Hanley Motorsports Incorporated Launches with Multi-Car BMW IMSA Program

Split Effort Spans GTD PRO, GTD and GS; Unites Championship-Winning Personnel

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The quartet of Robert Hanley, David Askew, Bryan Sellers and Mitchell Simmons have all won championships in sports car racing in various guises and under different team names. In 2027, they’ll seek to do so all together in a new unified multi-car, multi-series IMSA program. 

Hanley Motorsports Incorporated (HMI) launches and will join forces with DXDT Racing. It will run two IMSA championships in three different classes, fielding BMW race cars. 

The team is set to run BMW M4 GT3 EVO cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD). Additionally, it’ll field the BMW M4 GT4 EVO in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class. Drivers for all cars will be named at a later date.

HMI has brought on Simmons as Team Principal and Sellers as Competition Director. Askew founded DXDT Racing, a championship-winning sports car outfit where Sellers served as Team Manager for the last two years.

The new HMI team will operate out of the former Paul Miller Racing shop in Buford, Georgia for the 2027 season while their new facility located in Flowery Branch, Georgia is being completed. The team intends to test for the first time before January’s Roar Before the Rolex 24.

Melding of Successful Minds

For Hanley, the full stamp of this team name brings to full fruition a 30-plus year journey across multiple motorsports segments, with an increased presence in the IMSA paddock the last couple years.

A dirt racer first, Hanley has been a greater part of the sports car environment in the 2020s and expanded fully into IMSA with a pair of different involvements in WeatherTech Championship programs in 2026. He was announced as a partner within the Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) program and also connected with DXDT Racing, where he worked with Askew and Sellers. 

Hanley has a lengthy history across the motorsports spectrum and is keen to expand and elaborate on his story with the founding of this program.

“This is a natural evolution,” Hanley explained. “Motorsports has been a passion of mine since I was a young kid, but I also love business. So, this is really an opportunity for me. I'd like to build another business before I'm done, before I'm in a rocking chair somewhere. It’s an opportunity to build another business and I’m so very excited to do it in motorsports with this group of people.”

Askew added, “Rob and I have developed a friendship, and I respect him and his drive with what he wants to achieve. I’m at a point where I’d rather be working with a person like Rob rather than an entire race team and being responsible for the day-to-day. Passing the torch a bit! In that sense I’ll be a partner with Rob. It’ll be fun to see everyone grow with this thing and it’s been my dream to be associated with a team like this.” 

For Simmons and Sellers, working together under the Hanley Motorsports umbrella will reunite a pair that achieved a wealth of success for nearly a decade at Paul Miller Racing, winning multiple marquee IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races and championships. Sellers the moved to DXDT Racing in a team manager role there. 

“This started really, many years ago when Bryan and I discussed what we’d do when our current program ended or when he stopped driving,” Simmons noted. “We’ve worked together closely for many years. It’s a natural progression. To be able to lead a team with him is a dream come true, and for Rob to give us the confidence to do this at this level is incredible. We’ve had successes and we’ll stay together.”

Sellers added, “We can really start with Robert and myself in our relationship. It’s pretty telling the type of person Rob is from our very first conversation. Mason Filippi was in the market for a ride and had support from someone who really believed in him, and we were trying to finish putting together our program at DXDT. 

"Rob and I had a 25-minute conversation mostly focused around family, our children, why we love motorsports, and about three minutes was what’s it gonna take and how do we get there? He knew what he wanted, made the decision quickly about where to place his support. It was an immediate feeling that this is someone who knows people, where to place his faith, and will have trust in you. And talking to Dave Askew, we were like, 'Holy cow, we may have gotten super lucky here.'”

Putting the Pieces Together

Most of this year has seen the Hanley Motorsports group come together in the background building towards today’s announcement.

“I would say by Sebring I was pretty committed to figuring how to make something happen,” Hanley said. “We’ve been very proactive in positioning the business to be ready to go and do what we intend. I never really questioned our ability to be there in ’27, to be honest. When I decided to pursue this and have more in-depth conversations with Dave and Bryan, they’ve been incredibly supportive in a lot of respects. Then when we had the opportunity to engage Mitchell, I was pretty comfortable."

For Askew, capping off DXDT Racing’s season on the podium at Motul Petit Le Mans was a perfect end before entering into this new relationship.

“Earlier in the season I think we were heading to this combination of people,” he explained. “When we were on the podium at Petit, it felt like we won the race. It’s that hard. The competition is so good and you have to be so good to be able to win. And for me, this is just an evolution and I want to keep moving forward.” 

Having a key manufacturer support means a lot too, with BMW joining. 

“It’s a critical part of what we’re doing,” Hanley noted. “Manufacturer alignment was probably the single most important question we had to answer once we got the key people in place.”

“I’ve won championships with BMW and those guys have been fantastic,” Simmons added. “For them to put their faith in us again really means something.” 

Sellers added, “BMW is a marquee manufacturer, and I think we’re all aware of that when you talk about the heavy hitters in motorsports. Any time you can leave any sort of mark on a manufacturer of this level is a massive honor.” 

Building an Internal Ladder

With entries in GTD PRO, GTD and GS, Hanley Motorsports is set to be a rare outfit with entries across all three classes. A handful of IMSA teams have direct GS to GTD pipelines, but not across all three. That unique aspect can build opportunities for drivers, crews and other motorsport personnel, as Hanley explained. 

“People bet on me to show on a line of sight for career growth,” Hanley said. “I have a responsibility to provide opportunity as well. It’s important we develop a ladder system throughout the company, not just for drivers, not just for engineers, but for all the administrative requirements of moving this thing around America.

“You bring in enthused people, and they have an ability to challenge you. Tenure is a great thing, but it can also be harmful because you stop looking outside of the resources. New people can make the organization better. I think it’s important we embrace it and take advantage of that.

“The GT4 program is a large part of that. Our ultimate goal is people ending up on the pro car, whether it’s drivers that get a BMW contract, race for BMW around the globe to mechanics, engineers, PR, administrative and more. 

Sellers added, “This is a team where the more we walked through it, the more all these things aligned. We wanted to be able to start a GS program to provide a feeder for drivers, engineers, crews, interns. It’s something Dave has discussed. It’s probably not something done at this size and this capacity with this vision, often.”