Auberlen Tops Practice 3 at VIR

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

BMW Team RLL led the way in the final TUDOR United SportsCar Championship practice session prior to qualifying for tomorrow’s Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway.

Bill Auberlen took the No. 25 BMW Z4 GT3 to a quick lap of 1:41.953 in the session, improving on Pierre Kaffer’s Friday pace-setting time by more than one second.

The No. 911 Porsche North America entry of Nick Tandy was second quickest, despite some drama for the Englishman, who had an off-course excursion and was hit by the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 of Markus Palttala upon re-entry.

While the Turner car did not rejoin the session due to cosmetic damage, Tandy’s Porsche returned to action and turned its best time of the weekend.

The No. 24 BMW of Lucas Luhr was third on the GT Le Mans time charts, ahead of the No. 62 Risi Competitizone Ferrari F458 Italia of Pierre Kaffer, who topped the time charts in both of Friday’s sessions.

Christopher Haase was quickest in GT Daytona, with the German taking his No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS to a best lap of 1:47.450.

It was just 0.063 seconds quicker than the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America of Andy Lally, with Palttala’s time from early in the session holding as third in class.

Qualifying gets underway at 4:40 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 3

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