Warm and dry conditions set the backdrop for Friday as the IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship visits Virginia International Raceway featuring the GTLM and GTD classes.
VIR is a flowing, natural-terrain road course and a favorite of drivers and teams. With no prototypes on the entry, the GTLM teams appreciate the rare opportunity for an overall victory.
Following his exciting run at Road America, Pierre Kaffer set the top time in both sessions in his Risi Ferrari to continue the momentum.
In the morning, Kaffer bested Antonio Garcia in the Corvette by only 0.039 seconds in GTLM. The Porsche duo of Jörg Bergmeister and Earl Bamber were third.
Kaffer backed up his morning practice pace in the afternoon session with a time of 1:43.138 – quicker than the 2014 GTLM pole qualifying lap record time. The pace obviously picked up as the top five GTLM cars all went faster than the 2014 pole time. Patrick Pilet in his Porsche put in a flyer toward the end of the afternoon session to take second with teammate Earl Bamber just behind.
The end of afternoon practice found both Corvettes at the bottom of the GTLM charts. Don’t count them out – they are still within a second which is not much over the length of the 3.27 mile circuit.
In GTD, Kuno Wittmer stood atop the ranks in the morning in his Aston Martin with slim margins of just 0.011 seconds over Markus Palttala in the Turner BMW and only 0.078 seconds ahead of Andy Lally in the Magnus Porsche.
In the afternoon, Spencer Pumpelly found speed and made a big jump to the top of the GTD table aboard his Park Place Porsche. Pumpelly’s time was fast, but more than half a second off the 2014 GTD pole time. Palttala and Lally again rounded out the top three.
The recent adjustment of performance changes appeared to hamper the Dodge Viper. Additional weight and a smaller restrictor put the Viper at or near the bottom of the GTD class in both practice sessions. Jereon Bleekemolen set his fastest time of the afternoon on his very last lap and still ended up 1.5 seconds off the pace. Ben Keating was very frustrated as the changes were far more drastic than he thought warranted.
In terms of incidents, Friday practice was largely uneventful. All 18 cars turned laps in both sessions. The #25 BMW brought out a brief red flag early in morning practice after going off at the final corner. Overnight rain made the grass slippery and the BMW scooped up a bit of dirt and grass on its detour, but incurred no damage.
Perhaps the most interesting news of the day was the pit lane conversation between Jim Roller of IMSA Radio and Doug Fehan of Corvette Racing. Fehan told the IMSA Radio audience that Corvette would be open to supporting a GT3 Corvette in the 2016 IMSA GTD class if there was customer interest. There are likely caveats involved, but it was an exciting prospect that had not been publicly voiced by anyone at GM or Corvette before.
A morning practice session will be followed by afternoon qualifying on Saturday. Stay tuned to IMSA Radio for live coverage and DSC for a summary of the day’s events.
Kevin Ehrlich
