Koch, De Phillippi Head to COTA With Pro Points Lead

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

Following Kenton Koch’s last-gasp win in Race 2 at Sonoma Raceway, Random Vandals Racing heads to Circuit of The Americas in the lead of the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro class championship.

A total of 18 cars are on the entry list for Rounds 3 and 4 of the season, in a largely unchanged field since the season opening weekend.

Koch and co-driver Connor De Phillippi hold a three-point lead over the JMF Motorsports duo of Michai Stephens and Mikael Grenier, who broke through to give the Canadian team victory on debut in Race 1 in Northern California.

They will again be joined in the Pro class by the sister Random Vandals BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Bill Auberlen and Varun Choksey, as well as the RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R, which will again be driven by Jan Heylen and Alex Sedgwick.

A class win and third place finish has put Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg atop the Pro-Am points standings heading into the pair of 90-minute races this weekend.

The defending class champions hold a nine-point lead over DXDT Racing’s Jeff Burton and Philip Ellis, who technically sit third in the standings, behind CrowdStrike by Riley’s Colin Braun and George Kurtz, who will not be in Austin due to their partial season schedule.

Aside from CrowdStrike by Riley’s absence, the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 of Anthony Lazzaro and Scott Dollahite has moved to the Am class, in what’s expected to be a two-horse fight that will include the No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Ozz Negri and Jay Schreibman.

Track action at COTA kicks off on Thursday with a pair of test sessions, followed by practice on Friday, qualifying on Saturday morning, and Race 1 set for a 1:05 p.m. CST start time later that day. Race 2 is on tap for Sunday at 2:15 p.m. CST, with both races streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch, as well as live coverage on MAVTV.