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2025 Champ Tristan McKee Leads from Pole to Checkered Flag; Alon Day Scores Second Straight Runner-Up Finish; Lanie Buice Equals Career-Best Finish of Fourth; Helio Meza’s Weekend Doubleheader Sweep Bid Ends with Opening-Lap Incident
Overview
Date: July 19, 2026
Event: Watkins Glen Doubleheader (Round 9 of 12)
Series: Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli
Division: CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series
Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International
Layout: 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course
Format: 30 laps or 75 minutes
Weather: Partly cloudy, mid-60s
Winner: Tristan McKee of TeamSLR
TeamSLR:
● Tristan McKee – Started 1st, Finished 1st (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Alon Day – Started 4th, Finished 2nd (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Lanie Buice – Started 10th, Finished 5th (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Helio Meza – Started 2nd, Finished 29th (Accident, completed 0/30 laps)
M1 Racecars:
● Jace Denmark – Started 14th, Finished 6th (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Jared Odrick – Started 19th, Finished 26th (Mechanical, completed 9/30 laps)
Noteworthy:
● McKee, the 15-year-old from Williamsburg, Virginia, rebounded from a hectic doubleheader opener Saturday to score the victory from the pole Sunday. In his first weekend with TeamSLR since driving to the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series championship in 2025, he scored his fifth career victory in the series. McKee started the race from the pole by virtue of his fastest lap of Saturday’s race.
● Day, the 34-year-old from Ashdod, Israel, earned his second consecutive runner-up finish and reached the podium for the eighth race in a row, taking the checkered flag 1.217 seconds behind McKee. In Saturday’s race, Day finished second to teammate Helio Meza.
● Buice, the 19-year-old from Jackson, Georgia, drove to her second fourth-place finish in the last three races and fifth top-10 in eight races this season. Her previous top-four was her TA2 career-best finish June 29 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
● Meza, the 18-year-old from Houston who won for the sixth time this season on Saturday, saw his day end on the opening lap when, after side-by-side contact with McKee in turn one, encountered a mechanical issue navigating through the esses, then collected another car. His car suffered irreparable damage. He was credited with 29th place overall and 18 among the TA2 entries.
● McKee’s victory Sunday was the 16th in a row for TeamSLR, dating back to his June 2025 triumph at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington.
● Denmark, the 23-year-old from Phoenix, was once again the highest finisher among the two other M1 Racecars competitors in the field. He followed up his seventh-place finish Saturday with a sixth-place run Sunday in the No. 68 Troy Benner Autosport M1 Racecars entry
● Odrick, the 2025 TA2 Series Pro-Am Challenge champion and current class points leader, encountered an oil leak on the ninth lap of Sunday’s race that forced the retirement of his No. 00 Pop Art Snacks/Black Underwear Chevrolet Camaro for Troy Benner Autosport. He was credited with 26th place overall and ninth in class.
Tristan McKee, Driver, No. 48 Spire/Gainbridge/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:
“This one goes to the guys, everybody who put a hand on this car. We’ve changed a motor, the rear end, steering components, just about everything on the whole car, so it was a tough past couple of days. But it feels good to get one for them, for the guys. They’ve worked countless hours, late nights every night, and came back this morning so we could run the practice session. And then I almost wrecked in the practice session sliding on oil, so it’s been crazy. Thanks to them, everyone at Chevy – Josh Wise, Scott Speed – for allowing me to do this, and everyone at Spire, Gainbridge for supporting us. We were super fast the whole time, we just never could get any laps. So I knew we had the pace to do it today. I wish we could have stayed in it yesterday, but obviously we had really strong pace today.”
Alon Day, Driver, No. 17 JSSI/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
“The start of the race was pretty eventful with Helio and other cars making contact and having issues. After that, it was a pretty tame race. I tried to catch Tristan, but he was very good. He did an amazing job. It’s amazing to get another 1-2 for TeamSLR. That’s always nice. The guys did such an amazing job giving us such a good car. And I’m happy to be here thanks to JSSI. I think today had a big impact on the championship, but there are still three races to go and, as everybody knows, anything can happen.”
Lanie Buice, Driver, No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
“I’m really proud of the No. 27 TeamSLR group. They did a great job this weekend and gave me a really fast racecar. Everybody who’s a part of TeamSLR works so hard these weekends, and especially during these doubleheaders. So, just super grateful for everyone that makes this possible. We had a really good day today and I’m just proud of the effort from everyone. I’m also proud of what I learned yesterday and to be able to come into today and execute. I know I told everyone in the debrief yesterday that I just had to do a better job today and put myself in better positions and continue to learn. And that’s exactly what we did. We not only went forward and finished fifth, but we learned a lot, we executed better, my restarts were better, I was putting myself in better positions. So, super proud of that and just thankful for every single person that makes all this possible.”
Helio Meza, Driver, No. 28 Alessandros Racing/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:
“I’m all good. Just have be thankful for all the safety equipment in the car and TeamSLR for making the racecar safe. Going into turn one, just had a little bit of side-by-side contact with Tristan, and then going up into the esses, I think either something broke and I couldn’t turn left going up the hill, and unfortunately had contact with Vinny (Meskelis) on my outside just because I couldn’t make the corner. That ended the day early, which is unfortunate because of the speed that we had yesterday. And we made a couple of changes overnight to make the car even better. But these things happen, we can’t really control it. I mean, obviously bummed that I missed out on the race, but these things happen. But we’ll regroup, we’ll work hard.”
Next Up:
The CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series takes a six-week hiatus before resuming the 2026 campaign with round 10 on Sept. 3-5 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. The weekend begins with a three-pack of test sessions at 10 a.m., noon, and 2:40 p.m. EDT on Thursday (Sept. 3). Friday (Sept. 4) begins with official practice at 11:50 a.m., followed by qualifying at 3:45 p.m. Saturday’s 41-lap, 75-lap race around the 10-turn, 2.459-mile circuit is 2:15 p.m. with live streaming video provided at no charge by RacingAmerica.tv and the @GoTransAm page on YouTube.
-TeamSLR-