Virginia International Raceway: Event Preview

After a six week gap, the 2019 Blancpain World Challenge America Championship reconvenes at the 17 turn, 3.27 mile Virginia International Raceway.  A strong performance at Circuit of the Americas in Round 1 left drivers, Ryan Eversley and Till Bechtolsheimer sitting in third place in the Pro-Am division of the series.

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For Georgia native, Eversley, the track has a familiar feel. “VIR has become a bit of a home track for me and I’m always really happy when I get to race there. It’s nice to be back here with the NSX GT3 as we did some of the initial development work here with the Real Time guys.” He is confident that the track’s unique characteristics will suit the updated NSX GT3. “The 2019 Evo kit will show just how much the car has improved as you are using the aero so much through the Esses off the back straightaway.”

Till Bechtolsheimer is competing at VIR for only the second time with his last appearance here coming back in 2017. “I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I picked up the track, having not been here for a couple of years and only ever racing here once. It’s one of those tracks where there’s no real run-off anywhere so if you get it wrong you are straight onto the grass, which is not where you want to be. It makes it a a bit of a high-stakes track from that perspective. As a result I was a little nervous that I was going to be off the pace.”

It became apparent after the end of the Bronze only session that the New York based Englishman had little to worry about as he posted the second fastest time in the session. A feat that certainly did not go unnoticed by his teammate. “Till’s pace really means he’s one of the fastest bronze drivers in the World let alone in the SRO and I think he’ll probably be our secret weapon once again this weekend”

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Practice continues on Friday with a late afternoon session. Qualifying for both races takes place tomorrow with Race 1 taking place at 2:10pm with Race 2 on Sunday at 1:15pm. You can watch the races live on YouTube while Sunday’s race will also be broadcast live on The CBS Sports Network. For full event coverage please follow Gradient Racing on Twitter at @GradientRaing, on Instagram at @gradientracing and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GradientRacing/







Declan Brennan