CRP Racing’s Daniel Morad claimed the overall pole Saturday morning (April 28) for today’s first GT SprintX race of the weekend at VIRginia International Raceway. Morad’s lap of 101.953 seconds (115.465 mph) is an official track qualifying record for the GT class and a full second faster than anyone went in practice on Friday.
Morad’s time was nine-hundredths of a second faster than Lone Star Racing’s Mike Skeen in a similar Mercedes-AMG GT3. K-PAX Racing’s Àlvaro Parente will start third in class in the No. 9 Bentley, followed by Pfaff Motorsports’ Scott Hargrove in his Porsche. R. Ferri Motorsport’s Toni Vilander, who was fastest overall on Friday, was fifth in qualifying.
In the Pro-Am division, K-PAX Racing’s Rodrigo Baptista has shown a lot of pace all weekend. In qualifying, he actually turned in a faster time than Parente. Baptista’s best lap of 102.251 seconds (115.128 mph) was good enough for third overall, just three-tenths of a second off the overall pole.
Baptista’s lap was 1.466 seconds faster than TruSpeed AutoSport’s Parker Chase in the No. 19 Audi. Chase will start ninth overall. TR3 Racing’s Wei Lu will start third in Pro-Am, followed by Yuki Harata and Tim Pappas.
Squadra Corse Garage Italia’s Caesar Bacarella will start on the Am-class pole with a lap of 104.557 seconds (112.589 mph), good enough for 12th overall. Dream Racing Motorsport’s Ryan Chadwick will start on the GT Cup pole.
PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE GT SPRINTX GRAND PRIX OF VIRGINIA RACE NO. 1 STARTING GRID
GT SprintX Race No. 1 at VIR is scheduled to go green at 1:25 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The race will be streamed live at World-Challenge.com
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.