The green flag came down on a calm, orderly Practice 1 at VIRginia International Raceway, where the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat led the opening practice session for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.
On a cloudy, warm Friday afternoon, there was no major drama that erupted out of these first 90 minutes on track – other than a few short off-track excursions.
Barnicoat set the fastest time with two minutes remaining, clocking in with a time of 1:45.201 aboard the #14 Lexus. The fastest GTD Pro car was just 33 milliseconds quicker than the fastest time in GTD, set by Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.
The GTD-class #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Aaron Telitz went third-fastest, followed by Philip Ellis in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in fourth, and Frederik Schandorff in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in fifth.
Patrick Pilet had the second-fastest time in GTD Pro, sixth overall in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. In seventh was the GTD championship-leading #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW, piloted by Bryan Sellers. Antonio Garcia was ninth overall, third in GTD Pro, aboard the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD.
The field for Sunday’s GTD-exclusive race at VIR has been reduced to just 19 cars after the #94 Andretti Autosport Aston Martin of Jarett Andretti and Gabby Chaves dropped off the entry list before the start of the weekend.
Practice 2 starts tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM ET (local time), followed by a “blink and you’ll miss it” 15-minute Qualifying session at 3:45 PM ET.
Images courtesy of IMSA
