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Helio Meza Earns Sixth Victory of 2026 After Getting By Polesitting Teammate Alon Day; Lanie Buice Scores Third Straight Top-10; Returning 2025 TA2 Champ Tristan McKee’s Bid Foiled by Cooler Issue
Overview
Date: July 18, 2026
Event: Watkins Glen Doubleheader (Round 8 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: Sunny, mid-70s
Winner: Helio Meza of TeamSLR
TeamSLR:
● Helio Meza – Started 2nd, Finished 1st (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Alon Day – Started 1st, Finished 2nd (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Lanie Buice – Started 9th, Finished 10th (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Tristan McKee – Started 3rd, Finished 25th (Cooler, completed 24/30 laps)
M1 Racecars:
● Jace Denmark – Started 12th, Finished 7th (Running, completed 30/30 laps)
● Jared Odrick – Started 17th, Finished 26th (Running, completed 23/30 laps)
Noteworthy:
● Meza, the 18-year-old from Houston, won for the sixth time in eight CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series races this season and for the seventh time in nine career starts, dating back to last year’s season finale at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. He qualified second to Day on Friday, but got by his teammate during the third restart of the race and held point all the way to the checkered flag.
● Day, the 34-year-old from Ashdod, Israel, qualified on the pole for the second time in the last four races, setting the track TA2 Series record with a lap of 1:48.991. Saturday’s runner-up result marked his seventh consecutive podium finish, which includes victories May 23 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, and June 28 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
● Buice, the 19-year-old from Jackson, Georgia, drove to her fourth top-10 finish in seven races this season, and her third in a row.
● McKee, the 15-year-old from Williamsburg, Virginia, returned to the team for the first time since his 2025 TA2 Series championship campaign. His victory bid Saturday from third on the starting grid was thwarted by a recurring cooler issue, which required a lengthy pit stop to address the issue. When he resumed several laps down, he was able to lay down the fastest lap of the race to earn the pole position for Sunday’s second race of the weekend doubleheader.
● Other TeamSLR starting positions for Sunday’s race based on each driver’s fastest race laps Saturday are second for Meza, fourth for Day, and 10th for Buice.
● Meza’s victory Saturday was the 15th in a row for TeamSLR, dating back to McKee’s June 2025 triumph at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington.
● Denmark, the 23-year-old from Phoenix, was the highest finisher among the two other M1 Racecars competitors in the field. Saturday’s seventh-place finish in the No. 68 Troy Benner Autosport M1 Racecars entry followed his ninth-place run June 28 at Road America, and his fifth-place run in his first race with the team June 21 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
● Odrick, the 2025 TA2 Series Pro-Am Challenge champion and current class points leader, missed the class podium for only the third time this season when a midrace incident sent him and his No. 00 Pop Art Snacks/Black Underwear Chevrolet Camaro for Troy Benner Autosport to pit lane for repairs.
Helio Meza, Driver, No. 28 Alessandros Racing/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:
“Just glad to be on the top step after what happened at Road America. Can't thank Alessandros Racing, Heraldo Media Group, Chevrolet, TeamSLR, and my family enough – all the series sponsors, CUBE 3 Architecture, Racing America, all these people that bring a great program. I had tried (to pass Alon Day) a couple of laps prior, but going into there (turn one), it's a little sketchy around the outside, especially on a teammate. Last thing I want to do is go in there and take two team cars out. So, just had a really good run off of turn one. The car was just fantastic. The team did an amazing job. In qualifying yesterday, we had a little transmission issue, and like always, the team gets to work. They were here really late last night and really early this morning. And I think everyone saw that the car's a rocket ship. Just really thankful for my crew guys Kyle and Evan (Bookmiller) for all the hard work they do for me, and the whole team in general.”
Alon Day, Driver, No. 17 JSSI/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
“There was not much I could do. Helio had an amazing car. I tried to defend as hard as I could, but it was almost impossible. Congratulations to him. The battle is on. I don't know what the result for tomorrow will be, but we'll try for a better result.”
Lanie Buice, Driver, No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
“I'm excited about the progress we've made all weekend. I feel like we've worked really hard to put ourselves in a good spot, and I feel like I’ve just got to keep working at it. Practice, qualifying was all OK for us. I feel like we should have put a little bit better of a lap down in qualifying. We ended up back in the midpack for the race and that is sometimes hard, but it was good racing and it was good to learn from and good situations to put myself into, even though it was a little bit of a mess. But I feel good about the progress that I'm making and feel good about the weekend so far. TeamSLR brought me a really fast car and my crew has done a great job. So, overall, I'm excited about tomorrow and excited to see how it's going to play out. I'm just going to keep pushing and keep trying to learn all weekend. That's why we're here.”
Tristan McKee, Driver, No. 48 Spire/Gainbridge/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:
“It turned out to be a short day, as far as being able to contend for the win. We had some issues from the get-go, something wasn’t quite right and it was hard to manage, and I lost quite a few spots. And then we had a cooler issue that affected the power steering, so we came in, made a few changes, tried to fix everything that was going on, went back out, laid down a really fast lap to get the pole for tomorrow's race. So that's the bright side, that's a good thing because we've been pretty much the fastest car other than qualifying yesterday, and most of the other sessions this weekend we were one of the fastest cars. So I definitely think we have the pace and the handling to do it tomorrow.”
Next Up:
Next up for the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series is Sunday’s second race of this weekend’s doubleheader at The Glen, round nine of the 2026 campaign. The 30-lap, 75-minute race is set for 11 a.m. ET with live streaming video be provided at no charge by RacingAmerica.tv and the @GoTransAm page on YouTube.
-TeamSLR-