Heading into Qualifying for the IMSA Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway, the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R set the fastest time in the second practice session courtesy of the underrated Elliott Skeer.
Skeer and co-driver Adam Adelson, who are trying to close out the GT World Challenge America championship alongside their ever-growing IMSA programme, have come into the weekend eager to have fun and experiment with no championship stakes for them in IMSA.
20 minutes into the session, Skeer shot to the top of the GTD class leaderboard with a 1:43.975 – and then on his next lap, he set the best time overall with a 1:43.570. That time stood as the best for the entire 90-minute practice session.
But the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 would come close. Alex Riberas set a 1:43.578 as his best time, just eight milliseconds back of Skeer’s time.
Riberas’ lap was still the best in GTD Pro, nearly three-tenths up on the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth in second. Meanwhile, second in GTD was the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Loris Spinelli, third-fastest overall with a 1:43.682.
The #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Tommy Milner was third-quickest in GTD Pro, ahead of Joey Hand in the #65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3, and Klaus Bachler in the #77 AO Racing ‘Roxy’ Porsche.
In GTD, Kenton Koch in the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, Anders Fjordbach in the #86 MDK Motorsport Porsche, and Zacharie Robichon in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin completed the top five in their respective classes.
The GTD championship-leading #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG was second from the bottom of the table – 22nd out of 23 cars – but even after some early issues for Philip Ellis and an off at turn three from Russell Ward, there’s minimal panic for the overwhelming favourites to win the 2024 season title.
Both Pratt Miller Corvette Racing cars also went off course briefly during the session – Alexander Sims in the #3 and Nicky Catsburg in the #4 – but both continued on, as did the #13 AWA Corvette of Orey Fidani, the #70 Inception Racing McLaren GT3 EVO of Brendan Iribe, and the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Manny Franco.
The top 15 cars in the field were covered by eight-tenths of a second, which should make for a brief but rather entertaining Qualifying session this afternoon at 4:50 EDT (local time).
Images © Jake Galstad / IMSA
