. “We had strong performances by Cooper and Toni and were able to gain some points on the competition. We are already looking forward to the next race in Detroit.”
The next race for Scuderia Corsa is the Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear at Belle Isle. The one hour and 40-minute race takes place May 31 to June 1 with three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes present. It will be broadcast live on NBCSN.
