Paul Miller Racing, the GT Daytona class winner in January’s Rolex 24, will not run next month’s IMSA WeatherTech Championship races at Daytona International Speedway and Sebring International Raceway.
Team owner Paul Miller first confirmed the news to SportsCar365.com.
Miller cited economic issues related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, particularly among his group of car dealerships in New Jersey.
“A high percentage of our employees are still on furlough here in New Jersey, and obviously I like to have everybody back before I consider a direction for our little racing program,” he told SportsCar365. “That’s kind of the big-picture view of it. To go racing and not have our staff all recovered and pulled back and working, it would be a real slap in the face to a lot of our employees.”
Earlier today, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) lifted his state’s stay-at-home order, which should help Miller in bringing back personnel.
Miller also confirmed his Georgia-based PMR team was furloughed, too. However, he hopes to return to action later in the season.
“It’s possible we’re going to be race-to-race after July and hoping we can move forward with the race effort,” he told SC365.
Paul Miller Racing fields the No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO with full-season drivers Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow.
Sellers and Snow, plus Corey Lewis and Andrea Caldarelli, gave the team its first Rolex 24 win in January. The quartet turned in a near-flawless drive to give Lamborghini its third consecutive GTD victory in the event.
But any chance to keep momentum was dashed when the 2020 season was put on hold in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, IMSA released a revised schedule with Daytona leading off again on July 4 and followed by Sebring on July 18.
IMSA’s fourth race of the season is scheduled at Road America on Aug. 2.