Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and No. 48 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Team Return to COTA Following Dominating VIR Victory
AUSTIN, Texas (September 14, 2016) – Paul Miller Racing and team co-drivers Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow come to Circuit of The Americas (COTA) this weekend primed for more podium success in Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans after their first victory of the 2016 season one race ago at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR).
The next-to-last race on the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar, the two-hour and 40-minute Lone Star Le Mans can be seen live on FOX Sports 2 (FS2) at 12:30 p.m. EDT this Saturday, September 17.
The dominating victory last month at VIR was the crowning touch on an amazing weekend that saw the No. 48 team sweep all three practice sessions, the race-morning warm-up and win the pole with a new track record with Snow at the wheel in qualifying.
Sellers and Snow also led nearly every race lap in the No. 48 at VIR, only briefly losing the top spot when the GT Daytona (GTD) field cycled through for pit stops.
“I’m very excited about heading into COTA after such and exciting weekend at VIR,” Sellers said. “We’d like to carry some of that momentum forward into the race weekend at Austin. With only two races remaining, we want to try to end on a strong note as much as possible.”
This weekend’s race will be the first for Paul Miller Racing at COTA with both Sellers and Snow and the Lamborghini Huracán GT3.
“It seems, based on the tracks where we have been strong over the course of the season, Austin could be a place that fits the Lamborghini very well,” Sellers said. “Hopefully we can be as strong as we were in Virginia.”
The VIR win was the first for Lamborghini in its inaugural year of IMSA WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona (GTD) competition, continuing a trend that has seen Paul Miller Racing set numerous milestones for the Italian manufacturer this season.
The No. 48 team won Lamborghini’s first IMSA pole, at Detroit in June with Sellers, and later delivered the first IMSA podium finish with a third-place showing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in July.
“We had an absolutely perfect weekend in the last race at VIR,” Snow said. “We led every session and dominated the race. A performance like that really gets the team going and can easily carry on to what we are doing at COTA, and even next year.”
An ultra-modern Formula 1 track, the 3.427-mile COTA layout is a unique on the IMSA circuit and in the United States in total.
“The COTA track is a pretty interesting circuit,” Sellers said. “It’s like nowhere else we go with long straightaways, heavy brake zones and a lot of high-speed transitions through the esses, which are difficult sections. To get a good lap at COTA you have to make sure to get it all right. You have to make sure the car is balanced well enough so that you can push and attack the entire lap without any major issues.”
The VIR win boosted Sellers, Snow and Paul Miller Racing into the top five of the IMSA WeatherTech GTD championship standings.
With only next month’s season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta following this weekend’s race in Texas, the No. 48 team and drivers are fifth in GTD with 231 points. They trail the fourth-place team by just five points and are 12 points shy of the third-place competitor heading into this weekend’s race.
A three-day weekend event Thursday, September 15, through Saturday, September 17, the IMSA WeatherTech schedule begins with two one-hour practice sessions Thursday at 10:25 a.m. CDT and 4:35 p.m. CDT.
Friday starts with a final one-hour practice at 9:10 a.m. CDT before the 15-minute GTD qualifying session that afternoon at 3:45 p.m. CDT.
Race-day Saturday starts with a 20-minute warmup at 8 a.m. CDT with the IMSA WeatherTech Lone Star Le Mans race going green later that morning at 11:35 a.m. CDT.
Noteworthy
– The VIR win was the first for Paul Miller Racing since the Petit Le Mans finale at Road Atlanta in 2014 when Bryce Miller co-drove with then team drivers Christopher Haase and British GT specialist Matt Bell to victory. Bryce Miller will return to co-drive with Sellers and Snow at this year’s Petit Le Mans.
– At 20-years-old, Snow is one of IMSA’s youngest winning drivers, but he tends to like it “old school” when it comes to race tracks. “You have to appreciate COTA for its new asphalt, colorful curbing and amazing paddock space,” Snow said. “But at tracks like VIR and Lime Rock, you as a driver push and work really hard to get a set of the corners correct and perfect. It rewards you with a lot of satisfaction, which quickly changes into motivation for the next lap to be able to repeat that performance.”
Follow Paul Miller Racing at www.PaulMillerRacing.com, on Twitter @PaulMilleracing and at the Official Team Page on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/PaulMillerRacing.
