It’s a P3 starting position for the No. 1 Quartz Engine Oil-backed BMW M4 GT3 machine of Paul Miller Racing as the team chases their third consecutive IMSA win on the streets of Long Beach.
Madison Snow’s lap time of 1:18.383 was just 0.007 of a second off of the P2 starting spot in the red flag-shortened qualifying session but was still enough to line himself and co-driver Bryan Sellers up P3 as they chase the coveted three-peat.
The duo won the Long Beach Grand Prix in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class in 2021 aboard a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO before making the switch to BMW in 2022. Snow and Sellers would win Long Beach again that year in only their second outing with the then-new BMW machinery—leading 135 of the 142 laps run over the two years.
The team already has a win under their belts this year in IMSA competition, notching victory at the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring in March. They enter this third round of the championship, and first sprint round, just one point off the GTD championship lead.
“It’s very hard to be disappointed when you give it your absolute all,” Paul Miller Racing team manager, Mitchell Simmons, said.
“That was absolutely everything we had. Madison did a fantastic job, it was a great lap. The team couldn’t be happier, and I couldn’t be more proud of Madison or the team. We’re looking forward to the race. It will be different not starting up at the very front, but P3 is still a good starting spot, and hopefully, we can still end up in victory lane like we have the last two years.”
Madison Snow
“We ended up P3 here at Long Beach. It’s not as good as we’ve done here in years past, so that’s a little bit of a disappointment. But, then again, starting P3 on a street course still puts you up there and ahead of a lot of cars. It’s definitely a decent spot to start. We know the team is strong here—really good at pit stops—and pit stops and strategy are our best chances to move up. We know we can do this, we can win this, we’ve done it before!”
Source. Paul Miller Racing
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