Blackstock, Hindman Take VIR Poles for Racers Edge

Photo: SRO America

Shelby Blackstock and Trent Hindman will start from their respective pole positions in the return of global GT World Challenge powered by AWS competition this weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

Blackstock took his No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo to a 1:46.237 lap time in Q1.

He edged out the No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Kris Wilson, who claimed GT3 Pro-Am class pole in the previous-gen Mercedes.

Fred Poordad was third quickest overall in the GT3 Am pole-sitting No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Three of the eight GT3 cars found themselves off-track during the 15-minute session, with spins for the pair of DXDT Racing Mercedes of David Askew and George Kurtz as well as the No. 31 TR3 Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of John Megrue.

All three cars picked up significant grass in the incidents, with Askew’s Mercedes also sustaining minor front-end damage.

Q2 saw Blackstock’s co-driver Hindman storm to a 1:43.941 lap time in the closing moments.

Hindman, who waited on pit road for the majority of the session, was the only driver to dip into the 1:43s.

He edged out the No. 04 DXDT Mercedes of Colin Braun by 0.137 seconds, with teammate Ryan Dalziel third in his slightly damaged Mercedes from Askew’s off in Q1.

Max Root claimed GT3 Am pole in his Wright Porsche, meanwhile, with a fourth place overall run, ahead of the No. 1 Squadra Corse Ferrari of Rodrigo Baptista.

Qualifying for GT Sports Club America, which is set to run alongside GTWC America cars for the first 40 minutes of each race, is scheduled for later this morning.

Race 1 of the weekend gets underway at 1:45 p.m. ET and will be streamed 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