Paul Miller Racing will have a new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo chassis from the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after winning the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The Georgia-based team is poised to take delivery of a new Lamborghini Evo as it pushes for a second GT Daytona drivers’ title in three years with Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow.
It’s understood the chassis was originally set to be delivered on Jan. 6 but complications in the process resulted in its dispatch being delayed until after the Rolex 24.
Team manager Mitchell Simmons told Sportscar365 that some complications with the car it ran last season prompted Paul Miller Racing to regroup and take on a new car for the second season of the car’s Evo configuration.
“The initial Evo cars that we got were very early after production started, so there were some things that we needed to fix,” he explained.
“The wiring harnesses were chafing and there were some things that were deeply embedded in the car that we couldn’t easily fix.
“We pretty much patched those together and ran all of last season with what I consider a patched-up car, and we didn’t want to do that.
“We had so many gremlins last year; we had an accident at Sebring and a clutch failure. We just had a host of problems that were related to things out of our control.
“So, we’re really going to make sure that it’s going to be right on this new car.”
Simmons explained that Paul Miller is planning how to strategize its use of the new chassis in relation to its 2019 car, which was also the Daytona-winning machine.
The team now has four Lamborghini GT3 chassis in its possession.
This includes the 2019 car, the new delivery, another that was on-site at Daytona as a backup for Grasser Racing Team’s three-car Daytona entry, and the fourth back at its workshop.
“We might run one car for one [type of] event, say having an endurance car and a sprint car, but I’m not sure yet,” said Simmons.
“Once we get into the summer time and it gets really busy, it might be nice to have a car that’s already prepped and then we don’t have to spend so much time preparing for the next race.
“If we do decide to go down that road, it would be nice to have that second car prepped and ready to put in the trailer.
“Then the guys at the shop can take their time on the race that we’ll run after that, so they’ll leapfrog each other.”
Expansion Makes Future Two-Car Program Possible
Simmons suggested that the purchase of an additional chassis would make it possible for the team to commit a second car to its GT Daytona program in the future.
The team has always contested the IMSA GTD class with a single Lamborghini but could soon have the equipment in place to support a multi-car effort, although is not expected to expand into a two-car operation this year.
Simmons has suggested that it instead wants to focus on a championship push with Snow and Sellers.
Snow’s shift in his IMSA driver rating from Silver to Gold for the 2019 IMSA season forced the team to find a late replacement in Bronze-rated Ryan Hardwick. Snow is now back to FIA Silver status for 2020 and therefore eligible to partner Sellers for the full season.
“We have discussed running two cars so many times, but it’s never actually happened,” said Simmons.
“If we were going to do that, I probably wouldn’t want to do that when Madison’s just coming back and we’ve got a really good chance of winning the championship again.
“This year we again decided to run one car.
“I’ve got some clients coming in and I’ve got a couple of new guys, so if something presents itself for a two-car deal next season, I’ll be ready to.
“Typically, when you have a car sitting in a shop, you have a spares package and parts disappear off of it and the next thing you know we’ve got a spare chassis.
“We’re trying not to do that, to have both cars that can be race-ready all the time. If we can do that, and something comes in at the last minute, we could run a two-car program.”