Vervisch Puts Ford on Top in Opening VIR Practice

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Fred Vervisch paced the opening practice session for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, leading a 1-2 in the GTD Pro class for the factory Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs.

The Belgian in the No. 65 Mustang reeled off a chart-topping 1:46.065 to edge out the GTD pace-setting No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff by just 0.003 seconds.

Tom Gamble slotted in third quickest overall in the GTD points-leading No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, followed by the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports-run Mustang of Dennis Olsen in fourth.

The GTD Pro championship-leading No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Neil Verhagen completed the overall top-five but had a sizable accident in Turn 14 that brought out the session’s only red flag.

Verhagen returned to the track in the final 12 minutes with a fully repaired car after sustaining mostly front bodywork damage in his off-course moment.

The Paul Miller BMW, however, will be forced to surrender its fastest lap in qualifying due to bringing out a red in practice.

Valentin Haase-Clot slotted in sixth overall and fourth in GTD Pro in the No. 68 YRB Racing Aston Martin, followed by the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari of Albert Costa and the Russell Ward-driven No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs completed the overall top-ten.

All 23 cars turned laps in the 90-minute session, which aside from Verhagen’s accident, ran without any major incident.

The second practice of the weekend is set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. EST, with qualifying on tap for 4:50 p.m. EST which will stream live on Peacock and also be available on IMSA’s YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Practice 1

Source: Sports Car 365