PWC: Alex Job Racing enters final rounds

MacNeil will drive the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche in the PWC GTA Class. Jeannette will drive the No. 97 WeatherTech Racing Porsche in the GT category. In addition to running the three remaining 50-minute sprint races, two at Sonoma and one at Laguna Seca, the duo will share a seat for the PWC SprintX race at Laguna Seca as well.

"We have two cars that are race ready and we wanted to get in a couple of more races before the leaves turn colors," team owner Alex Job said. "Cooper was considering running the Laguna Seca event for a while and it just made sense for us to add the Sonoma race and get Gunnar involved as well. The SprintX event at Laguna Seca will be something a little different, but a format we are used to doing with a pit stop and two drivers. We will get the cars out on Pirelli tires before we make the trip across the country next week."

Job cited "performance and the future prospects for the Porsche at the remaining tracks on the 2016 schedule" as the reason for pulling the entries from the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. In a statement, Job said "the conclusion was based upon the performance in direct comparison to the competition over the past eight GTD races and the possible variations of how the BoP (balance of performance) could play out over the next three races with our engineering team and IMSA." Contentious debates between Porsche GTD teams and the series regarding the car's BoP were said to have taken place since the Road America round.

The foray into PWC is a new challenge for MacNeil, who has never done a race on the SCCA Pro Racing side.

"It will be a different format with the race being a sprint format instead of the endurance length I am used to doing," he said. "I have only been to Sonoma once before, back in 2011 running Ferrari Challenge, but I was on the podium both races. We are going to try hard to get back up there this time with a Porsche! The GTA class has been close all year. Some of my main competition will be an old teammate Mike Schein. We used to race Porsche Cup back in 2011 and we had some close races together. It should be fun to get back out there with him and see how we fare."

"My only World Challenge start was in an Audi at Sebring in 2004, so it's been a little bit," Jeannete added. "The sprint format will obviously be quite different than sharing the car with Cooper. It will be good to still work together to get both of our cars set up as best as possible for the races. We'll be playing catch-up to all the other teams that have been running all year, so having two cars will be very helpful. The Porsches have shown to be competitive throughout the year and Sonoma should be a decent track for us.

"I think the last time I raced at Sonoma was all the way back in 2004 in the ALMS (American Le Mans Series) days," he continued. "I remember doing the morning warmup and coming around off the drag strip to see Dale Jr.'s Corvette fully ablaze and him scrambling out of the car while it was still rolling. For a split second I thought of stopping to help, but since he was almost out already I continued on. Had I stopped to help I probably would've made the national news! Hopefully this year no one will have a repeat of that kind of incident."