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Snow, Foley Have Significantly Progressed in Their Careers
May 14, 2025
By Tony DiZinno
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For the better part of five-plus years at Turner Motorsport, Robby Foley learned from IMSA’s winningest all-time driver, Bill Auberlen. And for nearly a decade, Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers served as Paul Miller Racing’s inseparable pairing separated only by a notable height gap.
Now, two of the longest serving “second drivers” have since ascended to de facto “lead roles” in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, spearheading their respective BMW M4 GT3 EVO entries in IMSA’s two GT classes.
Snow, 29, and Foley, 28, have been part of the IMSA fabric for years but haven’t been recognized fully among the leading GT drivers of their generation, even as they’ve quietly accumulated accolades. Both are now BMW M Motorsport works drivers, the culmination of years of development and preparation.
Snow Starring in a Post-Sellers Situation
The co-driver of the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO with new full-season co-driver Neil Verhagen, Snow is a two-time champion in the WeatherTech Championship, sharing his 2018 and 2023 Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class titles with Sellers. He’s a 15-time winner in over 100 IMSA starts dating to 2013.
After a year away in 2019, and with Paul Miller Racing only running a partial 2020 season, the team returned in full for 2021 for its ultimately final season with Lamborghini and then shifted to run the new BMW M4 GT3 in 2022. The team won the first race for the new car at Long Beach, with Snow’s qualifying integral to their success.
PMR’s evolution has paralleled Snow’s to a degree. From the second driver in a one-car GTD program, Snow is now the most experienced driver and lone returning full-season driver as part of its expanded two-car Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) lineup. The team’s second car, the No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO driven by Dan Harper and Max Hesse, sees those two embark on their first full season. The team is in its second year in GTD PRO after advancing in 2024.
Quite how Snow has progressed is interesting, and in a way, like his fellow American counterpart Foley.
“I’ve had Bryan (Sellers) for a number of years mentoring me,” Snow said. “That’s been great, and I’ve been in the starting driver role and he was the finishing driver.
“But then now you look at it and now I think in the pro class, there isn’t really a ‘starting’ driver or ‘finishing’ driver. A lot of the time you switch it up depending on who you think it can be better at that track or at that situation or depending on how you’re going to play strategy that race.”
Snow was quick to hail Verhagen’s accolades, too. The Charlotte native was part of PMR’s GTD PRO title in the 2024 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup and now he expands to racing his first full IMSA campaign.
“Neil got the seat at Paul Miller for a reason; he’s more than good. I’ll be learning from him now, too,” Snow explained. “I hope I get to finish a couple of races. We haven’t laid out who will start or finish every race yet. It’s new for all of us.”
Foley Mixing It Up with the Big Boys
Foley’s got eight wins as he nears 80 WeatherTech Championship career starts since 2018, all with Turner Motorsport.
Turner shifted its lineup from the Auberlen/Foley pairing after 2022 to the current Foley and Patrick Gallagher duo in 2023 aboard its No. 96 BMW M4 GT3, while adding a second car that year only for Auberlen and Chandler Hull. Foley has also regularly raced with Turner’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) program, running either or sometimes both of its GT4-spec M4s and sharing the 2023 GS title with Vin Barletta.
“It’s been an interesting process for sure and in some ways a little bit weird,” Foley reflected. “I came in as the young guy with very, very little experience. I had the great privilege to drive with Bill Auberlen for five years, who’s obviously been an IMSA legend and has so many wins, so many historic races driven and achievements which are obviously very impressive.”
That duality has helped Foley become both a driver and a Swiss army knife within the organization, where he shifted from student to teacher across multiple Turner programs, filling multiple roles beyond driving.
“Just being a sponge from him was a big part of what brought me here today,” he said. “Then kind of overnight in a way, it felt like I became the more experienced driver with helping out Patrick and my other young teammates like Jake Walker. It’s a fun process just to really teach everyone the little things.
“We’ve been lucky within Turner to have so many talented drivers. From my perspective, I’m just trying to teach them, what they don’t know. Coming into a competitive series like IMSA, you don’t know what you don’t know, and little things really matter whether that’s saving fuel or now we call it energy, tire management, all little stuff that you can’t really wrap your head around until you can do it.
“I think that’s where someone with more veteran experience comes in. So, it’s been a fun process for sure. I’m definitely grateful to have had those five or so years of Bill to learn off of him and yeah, try to just keep that going with the young drivers we have now within the team.”
Team owner Turner added what it’s meant to have Foley become a new bedrock of the program as an additional strategist, coach and engineer.
“When I first met him, I knew he was a talented driver,” Turner explained. “Knowing him for a bit, he went to school for engineering skills. He has amazing coaching skills. He’s a super smart, talented guy. He keeps surprising me with some of his skills that he has. It really helps the team out. It allows me to hand off some responsibilities, and it’s a driver/coach/engineer rolled into one.
“You don’t get that often. Not every engineer has been a driver. That’s a huge benefit to the other people on the team. He knows what he’s talking about. Him being part of the BMW family, a big part of every Turner program now, it’ll be cool to see him on the box calling other stuff.”
The pair of BMW drivers will continue to seek success throughout the rest of the season. Snow’s next start comes in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit on Saturday, May 31, 3:30 p.m. ET on Peacock. Foley’s next WeatherTech Championship start is at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, Sunday, June 22 at noon ET on NBC. Both races stream on Peacock and globally via the official IMSA YouTube channel.
