Snow: Clean Air Key to Breakthrough GTD Pro Win

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Madison Snow believes that having clean air was key to their victory in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

Snow and co-driver Bryan Sellers delivered Paul Miller Racing’s first GTD Pro class win in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition following a controlling run, having led 64 of the 86 laps in the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

“There were definitely a lot of close calls that were a lot closer than we had wanted,” said Snow. “The cars behind us, the Ford for sure was really fast.

“I think it just shows you what clean air can actually bring you and being out in the clean air was a huge thing for us with the car’s handling and everything.

“Staying out in front was nice.

“When Bryan got in the car, I didn’t give him much breathing room. He had a couple of laps that he had to push quite hard.

“He definitely handed it back over to me with a much better position, so it was nice to take it home.

“That yellow flag came out so it was a bit like, ‘OK, it’s going to take up 15 minutes that I don’t have to push, which is nice, but then I really have to go after it.’

“It was a give and take there. I was definitely nervous about the cars behind us, not sure how much pace they were going to have.

“But being in the clean air, being able to push really hard the first one or two laps on the initial start and the restart really opened it up and made it good for us.”

When asked by Sportscar365 if the plan was always for Sellers to complete the middle stint and have Snow get back in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 for the finish, Sellers admitted that BMW factory driver Snow was the quicker driver on Sunday.

“I don’t think it was the plan,” he said. “I said in the car… I wouldn’t say it was my decision but Madison has been pretty strong all weekend. It seemed like it was going to come down to a real tight fight to the Aston.

“I felt like I had a really good middle stint with being able to control the pace and fuel and set us up for the end.

“I said if the right decision is to go back to him, then that’s what we need to do.

“That’s the beauty in being in GTD Pro, in that you have the liquidity to be able to make those adjustments an changes on the fly.

“Part of having a great program is being unselfish and being able to look at each other and say, ‘Today was your day.’

“I feel like, Road America, I had a really good day. But today was his and I’m happy to get the win because it was a team effort all around.”

The victory for the longtime driver pairing marked their first in the GTD Pro ranks after graduating from GTD last year, where they won the class championship in 2023.

“For me, it’s pretty satisfying because you always answer questions like, ‘Did you move too quick [to GTD Pro]? Did they make the right call?'” said Sellers.

“There have been races this year where you could look at it and say we didn’t make the right decision or the right call.

“But I think the one thing that shows is that there’s a lot of resilience in the team. In the end it was the right decision for us and it was the right choice to show that we can do it.

“There’s a learning curve to it but we’re getting there and we’re figuring it out.”

Snow added: “It’s certainly a race I’ll remember forever. It’s our first overall GTD Pro win.

“We had won back in GTD before, I think some of the Pro cars were around, but this was definitely a bit special.”

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