Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Porsche 1-2 in opening VIR practice
Porsche went 1-2 in opening GT Le Mans practice for Saturday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, Round 5 of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Laurens Vanthoor led the one-hour session with a best lap of 1m41.550s in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR-19. That was 0.386s better than teammate Nick Tandy in the No. 911.
Corvette took the next two positions. Despite missing the first half of the one-hour practice, Antonio Garcia ran a third-best 1m42.036s in the two-time winning No. 3 Corvette C8.R, 0.070s ahead of Tommy Milner in the No. 4.
The two BMWs were next, Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 and Jesse Krohn in the No. 24, separated by 0.065s.
Both the Porsches and Corvette enter the weekend with 20 kilogram weight increases, while the BMWs drop 5 kg.
Jack Hawksworth continued to have the hot hand in GT Daytona. Despite a BOP gain of 15 kg, the two-time winning No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 was fastest with a lap of 1m45.264s. Hawksworth and co-driver Aaron Telitz won the sprint round at Daytona and non-points race at Sebring. Road America-winning teammates Frankie Montecalvo and Townsend Bell were 10th, 0.698s back.
Patrick Long was second in the 16 Wright Motorsports 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R, 0.076s back.
Absent since winning the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, Paul Miller Motorsports returned with Bryan Sellers third in the No. 48 Total Lubricants Lamborghini Huracan GT3, at 1m45.412, followed by Tony Vilander in the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, with a 1m45.217s.
The otherwise incident-free session was red flagged four minutes early due to the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Roman DeAngelis hitting the barrier in Turn 4.
The only car missing of the 20 entries was the No. 44 GRT Magnus Flex Box Lamborghini Huracon GT3 of Andy Lally and John Potter.
UP NEXT: The second and final WeatherTech Championship practice begins at noon ET. GTD qualifying runs from 5:35-5:50 p.m., followed by GTLM qualifying from 6-6:15 p.m.
J.J. O'Malley
J.J. O’Malley became news editor for Chris Economaki in 1977, launching him on a career covering all facets of motorsports in many capacities. He did public relations at Watkins Glen International for 14 years; followed by four seasons at Homestead-Miami Speedway; news editor at ISC Publications (now Edgeset Marketing); and communications manager for Grand-Am and IMSA. He’s currently completing his 13th book on racing – a history of the Daytona Prototype – in addition to covering events for RACER.com, Edgeset Marketing and Sunday Group Management. O’Malley is an honorary member of the prestigious Road Racing Drivers Club.
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