THE MODERATOR: We have one of our GTD pro winners in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, Cooper MacNeil.
This is his 12th career victory in IMSA competition, first Rolex 24 victory coming in his 13th attempt. We also will have Maro Engel in a moment.
Cooper, what does it mean?
COOPER MacNEIL: Well, I actually did the whole 24 hours by myself. That’s why I’m the only one up here. No.
I mean, it’s hard to describe. Like you said, first win in 13 tries here at Daytona. So this is my last IMSA race that I’m doing, so honestly couldn’t be happier with winning here with Mercedes and WeatherTech and Proton.
It was a difficult race. Obviously the IMSA WeatherTech Championship is one of, if not the most competitive, endurance sports car championships in the world, certainly in America, and then you come here at Daytona and everybody talks about the watch. Everybody strives to put everything together to win the watch.
That’s exactly what we’ve done for 13 years in a row. Came close in ’15 finishing second, but this year our Mercedes was in contention basically the whole time, top 3-ish the whole time.
That’s just a testament to the hard work from not only the team, the crew, WeatherTech, Proton, all those guys and girls, but Mercedes. They built one hell of a car. And not only that, but they give us tremendous support, both on and off track, and they give us some of, if not their best drivers that they have, with Maro, Danny, and Jules.
Obviously we want to win the race and we want the best people there possible, and having Maro, Danny and Jules in the car, Maro has won this race before, won other big races; Danny and Jules won Spa last year. Danny used to drive Formula 1. So the pedigree of these guys is quite special if you really look into it.
For me, winning the race, my last IMSA race, is tremendous.
THE MODERATOR: We do have Maro, second Rolex 24 win. Both have been in the last three years.
To note, Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella this is their first win for both of them. They are en route to Bathurst for the 12 hours, so unfortunately will not be able to join us. We’ll keep the questions going.
Q. Cooper, as you mentioned, 13 times trying to win this thing, and you went into it knowing that it’s your last chance or at least within reason; what kind of emotions did that stir? Extra pressure, extra anything deep down in you?
COOPER MacNEIL: That’s a good question. Actually pretty funny. I did one double stint. Spent two and a half hours in the car and then got out and let these guys finish the race.
In my latter half of the stint I was thinking, I’m not having very much fun. This is a lot of pressure. This is hard. My body hurts. I’m 6’5″. It’s not easy. I was quite happy to get out of the car at that point in time.
But with it being my last race, no, not really any added pressure. We’ve got a couple hundred WeatherTech employees here, as well, which for me doesn’t really add any extra pressure. We just try to do our job and execute and keep the car clean on the lead lap and in contention for these guys — at least that’s my job — for these guys to take it to the end and fight for the win, as you saw Maro do there.
Yeah, it’s not easy, but you just — once the helmet goes on, the rest of that nonsense goes out the window and you try and focus on the job at hand and try not to hit anything.
Q. Maro, can you talk about the closing stint? It seemed pretty physical between some cars knocking you off track and other things going on.
MARO ENGEL: Yeah, it was definitely a dogfight, and it always is a crazy, exciting finish to this race, especially in the GT categories. I think the situation you’re referring to in the kink in Turn 4 was a bit unnecessary. Yeah, uncalled for, I think.
But anyway, we survived that scare and had a pretty big jump through the air and sideways all crossed up, but was able to gather it together, not slam into anyone coming back on track.
Yeah, then it was just a big fight between the Lexus, the Corvette, and us. I was so happy to deliver this result all together for the WeatherTech Racing family. As Cooper said, they’ve been trying for 13 years. You can’t force these wins; they either come your way, happen, it comes together, or they don’t, and today everything came together, came our way.
It was really hard at times fighting for position with GTD pro cars and GTD cars. The nature of the way it is that you’re racing the same cars, no one wants to let anyone by, because even if you’re not fighting the person in the same class, you’re exposing yourself to the next car in line.
So yeah, it was challenging, tough, but we did it, and all I can say is a huge thank you to my teammates. They did an awesome job. Cooper was stellar. I mean, I think he was unlucky with the yellow that came out that he wasn’t able to pit when he was supposed to pit, but he was 20 seconds off the lead at that point.
He did an awesome job, and even if he’s saying he might not have enjoyed it, it was cool to watch. And lap times were great. Yeah, Danny and Jules are absolutely amazing. I knew the pressure was on. I woke up yesterday and said to the guys, I’m feeling it.
Usually I don’t necessarily have that, that you feel things, but I woke up yesterday and just kind of felt it, and in the end it came our way. Just really happy to deliver the win for WeatherTech, for Proton Competition, and for Mercedes AMG.
