Klaus Graf led the way as official practice began Friday for the American Le Mans Series Friday at Virginia International Raceway. He set a lap of 1:36.586 (121.881mph) in Muscle Milk Pickett Racing's Honda Performance Development ARX-03a prototype in the morning's opening practice for the VIR 240.
Graf, teaming with Lucas Luhr, was 0.871sec quicker than his time in Thursday's test session. Friday's time was 1.983sec clear of Dyson Racing's Guy Smith in the No. 16 Lola-Mazda coupe that is running with a flywheel hybrid system for the first time this weekend.
Level 5 Motorsports' Christophe Bouchut was third overall and first in P2 at 1:39.763 (118.000 mph) in the No. 055 HPD ARX-03b that he shares with Scott Tucker. Bouchut went 0.836 seconds quicker than Conquest Endurance's Martin Plowman in the No. 37 Morgan-Nissan.
Corvette Racing went 1-2 in GT, led by Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette C6 ZR1 with a lap of 1:46.973 (110.046mph). He was 0.291 seconds clear of Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette with Flying Lizard Motorsports' Jorg Bergmeister third in class at 1:47.338 (109.672mph); he drives the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
CORE autosport had the two fastest cars in Prototype Challenge. Colin Braun in the No. 05 ORECA FLM09 set a best time of 1:42.117 (115.280mph)to go 0.101sec quicker than Tom Kimber-Smith in the No. 06 sister car. Bruno Junqueira finished the session third for RSR Racing at 1:42.482 (114.869mph).
Jeroen Bleekemolen made himself quickly at home with NGT Motorsport by posting the best time in GT Challenge – a 1:53.298 (103.903mph) in the No. 30 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup he shares with Henrique Cisneros. The top three cars were covered by just 0.342sec. TRG's Spencer Pumpelly was second at 1:53.640 (103.590mph), just 0.02sec clear of Alex Job Racing's Leh Keen.
Friday's second practice is set for 2:20 p.m., with qualifying scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.