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FILGUEIRAS/MCALEER SCORE SECOND IMSA PODIUM AT WATKINS GLEN

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. –  Stevan McAleer was quickest in the opening IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge practice for Saturday’s Tioga Downs Casino Resort 120 at Watkins Glen International. The RS1 driver took his No. 28 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport to a best lap of 1:54.993 in Thursday’s hour-long session, edging out the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 of Bill Auberlen by 0.036 seconds. The No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Eric Foss was third on the time charts, followed by the sister No. 72 entry driven by Kenny Murillo.


The session saw a single red flag, for the No. 7 VOLT Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Alan Brynjolfsson, who went off at Turn 5 with less than ten minutes left on the clock. The session restarted with five minutes remaining, although saw no noteworthy improvements.



Eric Filgueiras claimed overall and Grand Sport (GS) pole position for Saturday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Watkins Glen, the Tioga Downs Casino Resort 120, by turning a lap timed at 1 minute, 54.499 seconds (106.900 mph) in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport that he would share in the two-hour race with Steven McAleer. That edged Alfredo Najri in the No. 14 Riley Motorsports Toyota Supra GT4 (1:54.711/106.702 mph) and Ken Murillo in the No. 72 Murillo Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 (1:54.760/106.657 mph) for the Motul Pole Award.


The No. 28 Porsche has qualified in the top three for all five Michelin Pilot Challenge races in 2022, including a third-to-checkered victory in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. McAleer is also a previous winner at Watkins Glen, triumphing in a 4-hour IMPC race in 2021.

“Steven and I did a lot of video and data research figuring out exactly where I needed to extract the best moments from the car and the track,” said Filgueiras. “I had a little bit of traffic in front of me initially, but it only took the one lap. Then we were biting our nails and sweating at the end there, waiting and waiting and waiting.


“Really happy with where we’re starting,” he added. “Pole position is great, but we want to make sure that we’re closing tomorrow as well.”


Starting Saturday’s two hour race on pole, Filgueiras would lead every lap of his stint. Staying in the car for the first hour of the race with a Full-Course Caution in the middle of it, he would turn the #28 Community Beer Works/ JAG New York RS1 Porsche over to teammate McAleer, but not without drama to add to it. During Filgueiras’ stint in the car the hood began to delaminate, opening a hole in the front of it causing the car valuable top speed.


After cycling through pit stops, McAleer would make a professional come-back drive fighting forward against more favorable machinery to bring the RS1 Porsche home in 2nd place, the highest of any Porsche in the field.


“I have to thank RS1 for giving us a great car all weekend” claimed McAleer “I went through the bus stop side by side with another car fighting for second  and we ultimately made contact, causing our alignment to become altered. Those last five laps were an absolute fight around a lot of good drivers in this series”


The duo’s next race is scheduled to take place again at Watkins Glen, this time for the 7th and 8th rounds of SRO GT4 America on July 23rd-24th.

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