Farnbacher Loles' Bryce Miller Wins INDY GT3 Cup

Dated: June 3, 2007

ImageThe historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the setting for the season’s most dominant victory in the 2007 IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge. In the weekend’s second GT3 Cup race, which was run prior to the Formula One US Grand Prix, Bryce Miller led every lap to record his first victory at INDY. Miller made a daring pass in his Marquis Jet/IPC/Paul Miller Porsche 997 GT3 Cup on the first turn from third place to take the lead and charge to a decisive 17.3 second victory. The victory was a nice gift for Bryce’s father, Paul Miller who was on hand to witness the race on a warm Father’s Day and gave the team a fantastic finish to a challenging weekend.

This year marked the first ever running for the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge at INDY. The series was brought in to replace Porsche SuperCup as the support series for Formula One’s US Grand Prix. In addition to Bryce, the Farnbacher Loles’ entrants included Tom Pank in his Baysaver Porsche, Dino Loles in the Makes and Models Magazine/Children’s Tumor Foundation Porsche and Lance Willsey in the PreGen-Plus Porsche. Pank was the only team driver with experience at the track as he competed in the 2006 SuperCup race. With only one short practice session prior to Friday’s qualifying, the drivers and crew did not have much time to get the cars dialed in before Saturday’s first race. The qualifying results for the first race left the team out of the top five for the first time. Tom Pank led the way by qualifying in ninth, followed by Dino in 11th and Lance in 26th. Miller set the 13th fastest time but was forced to start from the back of the field after changing his tires due to flat-spotting them in the session. In Saturday’s race, Tom and Dino battled near the front and each picked up a spot. Pank set the race’s second fastest lap on way to an 8th place finish while Dino was also one of the fastest and ended his day in 10th. Miller drove a great race and blasted his way from 36th to 7th in the 30-minute race. Willsey ran consistent throughout and finished in 27th.


For Sunday’s race, the team faired much better in qualifying. Tom Pank nailed down a front row starting spot by posting the second fastest time. Tom was followed closely by Bryce in third and Dino who took the sixth spot on the grid. Lance Willsey also improved, moving up to the 22nd starting spot. As the race unfolded, Bryce made his move to the front and began to pull away. Behind him, the top runners battled for position. Dino was moving up and looking to take a podium spot when his Porsche was hit from behind on lap seven and punted off the track ending his day. It was a disappointing finish to the weekend for the 2006 IMSA GT3 Cup 996 Class Champion. Tom was running strong as well in third when, with only four laps to go, a spin left him stuck in the gravel and out of the running. As the checkered flag waved, the team cheered Bryce’s impressive win as they began planning for the next round.