Corvette Racing’s #3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R stole the spotlight from its championship-leading teammate Saturday at Virginia International Raceway, with Jan Magnussen winning the pole position in Qualifying.
Magnussen ran a fast lap of 1:41.557 to lead a 1-2 sweep for Corvette Racing the leading GTLM class, which shares the event with the GT Daytona (GTD) competitors. It was the team’s second pole of the season, with co-driver Antonio Garcia leading Qualifying at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
“We’re the lead class here, so it’s an overall pole,” said Magnussen, whose other WeatherTech Championship pole was at Long Beach in 2014. “It’s so competitive up front that you need to get every hundredth [of a second] out of the car.
“It was a fantastic effort from the whole team. We had a great test (at Road Atlanta) at the beginning of the week, and we were able to use some of that stuff here. Now I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
Joey Hand qualified third in the #66 Ganassi Racing Ford GT co-driven by Dirk Mueller with an impressive lap of 1:41.817. Hand will share the second row with Giancarlo Fisichella, who toured the circuit in 1:42.225 to hand the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE fourth.
“It wasn’t easy to find the perfect lap today, qualifying is so tough,” said Fisichella, who won at VIR on a last-lap pass in 2014 and finished third last year. “Fourth place is good, that’s the maximum we could achieve today, but I hope for a better result tomorrow. I have good memories here.”
All nine GTLM qualifiers eclipsed Nick Tandy’s year-old track record of 1:42.532. Tandy and co-driver Patrick Pilet are looking to repeat in Porsche North America’s #911 Porsche 911 RSR. Tandy qualified seventh with a lap of 1:42.276.
Down in GTD, Madison Snow earned his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Pole.
Driving the #48 Castrol Edge/Universal Industrial Sales Lamborghini Huracán GT3, Snow posted a best lap 1:44.956 seconds, setting a new GTD track record on the recently repaved, 3.27-mile road circuit. It was the third GTD pole position of the season for Lamborghini.
“The car was pretty good,” said Snow, who also competed in the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo race this morning in which he crashed. “We didn’t make a lot of changes from practice, because it already felt good. It’s nice to be able to put it on top after a tough (Super Trofeo) race, but the car is set up and we were able to take it right to the front.”
Joining Snow on the GTD front row is Matt Bell in the #9 Stevenson Automotive Group Audi R8 LMS GT3. Bell posted a best time of 1:45.247 for the North Carolina-based team. He will co-drive in Sunday’s race with Lawson Aschenbach.
Cedric Sbirrazzuoli made it two Lamborghinis in the top three on the GTD grid with a best lap of 1:45.251 in the #27 Dream Racing Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3. Sbirrazzuoli’s co-driver in the #27 Lamborghini is Lawrence DeGeorge.
Andrew Davis qualified fourth in GTD with a best lap of 1:45.302 in the #6 Stevenson Automotive Group Audi R8 LMS GT3 he shares with Robin Liddell. Corey Lewis will start fifth in the #16 Pertamina/Monster Energy Lamborghini Huracán GT3. Lewis’ best qualifying lap was 1:45.372 in the ride he will co-drive with Spencer Pumpelly.
