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Nov 02, 2025 • TeamSLR

TeamSLR Closes Season at COTA with Seventh Straight Victory

17-Year-Old Helio Meza Scores Dominating Win in First TA2 Race;

 

Series Champ Tristan McKee Drives from 22nd to Second While

Brody Goble Finishes Third to Make it 1-2-3 for M1 Racecars;

 

M1 Driver Jared Odrick Takes Pro-Am Win To Clinch Class Championship

 

Overview

Date: Nov. 2, 2025

Event: Mission Foods COTA SpeedTour (Round 12 of 12)

Series: Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli

Division: Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series

Location: Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas

Layout: 3.4-mile, 20-turn road course

Format: 30 laps or 75 minutes

Weather: Sunny, upper-50s

TA2 Winner: Helio Meza of TeamSLR/Guthrie’s Garage

TeamSLR:

  • Helio Meza – Started 1st, Finished 1st (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
  • Tristan McKee – Started 22nd, Finished 2nd (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
  • Carson Brown – Started 23rd, Finished 23rd (Running, completed 29/30 laps)
  • Lanie Buice – Started 9th, Finished 29th (Mechanical, completed 19/30 laps)

M1 Racecars:

  • Brody Goble – Started 3rd, Finished 3rd (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
  • Jared Odrick – Started 10th, Finished 7th (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
  • Tim Carroll – Started 17th, Finished 15th (Running, completed 30/30 laps)

 Noteworthy:

  • Meza, a 17-year-old from Houston, scored a dominating victory in his first career TA2 Series race, starting from the pole and leading all but two of the 30 race laps Sunday. The Chevrolet development driver, who earned Rookie of the Year honors in this year’s Mazda MX-5 Cup tour and multiple wins in the NASCAR Mexico Challenge series, took the checkered flag 11.677 seconds ahead of his teammate and runner-up McKee. Meza laid down the Omologato Fastest Lap of the Race en route to his victory. The No. 27 on Meza’s M1 Racecars Camaro was in tribute this weekend to the late Barry Boes, who drove to the TA2 Pro-Am Challenge championship in his first season with TeamSLR in 2024 and was leading the class standings again this season before he was involved in an aviation accident Aug. 12. Coincidentally, Meza’s MX-5 Cup car is also the No. 27.
  • The 15-year-old McKee, who clinched the TA2 Series championship with his win in the previous round Oct. 19 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, rallied from 22nd on the starting grid after qualifying late Saturday was cancelled due to lightning. Sunday’s grid was set by lap times from TA2 practice Saturday morning, which McKee and Brown both missed while competing in the ARCA Menards Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway, where McKee finished fourth and Brown second. Both arrived at COTA just before the originally scheduled TA2 qualifying session Saturday.
  • McKee entered the weekend with an insurmountable 169-point lead over second-place Sam Corry in the overall driver championship after his fourth victory in the penultimate round at Barber. He also clinched the series Rookie of the Year title, as well as the Sunoco Young Guns Championship for drivers under 25.
  • Sunday’s victory was TeamSLR’s seventh in a row – by four different drivers – dating back to McKee’s June 22 win at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington. Veteran Mike Skeen followed with a victory June 29 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, where McKee was the runner-up and Corey Day was third to give TeamSLR a podium sweep. McKee won the next two events – July 12 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Aug. 30 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. Brown was victorious for TeamSLR Sept. 20 at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, followed by McKee’s win at Barber.
  • Goble, the 32-year-old Canadian from Surrey, British Columbia, arrived at COTA having clinched the TA2 Series Western Championship title Oct. 12 at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California with his fifth victory through the first seven of eight events. He was entered as a TA2 National Series competitor for Sunday’s race, which was made up of a combined field of National Series and Western Championship entries. Goble qualified third and held position in his Brown Bros. Racing machine, giving M1 Racecars a 1-2-3 finish to cap the season.
  • The 17-year-old Brown’s bid for a second consecutive TA2 victory Sunday, in his fifth start of the season. was thwarted when contact with a lapped car led to brake cooling issues.
  • Buice’s second TA2 Series start ended 19 laps into Sunday’s race when a differential issue left her stranded on course. The 18-year-old started ninth and held her relative position to that point.
  • Odrick’s seventh-place overall finish in his Troy Benner Autosport M1 Racecars Camaro clinched the Pro-Am Challenge-class championship for the second-year driver and the second in a row for M1 Racecars after Boes’ title last year. Odrick entered the weekend nine points in arears of Keith Prociuk atop the class standings, but won for the fourth time this season while Prociuk finished 13th overall and third in class. It was Odrick’s second Pro-Am win in a row, his seventh top-two finish in 12 events, and ninth podium.

