Christopher Haase and Dion von Moltke co-drove the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS to a sixth-place finish in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America.
Starting driver von Moltke and the team worked the No. 48 into the lead near the end of his race-opening stint while closing-driver Haase ran as high as second.
Competitors in the GT Daytona (GTD) class field employed a variety of fuel and pit-stop strategies. Paul Miller Racing’s plan kept them in the hunt but ultimately did not play out as the majority of the race’s final half was run under green-flag conditions.
“It was a race of different strategies throughout the grid,” von Moltke said. “Last year, there was a lot of yellows toward the end of the race. We made a strategy call with that in mind that didn’t quite go our way, but that’s racing.”
Haase was on fuel conservation mode for the majority of his time in the car in the race’s final hour.
“We had a good race car, a good balanced car from our team, and I think that we got all of the performance out of it we could” Haase said. “At least we tried something with a different strategy, I had to save fuel most of the time in the car to finish, but in total the team did a great job, we had great pit stops.”
Both drivers felt the Road America result was about what could be expected from a race that was a challenge on many levels.
“P6 is as good as we could we can hope for with the package we’ve got and the strategy we followed,” von Moltke said. “It was a tough day for both Chris and I as we both had to save fuel. Overall, it’s a shame that we couldn’t really attack, and even when we did, we were over a second off the pace of the leaders.”
Despite just missing the top five, the team and drivers focused on the positives and near future. Round 8 of the IMSA TUDOR Championship’s GTD schedule is just two weeks away at Virginia International Raceway (VIR).
“We brought the car back in one piece and brought home some points,” von Moltke said. “That’s what we’re looking for with three races to go. Hopefully we can get back to fighting for wins and where this team deserves to be with the effort they put in this weekend and all season. They gave us the best Audi we could get. So thanks to Paul Miller Racing and everyone here. It’s been nice to work with them again for the weekend, and we’ll see where we are at VIR.”
Next up for Paul Miller Racing and the IMSA TUDOR Championship is the Oak Tree Grand Prix at VIR, August 21 – 23.