The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) was in Wisconsin this past weekend at the beautiful and fast Road America circuit, which is also known as the “National Park of Speed.” It was the first IWSC sprint race of the season lasting 2 hours and 45 minutes with all the classes in the series racing together. It led to plenty of action and accidents, including a big one from one of the BMW M Team RLL GTP cars. Turner Motorsport kept it clean and won the GTD class, and Paul Miller Racing finished on the podium in GTD Pro.
Turner Motorsport had been knocking on the door of a race win all year. They finished in the top five in four other races earlier this year, including second place finishes at Long Beach and Laguna Seca. They were fast from the get-go at Road America, and Patrick Gallagher put in a strong lap in qualifying to put the #96 M4 GT3 (shown above) in fourth on the grid, less than four-tenths behind the pole-sitting Mercedes.
The team survived some of the chaos that went on in the GTD class and stayed out of the way of other accidents while keeping within reach of the leaders, putting themselves in a position to win at the end. The key moment came when the #12 Lexus that was leading had to pit for fuel with three minutes to go. That put Robby Foley into the lead in the #96, and he held that lead despite pressure from the #70 McLaren that ended up in second.
Robby Foley (left) and Patrick Gallagher celebrate their win.
The Road America win was the first for Turner Motorsport in the GTD class since the Mid-Ohio race in 2022, and Gallagher’s first win in the series. “It means a ton,” said Gallagher after the race. “I couldn’t have done it without the guys and girls at Turner and Robby helping me along. I won some races in Michelin Pilot Challenge, but these races are hard to win. We’ve had things not go our way, but today went our way. I’m really happy for the guys who work on the car. To get a win for them is huge.”
The Paul Miller Racing team also found success in the GTD Pro class in what has been a very challenging season for them so far. Madison Snow qualified the #1 M4 GT3 in seventh in GTD Pro, and the race was up and down for the team. They fell to as low as ninth but had the car into fifth by the time Bryan Sellers took over from Snow. Sellers stayed out of trouble and ran a clean stint to move up into second by the end, but he wasn’t able to catch the #35 Ferrari. The second place was a great result for the team, who is accustomed to winning but hadn’t been on the podium since the opening round at Daytona. “I think what really it for us did, for the Paul Miller team, was fighting the entire race,” said Snow. “We had a little bit of up-and-down through the race, and with not knowing where exactly we would finish with how strategies played out. But the team stayed in it the entire time and really fought for it the entire time.”
Paul Miller Racing finished second in the GTD Pro class.
In the GTP class, Road America was another race to forget for BMW M Team RLL. Jesse Krohn wrecked the #24 M Hybrid V8 in practice and there was significant damage to the car, enough that they didn’t get it put together in time for qualifying. It was an all-too-familiar scene after the same thing happened at the last GTP race weekend at Watkins Glen, though it was Connor De Phillippi that wrecked there and missed qualifying.
The #24 M Hybrid V8 of Jesse Krohn and Phillipp Eng finished seventh.
The RLL crew put in a lot of work to get the #24 fixed in time for the race, but they had to start from the back. Connor De Phillippi, who was second fastest in the first practice session and fastest in the second, could only qualify sixth in the #25 car, about eight-tenths off the pole of the #10 Acura. De Phillippi and co-driver Nick Yelloly were more competitive in the race, but Yelloly went off while pushing too hard and hit the wall, doing serious damage to the car and taking them out of the race. The #24 went on to finish the race in seventh out of ten entries in the class, as the win went to the #6 Porsche 963.
The BMW M Team RLL #25 car had a DNF after Yelloly hit the wall.
Next up for the GTD and GTD Pro classes is the Michelin GT Challenge race at VIR on August 23rd-25th. All the classes will be back together for the six-hour “Battle on the Bricks” race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 19th-22nd. -David Haueter
[Photos courtesy LAT Images, Paul Miller Racing]
Tags: road america