Milner Reflects on Corvette Z06 GT3.R’s “Special” First Win

Photo: DXDT Racing

Tommy Milner said getting the first victory in global competition for the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was a “special” moment especially considering it was achieved by a customer team holding a strong family connection.

Milner and Alec Udell drove the No. 63 DXDT Racing Corvette to the overall and Pro class win in Saturday’s opening Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

It came in only the Pratt Miller-built car’s tenth race globally and second weekend in Fanatec GT America competition, having debuted at the last round at Sebring International Raceway with Bryan Sellers and Scott Smithson.

Udell, in his first race with the David Askew-owned team and car, started third overall on the grid for the 90-minute contest and fought the No. 28 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen, while not having any radio communication to the DXDT team.

“There was a bit of mayhem on the start,” Udell told Sportscar365. “We stayed clear of it, lost out a little bit and then we were able to pull in.

“It looked like the BMW had a little bit of damage on the diffuser, so it was a little compromised on the high-speed stuff and just allowed me to soak up underneath it and make some moves going into Turn 19 and 20.

“I was feeling very comfortable in the race-ability of the car and very happy with the Z06 GT3.R.”

Milner climbed into the car for the run to the checkered flag, finishing nearly four seconds ahead of second-placed Neil Verhagen in the No. 38 ST Racing BMW.

Milner, who along with Nicky Catsburg claimed the car’s first podium finish in last weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, credited the work from the partners involved for reaching the milestone first win.

“I’m mostly happy for all of the people at Pratt Miller, Corvette, Chevrolet. It’s a big step for them to do a customer car like this,” Milner told Sportscar365. “These kind of results matter a lot to them.

“It’s cool for me to be a big part of the testing program for this car and doing a lot of testing in it. It’s cool to get the first win. The first podium was last weekend and hopefully many more now.”

When asked if it was extra special to do it with a customer team in DXDT, Milner alluded to the family connection.

“It’s a customer team and obviously my sister is team manager,” he said. “They’ve been trying for a long time to have some good results. It’s obviously special for us to make that happen together.

“Alec did an amazing job. From his first laps in the car, he’s shown that he deserves to be in the car and he did a great job today.”

Milner, meanwhile, said he’s optimistic for continued success with the DXDT program.

“We have a good driver combination,” he said. “The car was good today. The team is mostly DXDT with a couple Pratt Miller people squirted in there a little bit.

“Ben [Mueller] has been one of our junior engineers for quite a while and he’s engineering our car this weekend.

“It’s easy to work with Alec. He wants the same thing that I want from the car. It’s just a matter of guessing what we wanted for the car and I think we made the right call for the setup.

“We can tweak it a little bit. The tire drop-off was definitely a thing for us. It looked like the same for everybody else. We’ll look to improve on that a little bit for tomorrow.”

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