Rain hits VIR Friday afternoon for Pirelli GT4 America practice, reduces participation

Rain hits VIR Friday afternoon for Pirelli GT4 America practice, reduces participation

Rain hits VIR Friday afternoon for Pirelli GT4 America practice, reduces participation

ALTON, Va. – After a stellar Friday morning practice session for the Pirelli GT4 America competition in the Sprint, SprintX and SprintX East classes, rain showers were the winners in the Friday afternoon practice runs as the VIRginia International Raceway road circuit turned into a tricky track and limited the driver participation.

In fact, the SRO America officials shortened the Friday afternoon GT4 runs due to the considerable water on the 3.27-mile, 17-turn southern Virginia racing facility.

In the limited afternoon runs, former TCA series champion Matthew Fassnacht in the #34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 sports car paced the abbreviated session with a best time of two minutes, 9.962 seconds in the GT4 SprintX East Am division. Fassnacht will team with veteran Christian Szymczak in the two GT4 SprintX events this weekend at VIR.

Second in the rain runs was another veteran racer, Andrew Davis in the #32 Kelly Moss Road & Race Porsche 718 Cayman Clubsport MR machine with a time of 2:10.561. Moss will team up with Stuart Briscoe in the SprintX East Pro-Am category this weekend. Third went to Fassnacht in the #53 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 car for the Saturday and Sunday GT4 Sprint races. The New Jersey racer recorded a best lap of 2.12.922 followed by Greg Palmer in the #44 Kelly Moss Road & Race Audi R8 LMS at 2:24.410 (SprintX East Am) and Thomas Collingwood in the #69 BGB Motorsports Group Porsche 718 Cayman Clubsport MR at 2:35.958 (SprintX East Am).

A total of ten cars participated in the Friday afternoon GT4 Sprint and SprintX practice round with others including Sean Quinlan in the #19 Stephan Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4, Nate Stacy in the #55 Kohr Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4, Preston Calvert in the No. 51 Team Panoz Racing Panoz Avezzano GT, Stevan McAleer in the #29 Raphael & Associates/Classic BMW BMW M4 GT4 and Alan Brynjofsson in the #7 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman Clubsport MR.

In the Friday morning practice for the Pirelli GT4 America cars, Spencer Pumpelly piloted the #66 TRG-Racers Group Porsche 718 Cayman Clubsport MR to the quickest Sprint practice time at 1:55.048, while young Trent Hindman recorded the fastest overall GT4 time of the day and best SprintX clocking with a 1:54.667 time in the #77 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman Clubsport MR.

The Pirelli GT4 America Sprint qualifying round is scheduled Saturday (April 27) at 8:55 am EDT followed by the SprintX group 1 and 2 beginning at 9:20 am EDT. The first GT4 Sprint race is set for 1:05 p.m. EDT Saturday with the GT4 SprintX feature at 4:50 p.m. EDT.

Sunday’s two Pirelli GT4 America events will get underway with the Sprint round (50 minutes) beginning at 10 a.m. EDT and the SprintX (60 minutes) at 4:10 p.m. EDT.