Catsburg: GTD Pro Title “More Important” Than Race Win

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Nicky Catsburg admitted that securing the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD Pro title is “more important” than winning a race, as he and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports co-driver Tommy Milner enter this weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen atop a extremely tight points fight.

Just 31 points separate the leading No. 4 Corvette crew and fourth-placed No. 3 Corvette pairing of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims, with the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Connor De Philippi and Neil Verhagen and the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO co-drivers Chris Mies and Fred Vervisch sandwiched in between.

Catsburg, who hasn’t won in WeatherTech Championship competition since the 2022 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, said the winless streak is “disastrous” but admitted he and Milner need to continue to play the long game.

Their teammates Garcia and Sims, for instance, claimed the GTD Pro title last year with only a single win, which came at Virginia International Raceway late into the season.

“I feel that last year, we were almost going for what I would call a day’s success, trying to get that win and not focus so much on the championship because the start of the season was quite rough,” said Catsburg.

“Now we are in a position where we really need to keep the championship in mind because we’re currently leading, albeit with just a very small amount of points.

“So that win is something that we both really want to achieve.

“We also want to be safe and make sure that we have good points scoring every time… so maybe not make that last-moment defending action against a Lexus that comes from behind. You need to make sure that you get the points.

“The victory, yes, is important. We want it, but the championship is more important.”

One of Catsburg’s title rivals, Verhagen, who along with De Phillippi sit just 18 points behind in the season-long title race, enter Watkins Glen atop the Michelin Endurance Cup GTD Pro standings, thanks in part to their class victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The BMW factory driver explained their strategy for this weekend in juggling two different title races: “I think it’s kind of a shift in the middle of the race. If we see that we don’t have maybe the ultimate pace to go and win the race, then, we shift the focus and we try to just grab as many [Endurance Cup] points inside the race as possible.

“I think we’re one of the few teams that actually do shift the focus and try and grab as many points as possible at the checkpoints.

“This year for sure the goal, and especially with our championship standings at this point, is to focus on the actual championship that we’re still trying to still win.

“The past two years, Paul Miller Racing has been Endurance Cup champions. So, obviously, we know what to do and how to win an Endurance Cup. But we’re trying to show that we’re not just Endurance Cup champions, and that we have the material and the means to go and win an actual IMSA championship.”

Catsburg: Detroit Turn 3 is “Becoming My Nemesis”

The Dutchman has addressed last month’s Chevrolet Detroit SportsCar Classic, where he was handed a drive-through penalty late in the race for incident responsibility with the No. 15 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz while running second in class.

It marked the third year in a row that Catsburg has incidents in Turn 3 of the downtown street circuit.

“That Turn Three is kind of becoming my nemesis there with obviously an incident with a Lexus two years ago, then an incident with Laurin Heinrich and now an incident again with a Lexus where I feel like out of those three times, it’s probably been three times mostly down to me,” he said. “So as much as I hate admitting that, it’s the way it is.

“I feel like this time, I was definitely trying to make sure that whatever I did, I was never ever going to hit the 3 car because we needed a win in Detroit.

“[it was] super important for the brand, super important for the team. So I left too much margin.

“I started coming off the throttle a bit too early because I knew that Antonio (Garcia) was struggling to switch on his front tires at the restart.

“I could see that, so I tried to give him a little bit of a break. And with doing that, I didn’t realize how close the Lexus was.

“Unfortunately, the defensive move was purely an instinctive one. As soon as I did it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, why did you do that?’ Because two corners after, I knew I was going to get a penalty.

“Even though looking back on video, I felt like it looked less bad than I thought it was going to look. I felt like he had plenty of room on the inside. But still, the rule is don’t move under braking.

“This was a clear moment of me reacting to his overtaking maneuver. I reacted and he hit me and unfortunately, this destroyed our result, which I think should have been an easy 1-2 result, so it happens unfortunately.

“I need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, specifically in Turn 3 in Detroit.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John