Braun, CORE Show Early Pace in PC at VIR

Photo: John Dagys

CORE autosport ended the opening day of Prototype Challenge practice at Virginia International Raceway on top, with Colin Braun going quickest in both practice sessions for this weekend’s Oak Tree Grand Prix.

After leading the way in this morning’s opening session, Braun made further improvements in the afternoon, taking his No. 54 Oreca FLM09 to a best lap of 1:40.977.

It came in a damp-turned-wet session around the 17-turn, 3.27-mile circuit, which saw two red flags for incidents.

Braun, who will share driving duties in the weekend pair of 45-minute sprint races with team owner Jon Bennett, was 0.584 seconds quicker than the Alex Tagliani-driven No. 08 RSR Racing entry, which wound up second quickest.

The No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car of Gunnar Jeannette completed the top-three in the afternoon session, despite having an off-course excursion.

The top-five overall and in class was completed by Luis Diaz (8Star Motorsports) and David Ostella (Performance Tech).

Mikhail Goikhberg (JDC Motorsports) was again quickest of the IMSA Prototype Lites, posting a 1:46.320 lap time in his Elan DP02 car.

The two reds were for separate incidents from two of the three 8Star Motorsports Lites entries. Both Lamont Harris and Enzo Potolicchio were evaluated and released from the medical center.

PC qualifying is on tap for Saturday at 11:15 a.m. ET, followed by the first race segment at 5:15 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 2 (PC)

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