Paul Miller’s Snow Fastest on Friday at VIR

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Madison Snow led the way in Friday’s one-and-only IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session for the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

The BMW factory driver took his No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 to a fast lap of 1:43.561 early in the 90-minute session.

It was 0.509 seconds quicker than GTD Pro points leader Laurin Heinrich in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Alexander Sims posted the third quickest time overall and in class in his No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, followed by Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

GTD was paced by the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Frederic Schandorff, thanks to a 1:44.381 lap time.

Schandorff was one-tenth clear of the second-placed No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis.

Stevan McAleer posted the third quickest time in class in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.

All 23 cars set times in the session, which ran without any red flags but saw a handful of incidents.

It included an off-course excursion by the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche of Anders Fjordbach and a spin into the barriers for VIR rookie Harry Tincknell in the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

Practice 2 is on tap for Saturday at 10:15 a.m. EDT.

RESULTS: Practice 1

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