McDonald Continues to Set Pace in VIR Practice

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

After topping the time charts in the wet on Thursday, Blake McDonald led the way in the dry Friday morning at Virginia International Raceway in the second GT America powered by AWS practice session of the weekend.

The driver of the No. 11 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R reeled off a chart-topping time of 1:46.807 in the 30-minute session to edge out the No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Memo Gidley by a considerable 1.048 seconds.

Kyle Washington was third in his No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, followed a late session improvement by Ross Chouest in the No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Corvette, demoting Jason Bell’s Racers Edge Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to fifth.

SRO3 points leader Justin Rothberg was sixth and last of the class competitors in his No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Michael Fitzpatrick was the only GT4 competitor to set a time during the session, in his 89x Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4, with both teammate John Dean as well as GT2 competitor CJ Moses electing to sit out the session.

Qualifying is on tap for Saturday at 8:30 a.m. EST.

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