IMSA MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 3, 2026

Mattia Drudi

Valentin Hasse-Clot

Marco Sørensen

Neil Verhagen

Connor De Phillippi

Dan Harper

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our GTD Pro winners.

Mattia, to you, tell us what it means to score this team's first win? Looks like a perfect record for podium finishes for you so far here in limited action.

MATTIA DRUDI: It's amazing. It's my first start here in Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta. I have to thank firstly the team to give me this chance because it's not easy to take a rookie driver for such an important race.

Yeah, I mean, we did an amazing job. The team, we've been really consistent since Thursday. Everybody on the team did an amazing job. It's really important for them. They came close to the podium with a fourth place. Now getting the first win in such an important one, it's amazing.

It's been a tight race really. Typical IMSA race. Really uncertain till the last lap basically. But yeah, it's amazing. I want to thank again everybody in the team.

THE MODERATOR: Valentin, you've worked so hard getting this team together. I think the way that this team has pretty much been at or near the front especially the last half of the season here, what does it mean to bring home a win here?

VALENTIN HASSE-CLOT: It's a lot of emotion for all of us at Car Blanche. For sure it's been a lot of hard work in the background for the past six months. Not only was a crazy idea, but then you need to put the work in to make it work, of course.

I have to thank Marco and Mattia. Not too big of a risk to take this rookie, I would say (smiling). Yeah, the car was fantastic today. Yeah, I have to thank everyone in the team for this one. It brings, again, a lot of energy for next year and a lot of energy in the team.

THE MODERATOR: Marco, obviously you've won here before, but it's been a while. What is it like to win with these guys?

MARCO SØRENSEN: Yeah, it's amazing. Obviously came in for Virginia, that was, let's say, the start of the whole -- not the whole team, but kind of the start the whole project, let's say. We already got a little bit close to a few podiums already. To get the job done here was obviously completely a bit unexpected, and it feels good. Say it like that.

I think we did everything that we could today. Obviously you can never make a perfect strategy here in this IMSA championship with all the yellows out there.

I think with what we did today, we can be happy. We adapted to the different situations out there on the track. Suddenly we found ourselves in the good position in the last two hours.

So yeah, just happy for everyone in the team.

THE MODERATOR: Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, and Dan Harper.

Neil, congratulations. What does it mean to be a WeatherTech Championship champion, and what did it take to get here today?

NEIL VERHAGEN: It sounds surreal. My first season was endurance only. Was able to win the Endurance Cup in my first season, which was special. Last year moving to a two-car team. The car did a 1-2 in the Endurance Cup. We knew where we were struggling was a little bit on the sprint races. We knew the endurances was a strong point for us.

To go this year and win Daytona, win the Endurance Cup and then the championship is just incredibly special. Second full year of IMSA for myself. First year sharing the car fully with Connor. I grew up in the junior team at BMW and was able to win Daytona with them at the beginning of year.

Really cool points for me. Going to be a season which I never forget. My most successful season in motorsport ever. I think there's no words other than to say it was an absolutely amazing season. Thank you to BMW Motorsports, Paul Miller Racing, these two legends, and Max Hesse for all the work this year.

THE MODERATOR: Connor, what does it mean to you?

CONNOR DE PHILLIPPI: I haven't been able to wrap my head around it. A lot of character-building years in IMSA. Been part of multiple programs with BMW now. Some easier than others.

When I had the chance to join Paul Miller Racing for the full season, I knew it was a huge opportunity to try to win the championship.

When we won Daytona, we started off strong. At Daytona, there's always the most amount of entries there. Starting off with a strong Daytona is huge for the overall title.

We went race by race, maximized what we had each given weekend. Made the least amount of mistakes between everyone in the field. Team-wise we made the least amount of mistakes. More often than not we didn't have the fastest car on a given weekend, but a car we could be competitive with. If we played our cards right, we could play for a podium.

When there was more to grab, we took it. So proud of everyone at Paul Miller Racing. Neil did a hell of a job all year. Coming into the season we all agreed to have our own jobs, and we all would focus really hard on those jobs well.

Neil was great all season in qualifying. The team put a huge emphasis in that. When you see the championship come down to a handful of points across multiple scenarios, all those start to add up.

I think everyone kind of caught up to that a little bit too late. Maybe next year we don't have that advantage.

Yeah, I'm so proud of how everyone executed all season. We're going to have a nice party tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Dan, wrapping up a championship season. Tell us your thoughts on that.

DAN HARPER: Yeah, very special. Starting the year off with winning Daytona was already nearly the icing on the cake for 2026. It was only in January. Yeah, I mean, I was looking forward to joining these guys again since then, to be honest. Max took over in Sebring. It was going to be my role here this weekend.

To be fair, I done my best to mess it up early on in my first stint. I'll apologize first to these boys for that. Probably giving them a heart attack.

Yeah, very proud of these guys. They deserve it more than anyone. Yeah, I mean, the whole team, they have done a fantastic job all year. Well done to them.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go to questions.

Q. Neil, could you speak to the significance of this win, knowing the murky future that Paul Miller Racing has faced for a couple months?

NEIL VERHAGEN: Yeah, I mean, I think regardless of what the rumors are, they're just rumors. It meant more than anything to the boys this year. As I said before, we were able to win the Endurance Cup two years ago. Last year we were able to do 1-2 in the Endurance Cup.

