Paul Miller Racing’s murky start turns into triumph in GTD Pro

Paul Miller Racing demonstrated that it was just as strong with one BMW M4 GT3 EVO as it was last year with two, coming from the back of the GTD Pro class grid to win the race for the second time as a team.

Connor De Phillippi was the only driver who was part of either BMW Team RLL’s back-to-back GTLM wins at Daytona in 2019 and 2020 that was in the class-winning No. 1 BMW, which he shared with Neil Verhagen, Max Hesse, and Dan Harper – the amazing young trio of BMW Junior Team graduates who enjoyed breakout seasons in IMSA last year.

Many cars challenged for the top spot in GTD Pro, and Paul Miller Racing’s car quickly asserted itself in the mix after climbing up the order by sunset on Saturday.

But the BMW hit the front of the field in the final two hours after running a short penultimate stint. It allowed the Paul Miller crew to take less fuel and fresh tires on their final stop with just over 50 minutes left, all while gaining track position and moving to the lead.

Harper, BMW’s bright young Ulsterman star, then withstood the challenge from Mercedes-AMG veteran Maro Engel to take the first Rolex 24 class win for himself, Hesse, and Verhagen – and De Phillippi’s second.

Paul Miller Racing and BMW’s weekend started murky with the car being penalised after qualifying, but following the controversy of last year’s bitter Corvette versus BMW feud, it was refreshing to see Paul Miller Racing run a genuinely clean race.

On what turned out to be a very fine race for Mercedes-AMG in both GT classes, Kenny Habul’s 75 Express team finished second in GTD Pro, ahead of a second Winward Racing car, which, like 75 Express, incorporated a Bronze driver, Scott Noble.

The historically long full course yellow for dense fog allowed for both cars to not only get their Bronzes’ minimum driving requirements done under the control of the safety car, but in the case of the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG, it helped make the fight back from a 100-second penalty stop (failure to adhere to the car’s prescribed stint energy requirements) easier.

Maro Engel even drove the blue No. 75 car to the class lead before Paul Miller Racing executed its strategy, but he was still able to bring home a runner-up finish for himself and the Australian superstar trio of Habul, Will Power, and Chaz Mostert. It breaks a painful run of four straight Daytona DNFs for 75 Express/SunEnergy1 Racing.

The No. 48 Winward Mercedes-AMG of Noble, Jason Hart, Maxime Martin, and Luca Stolz finished third, followed by the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R in fourth. Corvette Racing looked strong for most of the race, but the two works Z06 GT3.Rs would be thwarted due to a broken right-rear suspension (in the case of the championship-defending No. 3 car) and getting the short end of some aggressive wheel-to-wheel racing (in the case of the No. 4).

Manthey made a solid first impression in IMSA, as the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R emerged from being a backmarker early on, to leading laps and finishing fifth. Pfaff Motorsports recovered from a three-lap deficit as the No. 9 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 finished a solid sixth in its last race before the debut of the new Temerario GT3 – though it could have been more, as the car faded from the lead in the final hour.

The No. 65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 was the only one of the new ‘Evo’ cars that finished the Rolex 24 (in seventh): both Ford GTD teams retired due to mechanical issues, and the No. 64 Ford Racing entry lost the motor spectacularly.

Winward executed perfectly through the tense final laps to take the GTD win. Brandon Badroui/IMSA

Just like last year in GTD, the finish was thrilling, like a Hollywood film with the Daytona 24 Hours as its opening scene; but once again, real life was even better than fiction in the case of the thrilling battle between Winward Racing’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG and Magnus Racing’s No. 44 Aston Martin.

Both cars were strong for most of the day, and it came down to a very spirited battle in the final laps between Winward’s Philip Ellis and Magnus’ Nicki Thiim, both factory drivers for their respective teams. Multiple times in their battle for the lead, they banged wheels and fenders, with Ellis grabbing the lead with about 20 minutes left.

Ten minutes later, that frenzied action almost ended in catastrophe when Ellis nearly spun out after making contact with Thiim in the NASCAR tri-oval. Somehow, Ellis not only saved it but held onto the lead until the finish. For the third time in six years, Winward’s decorated trio of Ellis, Russell Ward, and Indy Dontje claimed GTD victory at Daytona, proving once again that the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG is the team to beat in the category. This was Lucas Auer’s first Daytona win, three years after a practice accident forced him to miss the 2023 race.

Thiim fought valiantly, right on the edge of fairness, but finished second. It’s still a great result for Magnus Racing and co-drivers John Potter, Madison Snow, and Spencer Pumpelly. It’s not yet clear when or where we’ll see the “Virtual Energy” machine race in IMSA next, but the energy is so different from when the team was preparing to bid farewell this time a year ago.

For the third straight year, Heart of Racing Team’s No. 27 Vantage GT3 Evo (Eduardo Barrichello/Tom Gamble/Zacharie Robichon/Mattia Drudi) finished third in class. Thiim’s great battle with Ellis was preceded by more hard racing between Thiim and Drudi, in which Thiim got the better of his fellow Aston Martin factory ace.

A spin after contact took 13 Autosport’s Corvette out of contention for a podium, but Matthew Bell still brought the car over the line in fourth, ahead of the No. 21 AF Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, which had a solid run all race to fifth.

Turner Motorsport’s bid for a long-awaited Rolex 24 win fell apart after Robby Foley sent the aforementioned 13 Autosport machine spinning out at the West Horseshoe (Ellis would take advantage and move up two spots). Foley received a drive-through penalty for the contact, and after a subsequent drive-through penalty for a pit work infringement, the No. 96 BMW would finish tenth in GTD after leading more laps than any other car in the class.

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