ALTON, Va. (August 26, 2022) – The only driver from Virginia in the Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich® Tires was the quickest driver of the day at VIRginia International Raceway. Gresham Wagner (No. 5 Spark Performance) topped both of Friday’s 30-minute practice sessions in preparation for Rounds 11 and 12 of the championship.

Though he is local, Wagner has done limited laps at VIR and none in an MX-5 Cup car.

After topping the first practice session, Wagner went even faster in the second, turning a lap of 2:07.247.

“I don’t have a ton of time on the track,” Wagner said. “I was here a month or two ago in a different car. The car felt good right away. I think there’s still more time in it. I expect the times to drop quite a bit in qualifying, but being fastest in practice, hey, I can’t complain.”

Track time was limited for Mazda MX-5 Cup competitors due to lengthy red flags in both practice sessions.

“I didn’t start on new tires,” Wagner said. “I did two laps and then came in, did my tire change and then the red flag came out. Everyone was shuffling around a lot and I just needed to get a clean, fast lap to have a benchmark going into qualifying. Now we know what we need to do for tomorrow.”

The red flag in Practice 2 was brought out for Aidan Fassnacht (No. 15 McCumbee McAleer Racing), who made contact with the tire wall in Turn 10. Fassnacht had been quickest of the day to that point. He will move to a backup car for the remainder of the event.

Current points leader Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) caused the red flag in the first session when he got into the tires in Turn 17. Thomas was able to repair his car in time for the second session.

Thomas has a 255-point lead in the championship over Wagner coming into VIR.

Saturday starts with MX-5 Cup qualifying at 9:00am ET. Race 1 takes place later the same day at 1:00pm ET and will be streamed live on RACER.com.