This year the goal was clear: It was to go and bring home the team a Rolex in the 24 Hours, to go and win the championship.

Yeah, as Connor said, I think we executed the best over the entire season in terms of making the least amount of mistakes, putting ourselves in the position to always capitalize on what we had.

You can see what it means to everybody, the emotion, the celebration, the tears. For me as well, too, Connor as well, first championship for both of us. It means so much.

To do it with a group of guys like we have at Paul Miller Racing is very special. They all work so incredibly hard. Even when I look back at Detroit, I had the crash in free practice two, they got the car back together, we were able to qualify fifth, with the fastest lap taken away, go to sixth. We were able to recover and make a fourth place out of a weekend where maybe the car wouldn't have been put together in time.

I think it's that perseverance over the entire season. Everyone had each other's backs the entire way through. I think that's what is in our blood and has really made us champions this year.

Q. Mattia, you talked about sort of being the rookie on the team, yet you found yourself qualifying the car, then in the car in the last crucial hour or two of the race. Talk about how that worked for you. Also, the car, you were never in the lead of the race until it mattered. Was that the strategy, not to worry about being in the lead until it mattered?

MATTIA DRUDI: Yeah, I mean, it was not easy to find myself here. I had to learn the track on Thursday. The team gave me more than enough laps to get used to everything.

Yeah, I mean, I'm a rookie here, but luckily the car really well. I'm racing a lot these years with Aston Martin racing all around the world luckily.

I really like the track. It's a fast track, not easy. Challenging as well. Going into qualifying was a bit of a question mark.

I just tried to use everything I knew from the car, tried to maximize everything. I mean, already on Thursday, to be fair, we saw that we had a decent pace, both on new tires and race pace as well. Wasn't easy. Drive qualifying, found myself in the car for the last two hours, where everything is a bit more hectic, let's say, where before it's just surviving and trying to stay out of trouble.

Yeah, for sure was not the strategy to wait being up there for just the last 20 minutes. We been lucky with the yellow that came out right after I jumped in the car. So we jumped many, many cars there. I think we were on second at that time.

Yeah, I mean, was just saving-energy game. I was waiting, something happening at the front because I was behind two Porsches and a Lexus. Something happened because I think Preining went off in the last chicane. I just went through. I found myself leading.

We knew we were really tight on energy, so the tire was just saving as much as we could, while trying to keep the lead. It is not super easy.

Yeah, to be fair, we were really, really tight. The last lap of the race would have been also our last lap on energy. We didn't have anything more than that. It was really important to save in the last 20 minutes. Likely the GTPs went through.

But yeah, I mean, I really enjoyed the race. IMSA, my only IMSA experience is Daytona. I already saw there the last two hours is quite a big fight. Was the same here. First time in GTP Pro, probably even more exciting probably. I really enjoyed everything.

Q. Connor, a lot of penalties, a lot of chaos. Can you recall any race that has been this chaotic?

CONNOR DE PHILLIPPI: IMSA-wise it's definitely up there. I've been part of quite a few. Daytona, my first win in 2019 did, a red flag, water, aquaplaning, that was hectic.

To survive like we did this afternoon and this evening with contact and strategy, this guy having to wheel the thing on slicks in the rain, when they asked him do you want rain tires when it was raining, he said, No, the slicks fine.

I'm like, Man, this guy is crazy, but let's do it.

It was the right call. It dried up as we went back green. 100% the right call. Just goes to show when you have the right people around you, are confident in what they do, the right decisions get made.

Q. The way the race started off, mixed conditions, the red flag, he's on slicks, what is the anxiety buildup for you whenever you're sitting here watching this thing?

CONNOR DE PHILLIPPI: Watching is always the most anxious you get during the race. Yeah, it's always easier when you're behind the wheel.

Honestly, I was pretty relaxed the last 15, 20 minutes when I had my calculator out trying to figure out points situation. That was probably the most anxious I was. I was triple checking my math. Never did that. You have it right, let's do it again (smiling).

The guys were running numbers on strategy. The least thing I could do is double-check math, the points scenario.

It was hectic. Just one of the greatest moments of my career, for sure. I was telling these guys earlier, I woke up this morning to a memory. It was almost 10 years to the exact day when I won the GT Masters championship with Lindsay back in 2016. It seemed very fitting. When I saw it this morning, I was like, Maybe that's a good omen.

Here we are, we closed off the year with how we wanted.

Q. Talking about the points. It went back and forth obviously all night long. Unfortunately for the No. 4 Corvette, they got punted off. Pretty well sealed the deal for you. You still had to finish the race. Can you talk about the last segment of the race when the Corvette was pretty much out of it.

CONNOR DE PHILLIPPI: I just go back to Indy when Connor got punted by the Ford. Almost a copy-paste scenario.

I feel like the last couple of rounds, being the championship leader, we were the ones having to be a little bit more cautious. People were taking advantage of that, laying bumpers on it, driving us pretty rough.

Finally being the hunters today, we knew we had nothing to lose. Finally a little bit of luck fell our way. For sure that's not a way that we want to end the championship. We want to be able to race it on track. Very good friends with Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner off the track. At the end of the day, I feel if you look at our last four or five races, how everyone raced us, we were finally able to get the lucky side of that today.

After that, it was pretty clear, stay ahead of the Lambo and win the championship.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, we'll let you get your celebration restarted. Congratulations.