Crash mars opening session at VIR

A crash right at the end of this morning’s practice session has marred Saturday’s track activities at Virginia International Raceway with the No.3 Corvette Racing entry of Jan Magnussen and the No.911 Porsche North America machine of Richard Lietz suffering heavy damage.

The incident brought the opening 90 minute session to a close with a red flag. Both drivers were awake and alert with Magnussen on site at the track medical care center and Lietz transferred to a local area hospital for further evaluation.

Both teams now face a race against team to repair their machines in time for qualifying at 12:50pm today.

The duo were fourth (Magnussen) and sixth (Lietz) fastest at the end of the session.

“Somebody had dumped a heap of fluid on the track and the first thing I knew about it was when I hit the brakes and had no grip,” Magnussen said.

“It was a pretty hard hit and we’ve done a lot of damage but the guys are working frantically to get us back on track. The Corvette Racing guys are the best in the business so if anybody can get us back out there, they can.”

BMW set the pace again this morning with Bill Auberlen leading Dirk Mueller. Mueller’s teammate John Edwards set the pace in yesterday afternoon’s ession.

Last round winner Giancarlo Fisichella was third fastest despite also suffering damage. The Risi team will be replacing or repairing: driver’s door, front fender, splitter, radiator ducts, radiator, lights assembly, undertray, bracketing. Chassis is fine and so was suspension. The Italian went off on new, cold hard tires…will be good for qualifying.

The in the GTD class, Leh Keen set the pace aboard his Porsche.

Michelin Alley will bring further updates on both the drivers and cars as soon as they are available.

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