Helio Meza, Driver, No. 27 Alessandros Racing/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:

“I don’t even know where to start. I’m just super grateful for this opportunity. I remember two years ago walking around in the paddock here and seeing my buddy Connor Zillich race, and I didn’t know if I’d get the opportunity to be racing in this series, so I’m just super grateful to be on the other side of the net behind the wheel, and I wouldn’t have thought I’d be in victory lane here. I can’t thank Chevrolet and Wise Optimization enough, and Scott Lagasse Racing. All my family came out. I’m from Houston, Texas, so a lot of my family is here, friends that I grew up racing with, as well. Just super grateful for everyone’s support, Alessandros Racing, there are so many people that make it possible for me to be where I’m at today. I couldn’t be more grateful, and I can’t wait to see what’s in the future.”

Tristan McKee, Driver, No. 28 Spire Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:

“I just want to say a huge thanks to Chevrolet, Spire, Gainbridge, HendrickCars.com, everyone who supports me – the Josh Wise program for all the preparation work that we’ve done all year. And just all the hard work that all of us put in and everyone at SLR. Every single crew member has put in tons of hard work at the racetrack, at the shop to bring a really good racecar to the track every weekend. We’ve gotten better and better every single weekend, and I feel like it’s been a big improvement game all year. So, I’m just super proud of all the hard work, and just a thank you to all the SLR guys for bringing fast cars, and Scott Lagasse (Jr.) and his dad, all the hard work they put into me and the other drivers, it just means a lot. It feels really good to have a bunch of great people in my corner. None of this would be possible without them. It was definitely cool getting here from Phoenix (Saturday after racing in the ARCA event). We actually had 35 minutes or so to spare to hopefully make qualifying, which unfortunately got called because of lightning, so unfortunately we had to start towards the tail end of the field.”

Carson Brown, Driver, No. 2 PayCafe/Ebb Logistics/SLR-M1 Racecars Entry:

“Overall, it was a very eventful weekend between Phoenix and COTA. We started really far back because of qualifying being canceled, and made our way up to, I think it was like, 18th, and then started falling right back to where we started trying to make some speed. Then I made some contact with a lapped car and started losing my brakes there at the end of the race and just couldn’t really hang on to make it a good finish. But just a big thank you to the SLR crew for everything they’ve done this weekend and this year. I feel like if we would have been able to practice and qualify, things would have turned out a lot differently. But, still, a big thank you to everyone.”

Lanie Buice, Driver, No. 8 Chevrolet/Cube 3/Franklin Road/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:

“I just want to start off by saying how thankful I am for the opportunity, and Chevrolet for giving me the opportunity to run with TeamSLR. The type of group that I’m around this weekend is just so encouraging and so incredible in so many ways. They teach me so much every weekend, and I’ve just learned so much over the past few days. I can’t thank TeamSLR enough for the incredible opportunity to run with them. It’s unfortunate that we had a mechanical issue in the race, we were running really good. And it was also unfortunate that we had to start further back than we wanted to because the grid was set based on practice times after qualifying was canceled because of lightning. I feel like this weekend we just wanted to try and make it as positive as possible and really just do the best that we could with the circumstances that were handed to us. We started moving forward at the beginning until we had the issue. I’m just super grateful for the type of group I’m around and all that I’ve learned this weekend. The ending was unfortunate, but I’m excited to come back again and see what we can do with all I’ve learned.”

Next Up

The 2026 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series season season kicks off with the traditional Sebring SpeedTour, Feb. 26 to March 1 at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway. The weekend schedule and television broadcast information are to be announced. TeamSLR would like to thank its partners Cube 3 Architecture, Franklin Road Apparel, Kallberg Racing, and Guthrie’s Garage for their season-long support.

-TeamSLR- 
Published by TeamSLR November 2, 2025