Pumpelly Paces Second Practice; Bleekemolen Quickest on Friday

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Spencer Pumpelly topped the time charts in an incident-filled second session, although was unable to match the pace set by Black Swan Racing’s Jeroen Bleekemolen, who was quickest of the day in SprintX practice at Virginia International Raceway.

Pumpelly recorded a best lap of 1:44.279 in the No. 4 Audi R8 LMS he shares with Pierre Kaffer this weekend, although was nearly seven-tenths slower than Bleekemolen’s 1:43.585 set in the morning’s opening practice session in the No. 54 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Mercedes ended the day 1-2, with the No. 2 CRP Racing entry second quickest in both sessions, with Daniel Morad’s 1:44.054 from the morning ending up as the team’s best time.

The GT Pro-Am class Black Swan Mercedes, No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 completed the top-five overall in the second session.

As was the case in the GTS division, times from the morning were quicker across the board.

Dream Racing again led the way in GT Cup with its Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo, while the No. 019 Stephen Cameron Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 topped GTS, but was unable to beat Trent Hindman’s 1:55.975 lap set in the morning in his No. 017 Case-It Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR.

The 50-minute session saw four red flags, all for cars hitting trouble on the 3.27-mile circuit.

An incident for the No. 92 MCC Motorsports Mercedes, which went off into the tire barriers, was followed by an off-course excursion for Adderly Fong’s No. 88 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3 in Turn 12, while the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Michael Schein and Yufeng Luo’s No. 78 Bentley brought out additional reds.

Qualifying for SprintX gets underway Saturday at 10:40 a.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 2

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John