Garcia Quickest in First GT Practice at VIR

Photo: John Dagys

Corvette Racing led the way in Friday’s opening GT Le Mans/GT Daytona practice session for Sunday’s Oak Tree Grand Prix.

Antonio Garcia reeled off a best lap of 1:45.653 in the 30-minute session, run in overcast and threatening skies.

The Spaniard’s best time was just 0.040 seconds quicker than the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR of Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers, who wound up second.

The No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE of Dirk Mueller and John Edwards made it three different manufacturers in the top-three, while the No. 4 Corvette and pair of Porsche North America entries completed the top-six overall and in GTLM.

Jan Heylen led a Porsche 1-2 in GTD, with the Snow Racing Porsche 911 GT America posting a 1:49.005.

Heylen’s time edged out the No. 22 Alex Job Racing entry of Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen by three-tenths, with the championship-leading No. 555 AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 completing the top-three in class.

There were no notable incidents in the session, with a total of 26 cars turning laps.

A second and final practice session for the production-based entries is on tap for 5:40 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 1 (GTLM/GTD)

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