Mid-Ohio Weekend Notebook

***Ryan Dalziel has the pole position for Saturday’s Round 14 of the season, with a best time of 1:19.838 in the No. 31 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. Points leader Olivier Beretta starts second, ahead of James Davison, Michael Lewis and Kevin Estre. Today’s race rolls off at 4:35 p.m. ET and local time.

***Pirelli World Challenge held its annual manufacturer meeting Saturday morning, to solicit interest and feedback from the manufacturers this season.

***During Friday’s driver’s meeting, a new series Race Control structure has been confirmed. Dorsey Schroeder, who was at Road America as an interim Race Director, has been confirmed as Race Director with Brian Till and Pat di Natale serving as additional stewards.

***The latest pre-race Balance of Performance heading into Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a 15 kg minimum weight addition to the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and a 0.05 reduced boost adjustment for the Bentley Continental GT3.

***The pair of AE Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s has new driveshafts this weekend, replaced following the starts at Road America.

***RealTime Racing celebrates the one-year anniversary of its Acura TLX-GT making its race debut this weekend. Ryan Eversley and Peter Cunningham tested the pair of cars earlier this month in preparation for this weekend’s race.

***GMG Racing team principal and driver James Sofronas confirmed to Sportscar365 that Alex Welch will return to action at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the team’s second Audi R8 LMS. Meanwhile the team has another program it will announce later its month, which will compete in a different series later this year.

***It’s believed 8Star Motorsports’ plans to enter the final two rounds of the year with a pair of Ferrari 458 Italia GT3s have failed to materialize. The team is still evaluating customer options in World Challenge for 2016. 8Star is on site this weekend with its Indy Lights program, for Sean Rayhall, back for the first time since May at Indianapolis.

***Austin Cindric makes his return to Pirelli World Challenge for the first time since this race last year, when he was in a GTS class Ford Mustang Boss 302S. The 16-year-old races in GTA in the No. 25 Blancpain Racing Lamborghini Gallardo Extenso R-EX, and adds this car to his Ford Shelby GT350R-C, GRC Lites car and ARCA stock car he’s driven just in the last month.

***Neither Tim Pappas nor Dan Knox, the two Dodge Viper GT3-R entries, are here this weekend. Pappas’ Black Swan Racing team is instead preparing and focusing on its 2016 plans, to be announced soon.

***Brett Sandberg again is in the No. 18 Zoro Racing/Truspeed Autosport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car for Phill Fogg Jr., as he was at Road America.

***Unlike the last two years, this Mid-Ohio weekend is just a GT/GTS weekend, with the Touring Car classes running at the track in two weeks along with the NASCAR Xfinity Series.