Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Paul Miller Racing aren’t strangers to championships. The 2018 GTD winners in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, they backed that up with the Sprint Cup title in 2022 despite not taking delivery of their new BMW M4 GT3 until after Daytona. They won the first Sprint Cup outing at Long Beach, and followed it up with a win at Lime Rock.
In 2023, not only did they repeat the Sprint Cup Championship, becoming the first to do so, they set a record for GTD wins – five, so far, at Sebring, Long Beach, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Road America and Indianapolis – and clinched the season-long championship with one race remaining, another record. The team had three poles in a row from Snow, including a GT-overall pole at Indy. And a strong showing at Petit Le Mans next month might propel them to the trifecta, claiming the Michelin Endurance Cup as well. It’s been an unforgettable season.
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“It’s pretty special,” says Sellers. “I think, [as a driver gets older], you definitely want to make an impact in any way you can. And having a year like this year makes an impact. I certainly have not had a year like this in my career before where we have five wins, and you clinch the championship with a race before the final race. It’s different, and it is very special. It’ll be nice to sit back and take it all in and appreciate what we’ve been able to do as a group.”
Sellers and Snow needed a bit of luck to clinch the title at Indy after a pit-stop miscue cost them valuable track position. Their closest title rivals. Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen, ended up ahead of them; had they finished there, they would have had to wait until Petit Le Mans to seal the title. But it all came together.
“We got caught out by a yellow; we didn’t stop early enough, a couple of the other cars did, we got jumped out of the lead,” says Sellers. “And of course, the car we had to beat was the [Heart of Racing No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3]. And they come out in the lead.
“We lacked a bit of pace, and we didn’t have enough for the [No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG] or the [No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan]. And as soon as those guys started to mix it up, our goal was then basically just to beat the 27, and sit there with them and watch the race go, which is difficult to do. But in the end, we were able to achieve our goal. And a big part of that was the guys in the pits; the final stop was really fast. It allowed us to jump back up to the front again. And I’m just really proud of all those guys and the job they’ve done all year.”
With the championship secured, Paul Miller Racing is free to pursue the Endurance Cup however it sees fit, and maximize the points that come at Hour 4 and Hour 8 of the 10-hour race. Sellers, Snow and Corey Lewis sit third in the MEC, four points out of the lead occupied by De Angelis, Sorensen and Ian James.
“This isn’t a position that you get to be in very often where you just can show up and not even start the race,” Sellers says.
“But now that gives us the opportunity to try and chase one more in any way we deem necessary, to be able to take some risks to hit the hour marks there without worrying about the impact at the end of the race. And I think that probably will be our main focus. Obviously Petit is a very hard race. To me, it’s the hardest race on the schedule. Traffic, with as many cars as there are going to be, is tough.
“It’ll be a difficult race. It’ll be about who is able to keep their head on straight. And we’ll try and take some chances and see if we can end up with a good result.”
The team has proven its ability to take advantage of a situation and get a good result where it seemed like none was available. Sellers cites the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen as a prime example, and perhaps the race that stands out the most, even though they didn’t win. A steering wheel issue put them two laps down, but clever strategy and a bit of luck allowed them to get those laps back and charge through the field to second.
“You always have these races that probably could have ruined you, or races that make or break you,” he says. “That was probably the one for us that made a big difference. We could have walked away with last-place points. But instead, we walked away with second. And I think that was a defining moment for us.”
That effort, and the results the team has put up all year, portend well for next season; the team has declared its intentions to move to GTD PRO for 2024. What form that will take has yet to be determined, and perhaps the only change will be the color of the number boards. But however the team carries forward into the new class, there’s one more championship to take care of before the focus shifts.