Snow Eager For ‘Old Fashioned GT Race’ At VIR
Richard Dole/LAT Images
By Dennis Krause
You can forgive Madison Snow for being excited about this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Michelin GT Challenge race at Virginia International Raceway.
The driver of the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO is a three-time winner at the Alton, Virginia road course, taking top honors in GTD in 2016 and 2023 as well as in GTD PRO in 2024. Snow and co-driver Neil Verhagen also have a bit of momentum on their side, coming off a recent win at Elkhart Lake’s Road America.
“You always like tracks that I do well at,” said Snow. “It's hard to love tracks that you haven't done good at. So VIR is certainly one that I love. And the momentum coming off Road America is certainly in the right direction.
“As positive as that can be, VIR is just a fun track, and the GT only race is always fun. It's competitive, and it's just something different from the regular multi-class racing that IMSA offers. I think that's it's really fun to have a mix of both. I love the multi-class racing. I love the Prototypes, but sometimes it's nice to just get rid of those distractions and go up there and have a good old fashioned GT race.”
According to Snow, there isn’t one particular section of the track that he loves more than another. Rather it’s the entire 3.27-mile circuit that he finds enjoyable and challenging.
“I think what I love so much about VIR there's no one section that I love. The whole track flows together. The whole track is awesome and gives you satisfaction when you get a corner right and you definitely feel like you messed up when you when you do something wrong there. And that's why I love this track. It's a good old school race track that takes commitment and is challenging, and it makes it a ton of fun.”
Michael L. Levitt/LAT Images
Old school tracks like VIR appeal to Snow, particularly in comparison to the new Grand Prix tracks that have been built recently.
“If I look at this track, it's a skinny track, like the track itself is super skinny, which makes it challenging,” noted Snow. “You look at new or some new tracks, what comes to mind when I think about that is COTA. And to be brutally honest, I hate Circuit of the Americas. I think that's a s*** track. I look at Watkins Glen. I look at VIR, Road America is in there too, but definitely not as good as the the first two, where it's a skinny track, it's challenging, it's fun.
“One of the things I love so much about VIR is that there is grass right off the track,” Snow continued. “So you're not going to be sitting there going, Oh no, track limits in turn one or track limits in turn five. Like, that's not really a concern when you have asphalt and you have grass, so all that stuff makes the track awesome, and just having a GT race where, you know, there's no prototypes, and it's really fun racing with prototypes and being out there.”
Because it is a GT-only race, Snow feels it also makes it much easier to follow what’s going on.
“If I'm sitting here trying to explain racing to somebody who's never seen it before, somebody who's like, hey, what do you do for a living? You know what is this? And you tell them that you race cars, and you tell them to go watch IMSA. It's really confusing for somebody to jump into IMSA and have any idea what's going on or who you're racing with, with so many classes, so many cars out there, and the strategy being so different, and so something like this race is a great spot for new fans to watch.
“Racing in GTD PRO, an overall victory is what we're going for. And so it's just a different race than the other ones this year.”
There’s been plenty of contact between cars and drivers recently at Watkins Glen and Road America. With its narrow racing surface, is there a consideration at VIR of this is not a place to have contact because of the danger element?
Snow doesn’t look at it that way.
“I think, out of a lot of tracks on the circuit, VIR has done, if we're talking like pure dangerous stuff, there has been some of the most advancements over the last couple of years to make the track safer and safer and safer. It is a safe track. It's just dangerous because you go off and it can ruin your race very quickly. And so it makes it challenging and risky to make passes. Track position means a lot, and so being up there and qualifying means a lot, and can definitely make your race a lot easier.”
Loving the race track can also help make it a lot easier.
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.