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COTA Sunday Notebook

Tony DiZinno’s Sunday notebook before the second PWC race at COTA…

Photo: John Dagys

Photo: John Dagys

***Pirelli World Challenge series officials confirmed no changes will be made to driver classifications for Sunday’s Round 2. Multiple sources confirmed to Sportscar365 late Saturday night that several drivers were poised to be upgraded from GTA to GT.

***Ricardo Perez has been upgraded to second in GTA in Round 1 after initially finishing third. Frankie Montecalvo was penalized a loss of one position per driver conduct, per the series. Updated results from Round 1 are linked here.

***Nick Catsburg will start from pole in Sunday’s Round 2, courtesy of his fastest race lap in Round 1. Johnny O’Connell, Ryan Dalziel, Kevin Estre and Andy Pilgrim complete the top five, with Round 1 winner Olivier Beretta starting sixth.

VIEW: Round 2 Starting Grid

***The pair of K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports McLaren 650S GT3s led a wet morning warmup. Estre set the fastest time at 2:22.953 in the No. 9 McLaren, with Robert Thorne second in the No. 6 McLaren. O’Connell, Beretta and Catsburg completed the top five. A healthy volume of the field, 42 of the 48 GT/GTA/GT Cup entered, went out during the 15-minute session.

***Peter Cunningham’s No. 42 RealTime Racing Acura TLX-GT has been withdrawn from Sunday’s race. Suspension damage from contact incurred in Round 1 has proved too much to repair on site.

***Jeff Courtney had an incident during the morning warmup, and the JCR Motorsports team was working to repair the right front quarter panel damage to his No. 99 Audi R8 LMS ultra.

***Guy Cosmo is optimistic of driving further PWC races later this year if funding can be found. He’ll be coaching Walt Bowlin all year in the No. 23 M1 Racing LLC Audi R8 LMS ultra. Bowlin is confirmed to race in the St. Petersburg, Barber, Road America, Miller and either Sonoma or Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca rounds in the GTA category.

***Watch Sunday’s Round 2 of the Nissan Grand Prix of Texas weekend at world-challengetv.com, beginning at 1:50 p.m. CT and local time. The lights go out from the standing start at 2 p.m.

John Dagys contributed to this report

Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) is Sportscar365's North American Editor, focusing on coverage of the IMSA-sanctioned championships as well as Pirelli World Challenge. DiZinno also contributes to NBCSports.com and other motorsports outlets. Contact Tony

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