Dion von Moltke Finishes Successful GTD Championship

Monday night, sports car racer Dion von Moltke capped off a successful 2015 race season at the TUDOR United SportsCar Night of Champions Celebration at the Georgia Aquarium.

The 2015 season marked von Moltke's best to date, finishing 3rd in the GT Daytona class with co-driver Christopher Haase and team Paul Miller Racing. Von Moltke also not only earned his first career pole position at the Detroit Grand Prix, but followed up with three more at Lime Rock Park, VIRginia International Raceway and Circuit of the Americas. The accomplishment bestowed von Moltke the award for most pole positions earned in the GTD class in the 2015 championship season.

"It was pretty weird going back to a starting driver role, and focusing more on qualifying," said von Moltke. "It had been a long time since I did this so it took me a little while to find the flow, but once we got it we really hit the ground running. Every qualifying session, our engineer Dave gave me a fantastic car. It is really difficult to get a pole position at any level, so to finally break through and back that up three more times was something very special!"

The duo placed in the top five for seven out of ten races, four of which were podium results. In the first half of the season, von Moltke's first with Paul Miller Racing, the #48 Audi R8 LMS never finished outside the top five, earning podium finishes at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Detroit, and the 6 Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen International. The team almost saw its first win of the season at Lime Rock Park, but was taken out of the race by another competitor after leading a majority of the event. The team rebounded with a first place qualifying position and a 5th place finish at VIRginia International Raceway and a 3rd place finish at Circuit of the Americas, their final podium of the season.

Approaching the season finale at Petit Le Mans in Braselton, Georgia, von Motlke and Haase sat 2nd in the championship, just one point away from the points leaders. In the middle of a three-way battle for the GTD Championship title, every gained position counted for the Audi drivers in the final race of the year.

The season ended in soggy fashion at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, where torrential rain ended the 10 hour endurance event three hours early. After racing in the top five all race long, the team cycled to 10th position shortly before the race ended. Although disappointed with the result, the majority of drivers, including von Moltke, were pleased to no longer be racing in unsafe conditions.

"It just wasn't a great show, and was out of our control," said von Moltke. "We had some great Continental Tire rain tires, but it was just too much rain for us to really race here. As soon as the hard rains hit, we just didn't have the car we needed, and had really bad aquaplaning. Those were not raceable conditions."

Despite the disappointing season finale, von Moltke still felt pride in a season well done.

"It has been fantastic to work for such a top class organization as Paul Miller Racing is," von Moltke said. "They really have one focus and that is on performance, and they don't cut any corners in their quest to become the best team in the paddock. This gives a driver that little bit extra motivation to fight hard on and off the track to really maximize themselves, so together we all made a great team. Christopher was really the perfect teammate to have, we liked the same things in the car and we get along really well out of the car as well. His influence within the team was a major reason to our success this year! I had a lot of fun working with all the guys at Paul Miller Racing and of course my teammates throughout the year with Christopher Haase, Bryce Miller, and Rene Rast I owe all of them a very big thank you!"

The young racer's highlight of the year was at Lime Rock Park, when he won his second pole position of the year. On the day he clinched the top qualifying position by 0.009 seconds, the von Moltke family was notified that Dion's dad had been officially declared cancer free.

As with most race car drivers in the off season, the 2016 season remains unclear for von Moltke.

"At this point I am in the typical offseason for a driver as I have absolutely no clue what I will be doing next year," said von Moltke. "I really hope to be back and fight for the now WeatherTech Championship next year. I firmly believe this is the best series in the U.S. for sportscars right now, and I know drivers from all over the world would like to be racing here."

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