Over the weekend in Alton, VA, at VIR – Virginia International Raceway, for those uninitiated – Paul Miller Racing took their first-ever win home in the GTD Pro category. After two hours and forty minutes, American drivers Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers took pole in the #1 BMW M4 GT3 at the Michelin GT Challenge. Snow and Sellers started in pole position and didn’t give much up throughout the race. Their dominant performance in the fierce BMW M4 GT3 led to a 3.368-second gap between them and the next-closest competitor. A single full-course yellow interrupted the race at 34 minutes remaining. After 15 minutes under caution, the race was on and Snow got back on top.
In IMSA – or, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as it’s currently known – cars and drivers are divided into different classes, despite regularly racing across multiple classes. For example, Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) and GTD Pro teams utilize the same cars, but drivers are ranked on “points” assigned by the FIA to determine their ‘class’. Drivers can be Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum rated; a GTD team requires at least one amateur driver on the team – that is, a Silver or Bronze rating. In part thanks to Snow’s win last year in IMSA as a GTD driver, the team is now competing in the GTD Pro class.
In an interview with Paul Miller Racing, Snow and Sellers both seemed relieved and excited to see where the rest of the season goes. “It’s nice to get a win this year—our first overall win and our first GTD Pro win,” said Snow. Sellers expanded on the sentiment. “VIR is always a special place for myself and Madison and this Paul Miller Racing team. We got our first win together in 2016 here, we won here last year in GTD, and so it’s great to win here specifically for the two of us.”
IMSA returns the weekend of September 19th in Indianapolis. The six-hour race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is part of the five-race Michelin Endurance Cup. It features some of the most iconic race events in America, like 12 Hours of Sebring and Rolex 24 At Daytona. Paul Miller Racing currently leads the cup.
Source: Paul Miller Racing and BMW