ALTON, Va. — Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Paul Miller Racing staged a clinic at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) this weekend, taking pole position Saturday with a new track record in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 and romping to a convincing overall and Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class win in Sunday’s IMSA Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.
Not only was it the first win of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the Paul Miller squad, but it was also the team’s first GTD PRO win since moving into the class after claiming the 2023 Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) title.
“It’s pretty satisfying because you’re always answering asking questions like, ‘Did they move (to GTD PRO) too quick? Did they make the right call (moving to GTD PRO)?’” Sellers said after collecting his 20th career IMSA win. “And there have been times this year when you could say we didn’t make the right decision. But I think the one thing this shows is that there’s a lot of resilience in this team and, in the end, it was the right decision.”
For Snow, whose career has seen him rapidly advance from “young talent” to a factory BMW driver, the 15th win of his career was more personal.
“It’s certainly a race I’ll remember forever,” he said. “First overall GTD PRO win. We had one a few years ago in GTD before there were a lot of these pros around, but this is definitely a special moment.”
Despite their dominant performance and winning by 3.368 seconds, Sellers and Snow each had some worrisome moments. After taking over from Snow on the first pit stop, Sellers trailed the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin on his stint. After retaking the helm from Sellers on their second stop, Snow moved back in front and was seemingly cruising to the win when a full-course caution with 34 minutes left bunched the field for a 20-minute dash to the checkered flag.
“When that yellow flag came out, I was like ‘OK, it’s going to take up 15 minutes and that’s nice,’” Snow said. “’But then I’m really going to have to after it.’ I was definitely nervous about the cars behind us. I wasn’t sure how much pace they had, but luckily we had clean air and after a couple of laps after the restart I was able to open it up.”
After the No. 23 Aston Martin had to serve a drive-through penalty, Mike Rockenfeller ran second to Snow in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 to the finish. Rockenfeller conceded he was more concerned about the cars immediately behind him – headed by Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Aston – than passing Snow. Rockenfeller settled for a runner-up spot that marked a high-water mark for him, co-driver Harry Tincknell and the Mustang GT3 in the program’s debut campaign.
“It’s another milestone,” said Tincknell. “This weekend for the Mustang has been super strong with Proton Racing taking the GTD pole yesterday and the first GTD PRO podium for us today. Obviously, it’s a brand-new car this year … We’ve gradually got better and better. Honestly, this has been coming for a while.
“We’re racing against some cars that have been racing for six or seven years and our learning curve is huge, so it feels great to be here and it’ll feel even better to be one step higher on the podium.”
Gunn, co-driver Alex Riberas and the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston finished third, which helped Gunn close within 17 points of Laurin Heinrich and the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R for the GTD PRO championship lead with two races remaining. Heinrich and co-driver Klaus Bachler finished seventh on Sunday.
The next race in the WeatherTech Championship is the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sept. 22. It features all four series classes.
Korthoff/Preston Collects First Series Win In GTD
Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class victories in the WeatherTech Championship rarely look more straightforward than the triumph that the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 achieved Sunday at VIR.
Outside front-row qualifier Kenton Koch took the lead from the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 driven by Giammarco Levorato in the first corner of the first lap, and the No. 32 Mercedes was rarely again headed over the next two hours and 40 minutes.
Koch made a smooth handoff to Mikael Grenier on the final pit stop, and despite pressure from the Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, Grenier held the top spot to the end, crossing the line with a 0.897-second margin of victory to give Korthoff/Preston its maiden series victory and the fifth this season for Mercedes-AMG.
“It feels really good to get the win for these guys,” said Koch, who earned his second career IMSA race win and first since he shared in the Prototype Challenge class win at the 2016 Rolex 24 At Daytona. “The start was really the only place where you could make something happen. I knew we had a good car but knew it would be tough. It was all down to strategy and saving some fuel at the beginning and getting us the track position to stay ahead of those guys behind us.”
The No. 27 Aston Martin moved into second place just over 30 minutes into the race and was about five seconds behind the leading Mercedes when most of the GTD field made first pit stops for fuel and driver changes at the 45-minute minimum drive time mark. The only lap the No. 32 Mercedes failed to pace over the rest of the race was when Koch made a final fuel and tire stop, turning the car over to Grenier with just under an hour to go.
“The Aston was quite quick, but we had a GTD PRO class McLaren between us and that was a good buffer,” said Grenier, who celebrated his first WeatherTech Championship win. “The track position was most important. Obviously, I don’t think we needed that safety car there at the end, but we were still good. The team did a really nice pit stop and Kenton was amazing on fuel saving, so we had a shorter stop.
“I think it’s mostly special for the team, and the guys are really happy,” he added. “I think there were a few races over the year and a half that I’ve run with them that we should have won, but we somehow missed it. The team owner (Herb Korthoff) is putting in a lot of money and Walt (Preston, team manager) is making a lot of effort.”
Loris Spinelli completed a strong comeback drive started by Misha Goikhberg in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 to earn the final podium spot. The No. 57 Winward Racing duo of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis advanced from ninth to fourth to maintain their healthy GTD class championship lead. They’re now unofficially 284 points ahead of Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, who finished fifth Sunday in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.