Paul Miller’s Snow, Sellers Take Controlling VIR Win

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers drove to a commanding victory in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway for Paul Miller Racing and BMW.

Snow, who started on pole, took the No. 1 BWM M4 GT3 to a 3.368-second win over the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Mike Rockenfeller in the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

A late-race full-course caution for the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, which suffered an apparent engine failure, set up a 22-minute shootout to the finish but didn’t see any major changes up front.

Rockenfeller took over second place in the closing hour after the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ross Gunn was assessed a drive-through penalty for not adhering to the minimum refueling time.

Gunn had led the race outright during the middle stint before the Paul Miller BMW jumped Gunn in the final round of stops.

It marked the first GTD Pro victory for Paul Miller and back-to-back class wins for the team at VIR after Snow and Sellers took top class honors in GTD last year.

The drive-through for Gunn ultimately only cost them one position, having dropped to third overall.

Crucially, Gunn finished ahead of GTD Pro points leader Laurin Heinrich in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, which was forced to make an additional stop in the final hour after going off-sequence because of an black and orange flag for a tire operational requirement at the 35-minute mark.

It came on top of a drive-through penalty for Heinrich for spinning the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth.

The AO Porsche finished 10th overall and seventh in class, one position behind Hawksworth and co-driver Ben Barnicoat.

The No. 65 Multimatic Mustang GT3 of Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand, which also had a drive-through for not meeting the minimum refueling time, was able to rebound to finish fourth, with the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo completing the top-five after battling a radio issue during Marvin Kirchoffer’s middle stint.

Both of the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs hit trouble, with power steering and suspension woes for the No. 3 car and a suspected starter motor problem for the. No. 4 machine.

Korthoff Preston Breaks Through for First GTD Win

Mikael Grenier and Kenton Koch delivered Korthoff Preston Motorsports its maiden IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory in GTD.

Grenier, in the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, finished 0.897 seconds ahead of the second-placed No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Roman De Angelis and Zach Robichon.

The No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini of Loris Spinelli and Misha Goikhberg rebounded to a third place class finish after an early race mishap for Spinelli, who came into the support paddock pit lane.

It came after the class pole-sitting No. 55 Proton Competition Mustang GT3 of Corey Lewis had multiple off-course excursions late in the running after running as high as third on the restart.

Fourth in class went to the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley, with the GTD championship-leading No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward completing the top-five.

Parker Thompson, was was on course to finish sixth in class in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, crashed the car on the second-to-last lap, but managed to get the car back to the pits.

RESULTS: Michelin GT Challenge at VIR

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