Mixing a combination of pace, strategy and patience, Paul Miller Racing Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS drivers Bryce Miller and Christopher Haase both survived and succeeded in the Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) on Sunday in their continued pursuit of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) title.
“I’m really proud of the team,” Bryce Miller said. “Christopher drove an awesome race carving through the field. He got us the results we wanted and needed. There was a risk on our fuel strategy but the yellow came out and it paid off. It reopened the window letting us fight at the end to get fourth place.”
Following a difficult qualifying session that gridded the No. 48 Audi back in 13th position, starting driver Miller knew that the constant turns and flowing nature of the scenic VIR circuit would make for a challenging event. As the race began, Miller pushed hard during his opening laps, gaining several positions in the process and avoiding a few close moments with other competitors making mistakes around him.
Top preparation by the Paul Miller Racing team made the No. 48 quick in some areas of the circuit but the Audi R8 LMS ranks in total struggled to pass on the straights within the current rules structure.
“It has been really tough for us,” Bryce Miller said. “We can find a lap or two somewhere but he data shows those laps are not repeatable in the way our competitors are able to repeat those times. We have a good recipe with what we’re doing, delivering a good race car and just delivering good consistent lapping so we can be there in the end.”
Miller pitted during an opportune caution period just at the one-hour mark and Haase took over to begin the first of his two stints that would take the car to the finish. The quick German driver immediately made work of the field in front of him, engaging in several battles without ever putting a foot wrong.
A key strategy call came during a caution period one hour and 10 minutes from the finish. The yellow made it the ideal time to pit but running the race’s final 70 minutes on a single tank of fuel was going to be a stretch. Throwing caution to the win, the Paul Miller Racing team elected to pit, giving Haase what they’d hoped would be his last service. As the stops unfolded, the team left the pits in sixth, with fuel strategy being key for Paul Miller Racing and the other leaders.
Haase advanced to fifth while also conserving fuel but a late caution period less than 15 minutes from the finish took away the need to save fuel. Instead, Haase was in the thick of the GTD lead pack of cars as the race went green for a three-lap dash to the end. Haase made the most of it and picked off another position to take the checkered flag in fourth place.
“We didn’t expect this finish,” Haase said. “We had a difficult weekend. We were really struggling by ourselves in practice and qualifying, and throughout the race we tried to focus on what we did have in the car and made the best out of it. At the end we stayed out of trouble, which was our main goal. We gained points and stayed close to the front. We are definitely happy but it was tough.”
It was the fourth top-five for the team in their 2014 campaign, and more importantly, narrowed the gap to the GTD championship leaders with just two rounds remaining.
Miller, Haase and the No. 48 team currently have 233 points and are just 11 points out of first place in both the GTD driver and team championships. Miller and Haase rank second behind a four-way tie of drivers from three different teams that are currently locked in the lead with 244 points in the driver standings. The No. 48 is fourth in the team standings but trails the leader in that championship by the same 11 point margin as the drivers.
“It’s really exciting the championship is so close now,” Bryce Miller said. “It’s a little nerve racking how we start because we’re back around a lot of cars who have nothing to lose and everything to risk for one single race weekend. We need to keep our car clean to have a good clean race like we did today. We just need to keep doing this. The points are really close now so we just need to focus on finishing contact free and delivering a car we can fight with in the end.”
Next up for Paul Miller Racing and the IMSA TUDOR Championship is the penultimate round of the series at Circuit of The Americas in Texas. The event is part of a Saturday doubleheader that also features a round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) after the IMSA TUDOR Championship race on Saturday, September 20. The IMSA TUDOR race is scheduled to start at 11:35 a.m. CDT and can be seen in same-day coverage on FOX Sports 1 at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT.