The Muscle Milk Honda squad set the pace in opening practice at the American Le Mans Series’ debut at the picturesque Virginia International Raceway this afternoon.

Teams enjoyed a total of two hours of testing at the fast but narrow venue – the 24th different circuit to stage a race in the history of the championship.

Although the Pickett Racing squad completed on 11 laps this afternoon, the Nick Wirth-designed HPD prototype set the pace at 1 minute, 37.457 seconds – holding a 1.6 second gap over the Dyson Racing No.16 entry which is now running a newly-developed Kinetic Energy Recovery System.

The Flybrid Automotive Limited KERS system is based on a high-speed, lightweight flywheel that is incorporated into the car’s bell housing and stores braking energy for later use under acceleration.

Other teams which quickly adapted to their new surroundings today included Level 5 Motorsports which topped the timesheets in P2, Colin Braun aboard the CORE autosport No.05 PC class entry and Guy Cosmo’s ESM Ferrari which pulled out a blinding lap towards the end of the session.

Teams are back on track tomorrow for the first official practice session at 10.15am

Michelin Alley caught up with P1 championship leader Lucas Luhr to talk about the VIR circuit.