Q. Expanding on the GTD Pro-GTD intermingling, do you feel that there should be a separation between the two classes? In the last few races in the series we’ve seen more of these battles like this, and just wanted to get your thoughts on that.
MARO ENGEL: Well, for you guys I guess it adds to the excitement. For us, obviously when you’re fighting a GTD car for track position and you get run off the road like I did, it’s pretty frustrating because it’s just unnecessary.
But at the end of the day, I think if you look at the show, of this race and of this series, it always delivers. I guess that’s the bottom line. And if it’s good for the show, then we have to run it that way.
COOPER MacNEIL: To Maro’s point about waking up and feeling it yesterday morning, it was pretty interesting because we had originally had the plan for Jules to finish the race, but we called for a last-minute meeting with the drivers and the engineer and Christian Reed, and Maro was just adamant that he woke up in the morning on Saturday morning, yesterday morning and said, you know, guys, I don’t know what it is, but I’m feeling it, and I’d like to change plans last minute. Two hours before the start of the race, and I’d like to finish. I’m feeling it.
With two hours and 40 minutes to go is when he got in the car, and fast forward to just before the end of the race, I looked at the other two and I was like, well, this is what Maro wanted. He asked for it. He wanted to finish the race. Let’s see what he can do. He delivered and executed and did a stellar job. Big thanks to him.
Q. Maro, those last series of restarts were a dogfight between you and the Corvette and the Lexus. But the final restart, it looked like smooth sailing. It was relatively calm. What made the difference?
MARO ENGEL: I guess you can’t really plan these restarts. It just depends on how they fall, when the fuel gets going, and it also depends on what the guys behind are doing. In the second-to-last restart some guys got a really good run, so we ended up four or five wide into Turn 1. We were also compressed with the prototypes, with the P3s, which is tough, because obviously they don’t have ABS, and on the free start lap they really struggle, so they’re kind of in our way, and at the same time you’re trying to defend.
It’s crazy. It’s definitely not what you want to see when you’re out leading in front. You’re like, please, no yellows. But it was exciting. It was definitely exciting from the car. I dread to think how it was watching because you’re always more nervous when you’re watching on.
Yeah, the last one was luckily pretty straightforward, I would say. We all got into a good rhythm and we weren’t held up too much by the P3s, and therefore we could kind of settle into a rhythm and space out.
THE MODERATOR: I also wanted to introduce Christian Reed, owner of Proton Competition, which fielded not only the No. 79 winning GTD Pro entry, but also the LMP2 winning No. 55 Oreca.
Christian is here for questions, as well.
Q. Cooper, it’s the end of your driving career with the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. What about the brand? What about the team? What about your future in the sport? And what about the brand’s future as a partner of this championship?
COOPER MacNEIL: Well, as you already know, as far as the title sponsorship goes of IMSA, that’s through the end of 2025. Obviously we’re extremely happy with the partnership with IMSA. I mean, this is the best — some of the best racing in the world, if not the best. Best drivers, best teams, manufacturers, new cars. It’s amazing.
To be part of it with IMSA and to have this level of competition and this level of show on national television is special and cherished by us from WeatherTech.
As you said, this is my last IMSA race, and as you already know, we’re fielding the 79 car with Jules and Danny for the season, hopefully going for a championship, and that’s what the future beholds for the team and the brand.
And past that, in racing it’s never a multiyear deal as far as running a car goes. It’s always year by year, as you’ve seen my career with Alex Job, Scuderia Corsa, Riley, Proton, running Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari. Every year is different.
It’s not to say something will or won’t be different in 2024, but as far as me being in the driver’s seat goes, I’m happy with this. I’m done. I got a nice, new shiny watch to wear, so I’m happy.
As far as the corporate side of things goes, 2025 and beyond, I don’t have an answer for that now. Those conversations have yet to begin. Obviously, like I said, we are very happy with the relationship we have with IMSA, and the future is bright for both our brand and IMSA and sports car racing in America, and that’s all I can say.
Q. Chris, we’ve already heard before you arrived about how tough this race is to win. You’ve won it twice, and you’ve done it with the team’s debut in a new class for you in a week that was not easy. Tell us how your day has been.
CHRISTIAN REED: Yeah, you know, actually I’m super happy and super proud of the whole team, to all the mechanics; engineers did a great job. We started the program quite late, so we decided in December to run a car, to run an LMP2 in ELMS and maybe Daytona. So we got the car in December, shipped it here, and did more or less the first outing, so unfortunately we had an incident in the qualifying. We had one more during the week. So it was really not a lot of time for the guys to rest, and even more important, what they achieved today with the GTD and LMP2 victory is just a great day.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations.
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