It All Comes Down to Petit Le Mans for Corvette and BMW

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA

By Dennis Krause

Seven Grand Touring Daytona PRO (GTD PRO) teams and driver duos remain mathematically alive in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship going into Saturday’s ten-hour Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Leading the way is the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R driver pairing of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg. Milner is looking for his third IMSA championship title to go along with an American Le Mans Series GT title in 2012 and the WeatherTech GTLM championship in 2016.

Although Milner and Catsburg are winless this season, they lead Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen’s No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO by 47 points going into the season finale.

“Yeah, certainly it's great to be in the points lead going into the last race,” commented Milner. “That's where you prefer to be, of course. But everything is still very close.

“Ultimately, we need to have have a very strong race, no matter what. There's still many, many cars mathematically in the hunt for the championship, and so all of those teams will certainly be doing everything everything that they can to to get that win.

Photo: Michael L. Levitt/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA

“For us, it's as we've approached all the other races this year. Obviously, we need to score good points, no matter what. I know there's lots of of points possibilities and things like that that we won't bother ourselves with. Obviously, at this point, that won't matter until the race gets going.

“But yeah, we've had a good year so far. Some ups and some downs, but obviously great to be P1 going into the last race, and then great to have (third driver) Nico (Varrone) back as well. A super talented young young kid who's been very fast this year. For us it's going to be I guess business as usual in many ways, and focusing on ourselves, making sure that we have have the best Corvette that we can for the race, and then see what happens at the end of the race day.”

While Milner likes the position the Corvette team is in, so, too, does De Phillippi in the BMW, especially since the Paul Miller team returns as defending race winners.

“Certainly. Obviously, Road Atlanta is generally a strong track for us as a team, and also the car,” said De Phillippi, who’s going for his first driver’s title. “Also for myself, I've always enjoyed racing there. I like the just the whole dynamic of the multi-class racing at that circuit.

“We're going in as the hunter this weekend instead of the hunted. So that'll be a refreshing position to be in in terms of how we race and it's go win and that's really the only option. So I'm excited for that, and excited we had a really good test about a week or week and a half ago. So car felt good there. Obviously, hoping that all translates into race week.

“And we still have the Endurance Cup to still try to win, but the overall driver championship is obviously a big priority for us as well. So having Dan (Harper) join us again as our third will be will be nice. We had a good result in Daytona with him there, so hopefully we can bookend the season and try to end with a win. And hopefully, that's enough for the title.”

The Corvette team has been involved in some “close racing”, a euphemism for on-track contact, with rival teams from BMW and Ford in recent seasons. With not only driver’s titles on the line, but also championships for manufacturers in GTD PRO, Milner acknowledges the “close racing”, with some exceptions, has been fair.

“Yeah, I think it just sort of is a reflection of how close and competitive the racing has been in in GTD PRO for many years now. We have lots of very strong teams and drivers, and it seems like that pool just gets bigger and bigger every year. And you know everybody is trying their absolute best to to have success, and those things happen sometimes.

“I would say there's some exceptions to this, but the racing's been pretty fair, of course. Obviously that's been a topic of conversation just in general for the broader broader scope of IMSA as well as the driving standards seems to kind of all come to a head at Elkhart Lake every year, but yeah, it's something that's carried over from VIR and then Indy, Race control is watching those things very closely and not taking a very kind view on some of that racing. So, as drivers, we have to be very careful about how we race.

“Certainly, being an endurance race, 10 hours, it doesn't make sense to be crazy aggressive at the start. But, as the race goes on, the tensions rise a bit, of course, and hopefully we have some good, close racing. I think for teams and drivers, you don't like to see races decided, let's say, off the track. You'd rather see see the race play out on the racetrack, and whoever fairly does a better job gets the reward.

“So yeah, there's a renewed amount of scrutiny on driving standards from this year, and like I said, I think that will carry through for for Petit Le Mans, as well. But that doesn't mean that we're not going to have some close battles and some good racing on the racetrack either.”

De Phillippi and the Paul Miller team were a victim of the some of that “close Racing” at the previous round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Yeah, obviously, when you're leading the points, and it's been a tight margin for most of the season, Road America was a big points (loss) for us when we had a technical issue and ended up putting in the wall.

“But yeah, we knew going into Indy that it was already going to go down to Petit. No one's going to lock it up on that weekend. So we knew as the points leader, everyone was going to race hard as expected. All of us are factory drivers, and we're there to win races for our manufacturers. So I think everyone knows that we're all going to race at a tough level, but also know that, as Tommy's mentioned, you know everyone up in the tower and Beau (Barfield, IMSA Race Director) and everybody that's contributing to those decisions have a fresh set of eyes on everything, especially the last few races of the year. I think it's a balance of allowing us to race, but also allowing the racing to be fair.

“Obviously, Indy, yeah, I would say we got a little bit of the short end of the stick in terms of just-I wouldn't say unfair moves, but just having a damaged car obviously compromised our performance a bit which affected our end result. That's not what you want when your when your car is maybe a bit wounded. But that's part of racing. It's part of IMSA racing. That's what makes IMSA racing exciting.

“So, going into Atlanta, we don't necessarily have the target on our back anymore. Hopefully, that will change a bit of the dynamic, and we're just going to go out there and go around in circles for eight hours and just be there the last couple hours. That's when all the action usually happens. You have to survive until that point. So we just need to be smart, keep doing what we've been doing.

“We've been consistent in terms of our process from practice through qualifying into the race. So we just need to keep doing that. And as I mentioned, just go out there and try to win the race. And if that's enough, great. If it's not, then that's how the story was written.”

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.

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