SunEnergy1 Racing Leads Mercedes-AMG GT3 Ranks with First-Year Driver Kenny Habul’s Third-Straight Top-10 Qualifying Result
The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 led the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in qualifying Saturday for tomorrow’s Mobil1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park where team owner and driver Kenny Habul drove to his third-straight top-10 qualifying effort in his debut season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Having never qualified in sports car racing competition before Round 4 of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship in May at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), Habul now has a three-race run of “perfect-10” qualifying performances this year in the GT Daytona (GTD) class.
In addition to today’s result, Habul qualified 10th at COTA and again in early June at the Detroit Grand Prix, cracking the top-10 in each of the first three sports car racing qualifying attempts of his career.
Habul, who posted a top lap time of 1:17.817 (113.773 mph) on the 2.459-mile Canadian Tire road course, co-drives tomorrow with full-season teammate Tristan Vautier.
The No. 75 will be closely followed on the GTD starting grid by the two other Mercedes-AMG customer teams competing this weekend.
Cooper MacNeil did well to qualify 11th in the No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 even though he and the team missed most of Friday’s opening practice rounds. MacNeil’s teammate Gunnar Jeannette was hit by a Prototype Challenge competitor just 30 minutes into yesterday’s first practice session, sending the No. 50 into a spin and hard contact with both a concrete barrier and a tire retaining wall.
Jeannette was uninjured in the incident but heavy damage to the No. 50 kept the WeatherTech Racing team at the track all night rebuilding and repairing the Mercedes-AMG GT3. The car was ready for Saturday morning’s final practice, and MacNeil later ranked as high as ninth at one point in qualifying with his session-fastest lap of 1:17.959 (113.524 mph).
MacNeil will share row six on the GTD starting grid with Ben Keating and the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. Keating and company overcame their own issues on Saturday and missed the opening minutes of the 15-minute qualifying session after the team made the quick decision to rebuild the differential on the No. 33 after this morning’s practice session.
The team was still making some final and needed adjustments as the qualifying green flag waved, but the late start didn’t stop Keating from posting eight laps, including a session-best time of 1:18.073 (113.400 mph).
With the year’s first six races now complete, the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – formerly known as Mosport Park – launches the final six-race stretch run to close out the 2017 season.
Mercedes-AMG heads into tomorrow’s race with a five-point lead over nearest challenger Ferrari, 187 – 182, in the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech GTD manufacturer championship standings.
Race-day Sunday begins with a 20-minute warmup at 8:50 a.m. EDT before the scheduled start of the two-hour and 40-minute Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix that afternoon at 12:05 p.m. EDT.
Live coverage of the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix begins tomorrow, Sunday, July 9, at 12 p.m. EDT on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). International viewers can watch live streaming of the race on IMSA.com.
Kenny Habul, Driver – No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I love it, I love it! Thank you to Mercedes-AMG, the car was great. This is a fast track, it’s an unusual track and it’s probably one of the only tracks I’ve raced on where you can’t just do a quick lap and fake it. You have to put your foot down and you have to commit. It’s risky, it’s downhill and off camber, and you’ve got to keep your boot in it. I tell you what, my hands were shaking when I came back in. I got a little out of shape in a couple of spots and probably lost 3/10ths of a second, but overall I am happy.”
Tristan Vautier, Driver – No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Kenny drove his heart out right from the out lap. He was pushing really hard and we could see him in the last turn getting a little sideways. We talked before qualifying and I told him this is a fast track where you are going to feel kind of uncomfortable to go fast enough. It’s very good for him, we were the fastest Mercedes-AMG GT3, but it’s still a bit tough for all of us with the current Balance of Performance (BoP). There’s a long straight in the back but we are missing straight-line speed. Overall, we have good pace and we will just have to see for the race. I am just very happy for Kenny right now because I can see he really enjoyed himself and pushed really hard.”
Cooper MacNeil, Driver – No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Most importantly, hats off to the crew guys. Not only the No. 50 guys but the No. 33 guys as well who helped late into the hours of last night and early this morning to fix the car. The No. 50 guys never even left the track, so they have been up all night and all day for that matter, for well over 24 hours. Big thanks to them for all of the hard work. We went out and the car ran flawlessly, everything was good, they did a good job putting everything back together properly. I only had 13 timed laps in practice before going straight into qualifying, which is never ideal, especially on a high-speed, high-consequence, roller-coaster track such as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. All three Mercedes-AMG GT3s were right there in the time sheets, we knew we were going to be down on top speed, and we are losing about five mph to the top cars on the straight.”
Ben Keating, Driver – No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Usually, all cars do their fastest qualifying lap in the last five minutes and we were five minutes short. We made a big change to our Mercedes-AMG GT3 in between that last practice session and qualifying and were five minutes late to qualifying. It was also such a big change that I needed to be a little conservative on my first few laps to make sure it was going to hold. Now I’m sitting here after the session asking myself where I could have made up time, and there’s a little bit here or there, but there’s not a ton there for me. Maybe if I had another five minutes in the car I could have shaved off a half a second, which would have gained us four or five positions. That would have been nice but, hey, at least we got out there.”
