On Monday, JDC-Miller MotorSports announced that GAINSCO Auto Insurance will serve as the primary sponsor of what was the No. 85 ORECA 07-Gibson shared by Mikhail Goikhberg, Chris Miller and Stephen Simpson in 2018. As a result of the move, the car’s number will change to No. 99, signaling the return of the “Red Dragon” to IMSA.
Former GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing owner Bob Stallings is thrilled to return to IMSA with JDC-Miller MotorSports.
“We had many opportunities to continue our quest for championships and JDC-Miller MotorSports was an easy pick,” Stallings stated. “John Church and John Miller have established themselves as a team to be reckoned with, even against the formidable competition in IMSA.
“After getting to know them both and seeing the success they have had in a short period of time and especially after watching their performance in the [Canadian Tire Motorsports Park] race last season, I knew we had found the right match,” Stallings continued. “JDC-Miller [MotorSports] has the resources, drivers, engineering experience and desire to win that I was looking for. JDC-Miller Motorsports reminds me a lot of the early days of GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing, and I am looking forward to rallying the support of our combined fan-base behind JDC-Miller Motorsports and The No. 99 Red Dragon!”
The move keeps GAINSCO Auto Insurance involved in sports car racing. Last month, GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing announced that they would transition away from team ownership in order to focus on corporate sponsorship. The announcement ended a run for what was one of the strongest teams in the former Grand-AM Rolex Sports Car Series (the team’s Chevrolet Corvette DP is pictured above). Most recently, the team ran a Porsche 911 GT3 R in Pirelli World Challenge for Jon Fogarty.
After the ALMS/Grand-AM merger, the team planned to continue on full-time in the then-TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. However, the first race of the merged series saw the team’s Chevrolet Corvette DP destroyed when Memo Gidley (blocked out by another car and the sun) ran into the back of Matteo Malucelli‘s near-stationary Ferrari at full sped. The results were disastrous as Gidley suffered 12 separate fractures. He has only recently returned to racing.
After the crash, the GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing team took a break from racing, sitting out the rest of the 2014 season. Eventually, the team returned in Pirelli World Challenge in the GTS class. In 2016, they moved up to the GT class with a McLaren 650S GT3, then switched to the aforementioned Porsche.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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