vApex Racing Group & Hammer Down Racing Fastest in FP1

Mikey Grems topped the time sheet at Circuit of the America's ahead of the final round of the West Season and the penultimate round of 2016. His time of 1:59.198 was enough to beat out vApex Racing Group - Green's championship contenders of Black Adder Motorsports. Co-driver David Jaques set the third fastest time of the session 1.176 seconds off of Grems.

Black Adder Motorsports' Sven Cammaerts was less than 2 tenths off of Grems time with a 1:59.391. Kevin Linden of vApex Racing Group - Yellow and Jefferson Padovani came in P4 and P5 at the conclusion of the practice session.

The #68 entry of Black Adder Motorsports are in a must win situation in the final round as they currently sit 11 points back of vApex Racing Group - Green in the championship. The #99 vApex Racing Corvette C7 Daytona Prototype just need to finish in fourth place to clinch the championship. With two second place finishes and coming off of back-to-back wins, a fourth place finish looks like it can be a walk in the park for Grems and Jaques.

In GTD, Hammer Down Racing dominated the time sheets in what seems to be a hunt for revenge after an unfortunate spin and contact with the wall while leading at Road America took them out of contention. Matt Quinn took the #22 Audi R8 LMS GT3 to the top of the time sheets with a time of 2:05.710. Braxton Motorsports' Benjamin Fischer was second fastest, nearly 2.5 seconds off of Quinn's time with a 2:08.342. Andy Banfield of vApex Racing, Fischer's co-driver Craig Hobson and Bad Cactus Racing's Ed Voras rounded out the top 5.

Neither of the two main championship contenders in GTD of Online-SimRacing.de or 49 Motorsports set a time in FP1 but both are expected to partake in this weekend's 3 Hour West Season Finale.

View the full results of FP1 here: FP1 Results