| The Achievement Comes in the Team’s First Year Working with BMW August 31, 2022 By Mark Robinson IMSA Wire Service  DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Considering how late they started with their new car this year, the fact Paul Miller Racing walked away with the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup title is amazing. Team owner Paul Miller decided to switch manufacturers for 2022 – from Lamborghini to BMW – for competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. But the team didn’t receive the new BMW M4 GT3 until February, forcing them to miss the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January. Disaster then struck in the car’s first race when the No. 1 BMW – while running second in the GT Daytona (GTD) class – was taken out by a prototype in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. With any season championship aspirations long gone at that point, the focus turned to learning the new car as much as possible while vying for the Sprint Cup title consisting of the eight shorter GTD races. Snow and co-driver Bryan Sellers won at Long Beach in April and followed it with a victory at Lime Rock Park in July. Along with podium finishes at Mid-Ohio and Detroit, it meant all they had to do last weekend at VIRginia International Raceway was start the race to clinch the Sprint Cup crown.  Snow and Sellers led 21 laps at VIR and finished third to put an exclamation point on the accomplishment. After Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, Snow took some satisfaction in the achievement.“It’s good to get something,” he said. “That was the only championship we could go for this year being not having a car for Daytona, and we got the Sprint Cup championship.” Sellers passed credit for the Sprint Cup title to the team at Paul Miller Racing, where he and Snow have driven since 2016 and collected eight wins together, the 2018 GTD season championship and the 2020 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. “It shows the resilience of the team and how they’re able to kind of dig in and give us good race cars week in and week out,” Sellers said. “I’m proud of those guys. It’s overlooked often how important your crew is and how much they do for you. Every time you win a championship, it’s more about everybody than it is about one single person or a car. That’s what makes us proud.” Team owner Miller was just as proud to also help deliver the Sprint Cup manufacturer championship to BMW in the first year of the relationship. “Our team and BMW have locked up the Sprint Cup titles, which is amazing,” Miller said. “And now our focus is on helping BMW clinch the GTD manufacturers’ year-long title. Our third place (at VIR) helps towards that, but we will have to push at (Motul Petit Le Mans) to make it happen for everyone at BMW.” |
