Sellers: GTD Pro Near Miss “Gut-Wrenching” for Paul Miller

Bryan Sellers said it “really hurts” for Paul Miller Racing to miss out on a debut win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTD Pro class after late race brake problems derailed a victory bid in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Sellers, Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen and Sheldon van der Linde took the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 to a third-place class finish during the 62nd running of the Florida endurance classic, finishing behind Risi Competizione and AO Racing.

The Georgia-based squad was a consistent presence in the top three of the class until brake problems struck with Van der Linde at the wheel with little over two hours remaining.

The issues cost the No. 1 BMW two laps compared to the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R, while the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari went on to win the race with a lap in hand.

PMR led a sizable of the race before Risi overhauled them and the issues struck, which Sellers said made the disappointment only worse when the problems struck in the closing phase.

“It’s really tough because when you come in, you have these hopes that you can deliver,” Sellers told Sportscar365.

“And as the race unfolds, you see, ‘Man, we can deliver. We are here, we are fighting.’ And all of a sudden, it turns from hope to pure desire.

“And then when that switch happens, and you think you have a chance, and then to end the way we ended, it’s pretty gut-wrenching.

“The one thing that we were just talking about is that you don’t get many opportunities to have a car as good as what we had and win the race. And when you miss it, that’s what really hurts.

“It’s one thing to finish second or third when you just weren’t good enough. But the days that you are good enough and you miss it, those you want back.”

Sellers ‘Confused’ by Persistent Brake Issues in Long Races

Sellers went on to explain that he was dumbfounded by the failure that ultimately delayed the car on Sunday afternoon, which emerged when BMW factory driver Van der Linde jumped behind the wheel for the closing stint.

“We were having a heat-related issue with the brakes,” Sellers said.

“Three-and-a-half hours from the end, Sheldon was in and the pedal started to go a bit long. We did the driver change to give him a quick break before his one and a half, two to the end.

“In that amount of time, the brake [pads] just basically went to nothing. We lost all material on the right front.

“The issue was that as soon as the material was gone, then it actually broke the rotor from the heat. So, that’s a failure that I’ve never seen in all my years.”

Van der Linde told Sportscar365 that he initially thought the steering had failed on the car when he went out after the brake change, which saw him go off onto the grass at the International Horseshoe.

“We did that change and then when I went out, there was something weird on the front,” Van der Linde said.

“I was weaving left to right, and there was no response to the steering wheel. So I thought it was something with the steering column or something had broken.

“It turns out something on the brakes went wrong. I don’t know what exactly it was in the end. And then we had an ABS failure as well.

“I was driving the last two hours without ABS. I’m sure you guys saw a lot of smoke into Turn 3, but it was what I needed to do for the podium.”

PMR has suffered issues with brakes in long-distance races previously since it has switched to the BMW M4 GT3, most notably when it took a GTD class victory in last year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Sellers indicated that the persistent brake problems in Michelin Endurance Cup races is something the team has to “sort out” moving forward.

“It is certainly for us a known problem,” he said. “I don’t know why.

“It would be a lot easier to explain if we didn’t run exactly the recommended stuff, right? If we had gone out on our own and ran different compounds, but we don’t.

“It’s confusing and it’s something we have to sort out. Because you can’t keep going into long races and having brake problems. It’s pretty important.”