Practice report
IMSA
VIR IMSA: Milner tops third practice for Corvette
Corvette’s Tommy Milner led the third GT-only IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session at Virginia International Raceway on Saturday morning, as BMW entered contention ahead of qualifying.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Aug 22, 2018, 9:07 AM
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Milner set the quickest time of 1m41.205s early in the session, while Connor de Phillippi left it late to jump to second in the #25 BMW M8 on 1m41.448s – a quarter of a second slower. The BMWs had regularly been the slowest of the GTLM field until now.
“I think we’re in a good position, making a step every session, and we’ve made the car a lot more driveable,” said de Phillippi. “We focused on balance today, and so far so good.”
Pacesetter Milner was three tenths clear of the third-placed Earl Bamber in Porsche #912 and four tenths ahead of Patrick Pilet in the #911 sister car.
Fifth placed Ryan Briscoe was the fastest of the Fords on 1m41.705s. The sister car didn’t fare well, causing a red flag with 15 minutes to go when Dirk Muller went off towards the end of the lap, inflicting superficial rear-end damage against the tyrewall. The car was only seventh fastest with Joey Hand at the wheel, and behind Antonio Garcia in the second Corvette.
Kyle Marcelli led the GT Daytona field in his Lexus, two tenths clear of Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Mercedes. Madison Snow was third in the freshly-engined Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan.
One cloud literally on the horizon is a rain storm that is expected to hit around the time of qualifying this afternoon.
Pos Num Driver Class Car Laps Time Gap 1 4 
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner GTLM Corvette C7.R 27 1'41.205 2 25 Connor de Phillippi
Alexander Sims GTLM BMW M8 GTE 23 1'41.448 0.243 3 912 
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 26 1'41.512 0.307 4 911 Nick Tandy
Patrick Pilet GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 24 1'41.595 0.390 5 67 
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook GTLM Ford GT 28 1'41.705 0.500 6 3 
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia GTLM Corvette C7.R 24 1'41.772 0.567 7 66 
Joey Hand
Dirk Muller GTLM Ford GT 18 1'41.805 0.600 8 24 
John Edwards
Jesse Krohn GTLM BMW M8 GTE 19 1'41.814 0.609 9 14 
Kyle Marcelli
Dominik Baumann GTD Lexus RC F GT3 22 1'43.905 2.700 10 33 
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Ben Keating GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 23 1'44.142 2.937 11 48 
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 25 1'44.143 2.938 12 58 
Patrick Long
Christina Nielsen GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 25 1'44.182 2.977 13 86 
Katherine Legge
Mario Farnbacher GTD Acura NSX GT3 24 1'44.279 3.074 14 96 Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley GTD BMW M6 GT3 15 1'44.308 3.103 15 44 
Andy Lally
John Potter GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 26 1'44.435 3.230 16 93 Justin Marks
Lawson Aschenbach GTD Acura NSX GT3 23 1'44.446 3.241 17 15 David Heinemeier Hansson
Jack Hawksworth GTD Lexus RC F GT3 27 1'44.521 3.316 18 63 Cooper MacNeil
Gunnar Jeannette GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 26 1'45.153 3.948
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