It’s advantage Ford as VIR IMSA weekend begins

Ford Racing led the opening practice session for this weekend’s IMSA Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway, as GTD Pro championship leaders Paul Miller Racing suffered an early setback to their weekend.

The No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 Evo led all 23 GT cars with the fastest time, a 1m46.065s set by Frédéric Vervisch. Ford Racing’s second entry, the No. 64 Mustang, was second quickest via a 1m46.250s from Dennis Olsen.

Neil Verhagen was third fastest aboard the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT3 EVO, but only moments after setting his quickest time at 1m46.315s, Verhagen lost control of his No. 1 BMW at the Roller Coaster chicane (Turn 14), went off and hit the tire barrier.

The incident brought out a 15-minute red flag, and the No. 1 BMW underwent repairs to the left-rear suspension. Thanks to the Paul Miller Racing team’s hard work, the car was back on course after an hour, returning to the circuit to gain valuable track time.

Marco Sørensen was fourth-fastest in GTD Pro behind the wheel of the No. 68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which plans to run the rest of the season in GTD Pro.

The two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports cars, the No. 4 and No. 3, finished fifth and sixth fastest in their class.

GTD was led by the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo; Frederik Schandorff’s best lap in the yellow and black Ferrari was a 1m46.068s, only three milliseconds slower than Vervisch’s leading time overall.

Tom Gamble went second in the championship-leading No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, with a 1m46.181s – Gamble left the course at Oak Tree (Turn 12) late in the session, but was able to continue running.

Behind Gamble was Albert Costa in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, and Russell Ward in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, which comes to VIR on a two-race winning streak. Patrick Gallagher in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW rounded out the top five in class.

Practice 2 starts tomorrow morning at 10:30am ET.

RESULTS