Mercedes-AMG GT3 Teams Bring Podium Momentum to 100-Minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Race in the Streets Saturday at the Grand Prix of Long Beach
Fresh off a double-podium finish in last month’s 12 Hours of Sebring, a trio of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams head to the streets of Long Beach this weekend for a 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sprint race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Three Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams across two different IMSA WeatherTech Championship classes look for more top-three success in Saturday’s race, which is scheduled to start at 2:05 p.m. PDT. Live coverage begins at 5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT on the USA Network and NBC’s Peacock Streaming App.
Long Beach joins the similar temporary circuit event at the Detroit Grand Prix as the two shortest races on the IMSA WeatherTech Championship tour. Ironically, Long Beach follows the two longest races of the year, Sebring and January’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, in which Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams tallied a total of three podium finishes.
The most recent run of success at Sebring just under three weeks ago saw Mercedes-AMG GT3 competitors in both the GT Daytona (GTD) class and GTD Pro division finish on the podium. The GTD class runs with its traditional Pro-Am format while the new-for-2022 GTD Pro division showcases top-ranked professional sports car drivers from around the world competing in machinery similar to the cars used in GTD.
The No. 97 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3 team finished third in GTD Pro at Sebring while the newly renamed Team Korthoff Motorsports No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 took the WeatherTech Championship GTD team and driver championship points leads with a second-place finish in that class. The Sebring podium followed the Korthoff team’s breakout third place GTD finish in the Rolex 24.
The No. 32 team and drivers will have to wait until next month’s race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to add to its championship leads, however, as Long Beach points don’t count in the overall WeatherTech Championship. Instead, Long Beach serves at the opening round of the IMSA Sprint Cup, a championship within the overall WeatherTech Championship awarding the top performers in the year’s sprint races.
Full-season Team Korthoff co-drivers Mike Skeen and Stevan McAleer were part of the successful Daytona and Sebring runs and share the No. 32 as a duo for the first time at Long Beach.
Cooper MacNeil anchors the No. 97 driver lineup this season and welcomes a new teammate in Mercedes-AMG Motorsport driver Raffaele Marciello to the Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3 at Long Beach. MacNeil, and then co-driver Gunnar Jeannette, co-drove a Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the 2017 GTD victory at Long Beach and he seeks more success this weekend after the team recently elected to shift to the Mercedes-AMG for the remainder of the 2022 WeatherTech Championship season.
The third entry at Long Beach is the GTD race-winning No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis. Ward and teammate Lucas Auer won the Rolex 24 qualifying race the weekend prior to the opener only to encounter a string of bad luck in both the Daytona and Sebring endurance races. Winward joins the Korthoff team in making its Long Beach debut this weekend.
The Long Beach schedule gets underway on Friday, April 8, with a pair of practice sessions and late afternoon qualifying. Practice one goes green for one hour at 9:15 a.m. PDT and is followed by the second round that begins with GTD competitors at 1:15 p.m. PDT and GTD Pro teams joining the action at 1:30 p.m. PDT. Qualifying runs Friday between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. PDT, the final on-track session before Saturday’s race that will see the green flag drop at 2:05 p.m. PDT for the 100-minute sprint on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course.
Cooper MacNeil, Driver - No. Proton USA Mercedes AMG GT3: "I am looking forward to driving with Raffaele this weekend. He brings a lot of experience behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG GT3. Although it’s his first visit to Long Beach, he’s a pro and will get up to speed quickly. Long Beach is a historic race. It’s the longest running street race in America. There is a lot of history from Formula 1 to IndyCar as well as IMSA. We made a little bit of that history in 2017 when we won in the Mercedes-AMG GT3, and we are looking to add to that story this weekend.”
Raffaele Marciello, Driver – No. 97 Proton USA Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I don’t know Long Beach, but I have done a lot of simulator racing in the past because it is a famous track and always a circuit I have wanted to do. I cannot wait to be at Long Beach. It looks amazing, and I like street circuits. From Macau to Monaco and the Norisring, I have always done well on street circuits. I am ready. I just need a few times to go through if for a couple of laps, but with my simulator time in the past I should be OK. I spoke with Daniel Morad and he told me Long Beach is a track that suits the Mercedes-AMG GT3 quite well. It is normally a car that is quite good on every circuit in every condition, so I am quite confident. It’s a sprint race but I am quite use to that from here in Europe, so I know qualifying will be quite important to start up front and avoid any collision. Then it will be tricky with the prototypes and managing fuel strategy. I have seen Cooper drive and others have said good things about his pace. The team had a great podium finish at Sebring, I hope we can have another good run at Long Beach this weekend.”
Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes- AMG GT3: “This is our first race with just me and Stevan as regular season teammates. We have been working well together and I think we are both established enough that we are confident in each other and in ourselves, so there’s no butting heads or competing against each other. We both kind of like the Mercedes-AMG GT3 the same way and are happy to help each other, bounce some ideas back and forth and draw on our collective history, strategy and expertise. We have had some great success so far but it's also nice to start a new championship with IMSA Sprint Cup this weekend. So far, we have just stayed away from making big mistakes, had some strong strategy and good driver lineups that helped us keep the car at the front. We just stayed out of trouble too, and at both Daytona and Sebring the car was more or less intact at the end. it will be a little different tactic at sprint races, where you have little time to overcome any mistakes or setbacks, but if we just keep executing and stay out of trouble for the balance of the year it should pay off pretty well.”
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “We have definitely had a tough season and the results so far aren’t reflecting our performance. Long Beach is a new one for almost every single person on the team so it will certainly be a big challenge, but I’m certain we’re up for it and will do well again. The only comparable track to Long Beach I know would be the Norisring in Germany. Passing looks very difficult, so qualifying might be more important than it is on other tracks. However, I expect it to be very different from what I know, so we will have to use every minute we can to learn as much as possible before heading into the race and qualifying. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is known to be a great all-around car, and with Winward we have some of the best guys in the business. We will give it our best shot and try to make the most of our debut in the IMSA Sprint Cup!"
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