BUFORD, Georgia (September 28, 2026) – Paul Miller Racing opened the 2026 season with a win after 24 hours at Daytona. This week, the season ends with ten hours at home.
The No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO arrives at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with two championships still to settle. Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi are second in the GTD PRO standings, 47 points behind the No. 4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner.
Just six points behind the Paul Miller Racing pairing are Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini, leaving three teams at the center of the title conversation heading into the finale.
The gap is significant, but not out of reach. With 47 points to make up, the No. 1 will need to put at least two positions between itself and the No. 4 in the right scenario, with qualifying points still able to change the equation before Saturday’s race.
It is a very different position from the one Paul Miller Racing occupied through much of the summer.
The year started with the No. 1 BMW coming from the back of the GTD PRO grid to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
By Watkins Glen, a second-place finish moved Verhagen and De Phillippi into the championship lead while also strengthening their position in the Michelin Endurance Cup. A pole and podium followed at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and the No. 1 remained at the top of the standings through VIR.
The final stretch changed the picture. Difficult races at Road America and Indianapolis reduced and eventually erased the advantage, leaving Paul Miller Racing in the unfamiliar role of chasing the points leader for the finale.
The objective, however, remains the same one the team has carried throughout the season: put the No. 1 in position to fight at the front when the race reaches its decisive stages.
There could hardly be a more familiar place to do it. Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is Paul Miller Racing’s home event, with the team’s workshop in Buford located only minutes from the circuit. It is also the track where the team ended last season with one of its biggest results of 2025.
Dan Harper put the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW on GTD PRO pole at Petit Le Mans last year before going on to win the race with Max Hesse and De Phillippi.
Harper returns this year to share the No. 1 with Verhagen and De Phillippi, bringing together a trio that already has a major endurance victory to its name this season. Harper was also part of the No. 1 lineup that won Daytona in January.
Dan Harper: “It would be very special to end the IMSA season with another win in Atlanta. It’s my favourite race on the IMSA calendar and I have great memories from winning there last year. So to go back to back would be very cool and also try to help my teammates win the GTD Pro title!”
The season-long championship is only one part of what Paul Miller Racing will be racing for at Road Atlanta.
The No. 1 arrives at Petit Le Mans leading the GTD PRO Michelin Endurance Cup with 38 points, six ahead of the No. 4 Corvette and seven ahead of the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche.
Endurance Cup points will be awarded at the four-hour mark, after eight hours and again at the finish, meaning that championship will develop throughout Saturday’s race rather than being decided solely by the final result.
Another Endurance Cup title would continue a run that began when Paul Miller Racing moved into GTD PRO. The No. 1 won the category’s Michelin Endurance Cup in 2024, followed by the No. 48 in 2025.
A title this weekend would therefore make it three consecutive GTD PRO Endurance Cups for the team and four Michelin Endurance Cup titles overall, including its GTD championship in 2020.
Petit Le Mans will also bring the largest GTD PRO field Paul Miller Racing has faced this season. Fourteen GTD PRO cars are part of a capacity 54-car entry, alongside 11 GTP, 11 LMP2 and 18 GTD cars. Every entry returns to a three-driver lineup for the first time since Sebring in March.
For Paul Miller Racing, that means Verhagen, De Phillippi and Harper will have ten hours and three championship scoring points within the race to work with. It is a format the team knows well, and one in which it arrives not only as the defending GTD PRO race winner, but with both of its 2026 title campaigns still undecided.
After a season that began with an endurance victory, the final answers will come in another one, this time only a few miles from home.
The 29th Motul Petit Le Mans gets underway on Saturday, October 3, at 12:10 p.m. ET and runs through 10:10 p.m. ET. The opening three hours will air live on NBC, followed by coverage on NBCSN. Peacock will carry the full race in the United States, with IMSA.tv and the IMSA Official YouTube channel providing the international stream.
Motul Petit Le Mans – Weekend Schedule
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Practice 1: 10:40 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. ET
Practice 2: 3:20 p.m. – 5:05 p.m. ET
Practice 3: 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. ET
Friday, October 2, 2026
Qualifying: 2:20 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. ET
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Race: 12:10 p.m. – 10:10 p.m. ET
Track Facts
Circuit Length: 2.54 miles, 12 turns
GTD PRO Track Record: 1:17.881, Laurin Heinrich, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 2024
Classes: GTP, LMP2, GTD PRO, GTD
Entries: 54 total, including 14 GTD PRO
Race Length: 10 hours
