DXDT Racing’s Tommy Milner and Alec Udell drove their way to another Pro-class sweep with the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in GT World Challenge America, including an overall victory at Virginia International Raceway.
Milner and Udell were overall victors in Saturday’s first 90-minute race and were second overall Sunday to cap another stellar weekend for the Pro-class Z06 GT3.R.
The VIR weekend was doubly sweet for DXDT Racing as Bryan Sellers and Scott Smithson recorded their first Pro-Am podium finish in the team’s No. 08 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and second of the season. The duo finished third in class Sunday to match their best result as a pairing.
The team spent the two days of testing and practice before Saturday morning’s qualifying exploring different setup options to find the optimal configuration for its two Corvettes, and that paid off with the Pro-class pole positions for Udell in Race One and Milner in Race Two.
Just as it did at COTA, the DXDT team executed perfectly in Saturday’s race with the third straight win for the No. 63 Corvette. Three full-course caution periods in the opening 35 minutes kept the field packed tight before Udell pitted from second in class and third overall with 49 minutes to go. Milner held the position once he got on track, and the team was rewarded for its pit strategy when a fourth full-course yellow bunched up the field again with the top two cars having yet to pit.
Milner inherited the lead with 40 minutes to go and led the rest of the way despite two restarts, including one with 10 minutes to go.
Sunday, Milner led from the outset until the race’s only full-course caution with 50 minutes to go. Udell rejoined second in the overall order but moved back to the class lead inside the final 20 minutes before finishing second overall.
Meanwhile, Sellers led Pro-Am early – the first time this season for the No. 08 Z06 GT3.R – and handed off to Smithson during the full-course yellow, as well. Smithson entered the race second in class and held off the fourth-place BMW for the better part of a half-hour to earn the podium finish.
DXDT Racing’s next event with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R in GT World Challenge is August 16-18 at Road America.
DXDT RACING POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 63 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "The team is working very well. All the guys at DXDT have a lot of experience. They've been working really hard the last couple of years to put this kind of program together. It's cool for me to be a part of it and help them get over the hump. This shows what this team is capable of. It shows what this car is capable of. Alec is doing a fantastic job, as well. We're hitting on all cylinders right now. Everything is working really well right now, so we'll ride this for as long as we can."
“Nothing feels like home than VIR in a Corvette. So it was a lot of fun this weekend with DXDT and the Corvette. The car wasn’t the best to start with, and we spent a lot of time with the engineers and finally sort of hit it in Race One. No changes for Race Two, and the car felt the same. Great qualifying from Alec, and a pole for me was also a great place to start from. It was a little racey at the start of Race Two with the Porsche but was able to stay out front. Alec had a little bit more of an exciting race than I did but still did an amazing job all weekend. We both had to work harder Sunday, but the car was great and the team did a fantastic job with all the right strategy calls. I’m super-happy. Going four-for-four is pretty special. The goal is to keep that rolling as long as we can. We might have a little harder time at Road America, but you never know. We’ll do our best to get two more wins.”
ALEC UDELL, NO. 63 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "We made steady progress throughout the weekend. That was really nice to see… that every time we made a change, the car would respond the way we were hoping it would. So we were able to really develop on the balance of the car all the way through the practice sessions and even into qualifying. We were all expecting rain (Saturday) and it never came, so from that perspective it would have been nice to get some running in the rain just to have that experience with the car from my side. I know that it’s going to be a good car in the wet from what I can feel. From an execution standpoint, everything that we did this weekend was great from DXDT, the support from Corvette and Pratt Miller was very helpful. We came in with some good knowledge and we were able to put it in the real world. I’m happy for the success the team has had on the Pro side and the Pro-Am side. It’s cool to see the development there. Each time out, we are gaining more knowledge from a team perspective and from my side. Tommy has a ton of knowledge with this car, and it’s helpful for me to be able to learn from some great drivers like Tommy and Bryan. I’m looking forward to what can come next. It’s special to have those four wins. We will focus on the next point that we can improve on.”
BRYAN SELLERS, NO. 08 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m super-happy with how Sunday went. Scott drove a great race at the end there under a ton of pressure from the Turner BMW. He kept his cool, drove defensively really strong, and it was nice to see him take that step and gain that confidence in that scenario. I’m super-proud of the team today as a whole. When you look at the Corvette program, the sister (Mercedes) program, it was just a strong day. It makes me proud of what we are all building together. I can’t wait to see what comes down the road. I feel like we are really starting to get our heads around the Corvettes and what it takes to be successful with them. I’m excited for the next round at Road America.”
SCOTT SMITHSON, NO. 08 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: It was another great weekend of learning and processing in the No. 08 Corvette. We were kind of looking at the radar prior to this weekend wondering if it was going to be wet or dry, and in the end it stayed dry for the most part, but wet conditions off track made for a tricky Race One for us. In Race Two, though, it turned around for us. Bryan made an awesome start to get up to third and the Pro-Am lead, and then I got in under the yellow and it was basically a street fight from there on out. Philip (Ellis) and Samantha (Tan) made it by, but I was pretty determined to hold on to third. (Justin) Rothberg made it up alongside me on the final lap, but I broke a little later into Turn One, was able to hold on to the position, and now we’re able to celebrate our first podium with Corvette!”
