Two first-time winners celebrated jubilantly on the top step of the podium in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR. The ninth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the 2h40m GT-only event at VIRginia International Raceway, saw the first victory for Paul Miller Racing since moving to GTD PRO, and the first GTD win for Korthoff Preston Motorsport in its third full season.
Madison Snow led from pole in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 and then went long in the first stint before handing over to Bryan Sellers. Stopping for fuel and tires much earlier, Alex Riberas handed the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo over to Ross Gunn in position to take the lead once the first round of s tops was done, thanks to the undercut. However, Sellers’ short stint in the middle meant a shorter fuel time, and he returned the car to Snow, and Snow returned the car to the track in front, a lead he would never relinquish. The victory came at the same track the pair scored their last GTD triumph as they sailed to the championship in 2023.
“It’s an overall win in GT at VIR. It’s pretty spectacular, so it’s going to take a while to sink in, but I’m glad I was able to do it with my best friend Bryan,” said an emotional Snow before the podium celebrations began.
The No. 23 had a drive-through penalty for not meeting minimum refuel time on their final stop that dropped Gunn and Alex Riberas to third. That left the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 of Harry Tincknell and Mike Rockenfeller in second, the Mustang’s first podium finish.
Snow had scored the pole position with a new GTD PRO track record. The No. 1 was the last car to pit in the first round of stops. The No. 23, having pitted early in the first stop, needed fuel with an hour to go. PMR followed a lap later, but having gone only a little over 40m in the stint, the team was able to fill the car, give it fresh Michelins and install Snow back in the car in a shorter time.
After Heart of Racing served its penalty, Snow had a 15s lead over Rockenfeller in the No. 64 Mustang, but that lead was erased by the race’s only full-course caution with 35m to go, brought out by the No. 70 Inception McLaren losing its engine in spectacular fashion. Snow steadily pulled away from Rockenfeller after the restart, finishing with a 3.368s margin of victory. GTD PRO had been a tough transition for the team, but as they adapted to a new style of racing, the results kept improving.
“I think you just have to have resilience,” said Sellers. “You have to have fight. I think that’s what we’ve had so far up until this point. You’ve got to ride the waves, the ups and downs, and you’ve got to be able to take advantage of wins when they’re presented to you. What you saw from the team today was just that. Madison delivered a great performance all weekend, and I’m just super proud of everyone at Paul Miller Racing.”
Dirk Mueller brought the No. 65 FMM Mustang that was started by Joey Hand fourth to make it both GTD PRO Mustangs in the top five. Oliver Jarvis and Marvin Kirchhofer were fifth in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.
It was a rough day for championship leader Laurin Heinrich. An early black flag for tire pressures outside the limit put the AO Racing squad onto a three-stop strategy. Then, after taking over from Klaus Bachler, Heinrich had contact with Jack Hawksworth’s No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, spinning it and earning himself a drive-through penalty. All that led to a seventh-place finish for Heinrich and Bachler.
That tightened up the GTD PRO points considerably. The third-place finish for Heart of Racing means Gunn now has only a 17-point deficit to Heinrich’s 2519 total. Snow and Sellers moved past Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, who finished sixth, into third in the points at 2408, 111 points out of the championship lead.