Ellis, Heylen Take VIR Poles

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Philip Ellis continued his pole streak in GT World Challenge America powered by AWS on Saturday morning at Virginia International Raceway, while Jan Heylen scored top qualifying honors for Race 2 of the weekend.

Ellis’ 1:45.426 lap time in the No. 91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo edged out the No. 99 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Kenton Koch by 0.107 seconds.

It marked Ellis’ third consecutive overall pole in the Pro-Am entry he will share with Jeff Burton.

Alex Sedgwick will start third in the No. 18 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Michai Stephens and Varun Choksey completing the overall top-five for JMF Motorsports and Random Vandals, respectively.

Christian Hahn, in his series debut, qualified second in Pro-Am in his No. 16 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, followed by Blake McDonald in the No. 11 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Am class pole honors for Race 1 went to the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 of Scott Dollahite.

Both Jason Daskalos and Ross Chouest had spins during the initial 15-minute session, which did not result in red flags.

Q2 saw Heylen set a benchmark of 1:45.004 in the RS1 Porsche to edge out Pro-Am class pole-sitter Robby Foley in the No. 29 Turner Motorsport BMW. Mikael Grenier was third in the JMF Mercedes-AMG

The No. 99 Random Vandals BMW of Pro class championship leader Connor De Phillippi had an off-course excursion in the final corner of his initial run, before pitting and returning to the track to set the sixth quickest time overall in the closing stages of the session.

Ozz Negri, meanwhile, scored the Am class pole for Race 2 in his No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari.

Race 1 is scheduled to take the green flag at 3:15 p.m. EST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel, SRO’s Twitch channel as well as the RACER Network.

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