VIR IMSA: Milner tops third practice for Corvette

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