Caldarelli, Grenier Score VIR Poles

Photo: Brian Cleary/SRO

Andrea Caldarelli and Mikael Grenier have scored poles for this weekend’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS rounds at Virginia International Raceway.

Caldarelli took his No. 3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo to a fast lap of 1:44.306 prior to a pair of red flags for on-track incidents.

The Lamborghini factory driver was a hefty 1.071 seconds quicker than the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Russell Ward, who will start Race 1 second overall and in the Pro class.

Corey Lewis, in the freshly rebuilt No. 6 K-PAX Lamborghini following co-driver Giovanni Venturini’s accident on Friday, was third ahead of Michael Dinan’s No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 in fourth.

Wright Motorsports’ Fred Poordad picked up the Pro-Am class pole in the No. 20 Porsche 911 GT3 R ahead of Michael Di Meo, who is making his debut in Compass Racing’s Acura NSX GT3 Evo.

George Kurtz completed the top-three in Pro-Am in Q1.

An accident for the No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes of David Askew brought out the first red followed by a spin for the No. 12 Ian Lacy Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Frank Gannett with 4 minutes and 27 minutes left on the clock.

Askew’s car did not take part in Q2 due to the extent of damage sustained.

Q2 saw Grenier set the fastest time of the session, a 1:44.024, in his Winward Mercedes, outpacing the Pro-Am class pole-sitting Wright Porsche of Jan Heylen. 

Sandy Mitchell will start Race 2 from third on the grid in the No. 9 TR3 Racing Lamborghini, while Jordan Pepper could only muster the fourth quickest time in Q2 in his championship-leading entry.

A red flag for the No. 91 Rearden Racing Lamborghini of Vesko Kozarov, which stopped on track with damage to the car, resulted in a red flag with 5 minutes to go.

The session did not restart.

Race 1 gets underway at 1:15 p.m. ET with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1 / Qualifying 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