Frederic Vervisch led the way in Friday’s opening Free Practice for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. The Belgian set the fastest lap very early in the session under perfect weather conditions. Vervisch lapped the 3.27-mile circuit in 1:46.085 aboard his No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang. Right behind Multimatic in second is Frederik Schandorff. Like Vervisch, the Dane also put his lap time early in the session and was only three thousandths of a second off Vervisch. Schandorff’s lap in the No. 70 Inception Ferrari topped the GTD class.
Wild Rides at the Roller Coaster
Shortly after Schandorff set his lap, the session was halted with Neil Verhagen suffering a heavy crash at The Roller Coaster. There was equal damage to the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW and the barriers. The red flag was out for seventeen minutes to complete repairs. Once green, the session was clean to the end. Per the rulebook, the No. 1 BMW will lose its fastest lap in Saturday’s qualifying for causing a red flag. There was a silver lining for Paul Miller fans. The car was repaired and got back on track before the end of the session.
With sixteen minutes to go, Matt Bell in the No. 13 Corvette also had an off at Roller Coaster. Unlike Verhagen, the Brit was able to get back on track with no damage. One interesting note is both RLL Team McLaren drivers – Max Esterson and Nikita Johnson – received drive-thru penalties for speeding in the pit lane during the session. The No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan also received a drive-thru penalty for improper pit work.
Class Top 3s
In GTD PRO, Dennis Olsen completes a Multimatic 1-2 in class albeit the Norwegian’s time was only fourth overall. And despite the wreck, the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW was third fastest in class with Verhagen turning in the representative lap only a quarter of a second off Vervisch.
Behind Inception in GTD and overall is Tom Gamble and the points-leading Heart of Racing Aston Martin. The Brit’s 1:46.181 is third overall and second in GTD. You have to go down to seventh overall to find the Conquest Racing Ferrari with Albert Costa’s 1:46.442 good for third in class.
Cars are back on track Saturday morning for Free Practice 2 at 10:30am local time.
Full Free Practice 1 Results: CLICK HERE
Featured Image: The No. 65 Ford Mustang (right) setting fastest lap Photo Courtesy: Ford Racing
