DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chalk up yet another entry for the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup season.
Gradient Racing today confirmed its plans to compete in the eight-race GT Daytona (GTD) season opening at the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18. The team will field an Acura NSX GT3 and a driver lineup featuring a pair of IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge veterans in Marc Miller and Till Bechtolsheimer.
The drivers’ partnership dates back to the 2017 Michelin Pilot Challenge season in which they finished fourth in the Grand Sport (GS) championship standings.
“It’s great to be back with Marc and the whole Gradient team,” said Bechtolsheimer, who competed in World Challenge last year with the team and Miller as his co-driver. “I feel we learned a lot last year, and so I’m so excited to be back in IMSA to see how we fare in one of the most competitive sports car fields on the planet.”
In addition to World Challenge with Bechtolsheimer, Miller also won the Trans-Am championship last year.
“2019 was a really good year,” Miller said. “I won a Trans-Am title, and Till and I were able to grab a GT3 win and some podiums for Gradient Racing. IMSA, though, has always been our main goal. The level of competition in GTD compares with any championship in the world.”
The Austin, Texas-based Gradient team is hoping the 2020 WeatherTech Sprint Cup season serves as a springboard to an even larger, more extensive program in 2021.
“In 2021, I want to have a competitive effort on the grid at Daytona,” said team manager Andris Laivins. “The only way to get there is to put our heads down and do the work this year.”
The Gradient announcement comes on the heels of two other recently confirmed WeatherTech Sprint Cup programs from Compass Racing and Wright Motorsports.