RS1’s Heylen Paces Friday VIR Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Jan Heylen led the way in Friday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge practice at Virginia International Raceway, ahead of tomorrow’s Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix.

The Florida-based Belgian in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport recorded a best lap of 1:53.268 in the morning’s first 60-minute session.

Heylen’s time held as quickest of the day, with Robin Liddell going fastest in Practice 2, with a 1:53.649 lap time in his No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo.

Thomas Merrill made it a Porsche 1-2 on the combined time sheets in the No. 14 AR Motorsports entry, in a time that was also set in the morning,

Liddell ended up third overall on the day, improving on his 1:46.666 that was set in the morning.

The No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Jeff Westphal was fourth quickest on Friday, with Gregory Liefooghe completing the top-five in GS in his No. 19 Stephen Cameron Racing Ford Mustang GT4.

TCR, in both sessions, was led by the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team CUPRA Leon VZ TCR, with Tyler Gonzalez’s 1:55.566 lap time from the morning just marginally quicker than co-driver Eric Powell’s chart-topping lap in the afternoon.

The No 93 MMG Honda of LP Montour was second quickest in class, followed by the No. 7 LA Honda World Racing Audi of Celso Neto in third.

Practice 1 saw two red flags, the first for the No. 15 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 EVO of Christine Sloss, who had an impact in Turn 16.

It was followed by a stoppage for the No. 56 Baker Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR of Bruno Junqueira, who came to a halt near the starter’s stand heading into Turn 1.

Both cars will lose their fastest qualifying laps as a result of bringing out red flags in practice.

The afternoon session did not feature a red, although the No. 67 CSM Porsche and No. 5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Honda Civic FL5 had separate off-course excursions in Turn 1, but both continued.

Qualifying is on tap for Saturday at 8:35 a.m. EST, ahead of the two-hour race at 2:20 p.m., which will be streamed live on Peacock, as well as IMSA’s YouTube channel, commercial-free, courtesy of Michelin.

RESULTS: Practice 1/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