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Alon Day, Helio Meza, Connor Mosack and Lanie Buice Ready To Take On Challenges of Scenic Hillside Circuit
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (April 21, 2026) – As the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series heads west to Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway for a weekend doubleheader set among the scenic hills and vineyards of Wine Country, TeamSLR arrives with a full-bodied, four-driver blend ready to uncork an array of solid finishes.
Rounds three and four of the 2026 campaign take place Saturday and Sunday, respectively, in the form of 40-lap, 75-minute races around the 2.52-mile, 11-turn Sonoma circuit. It’s the TA2 Series’ first doubleheader since the June 2023 Detroit Grand Prix, and it offers the TeamSLR driver lineup of Alon Day, Helio Meza, Connor Mosack and Lanie Buice a double shot at occupying the top step of the podium.
Day, the 34-year-old from Ashdod, Israel, put an exclamation point on the TeamSLR effort at the previous round March 14 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, where he rallied for a podium finish of third in only his second career TA2 Series race. This weekend’s driver of the No. 17 JSSI/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro had to forego qualifying at the Georgia circuit after an accident during practice, which sent him to 25th on the starting grid on race day. Unfazed, the veteran mounted a bold and determined drive to give TeamSLR a 1-2-3 finish, led by race-winner Meza and runner-up Andres Perez de Lara, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular who was making his first career TA2 Series start.
Day brought his diverse and highly successful racing background into his rookie TA2 Series season. He’s the winningest driver in NASCAR Euro Series history with 32 victories to go with his championships in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022, and is making his full-season TA2 Series run in partnership with Chicago-based aircraft maintenance support and finance company Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI). Day was on an open-wheel path at the start of his career, which featured an Israeli national karting championship and a Formula Renault Asian Championship title, followed by a six-race run in the North American-based Indy NXT Series in 2012 before the lion’s share of his attention turned to stock cars. Over the last decade, the former Athlete of the Year in his native Israel has also run a dozen races across NASCAR’s top three stateside series – Cup (two), O’Reilly Auto Parts (formerly Xfinity, four), and Craftsman Truck (two) – and the ARCA Menards Series (four). Six of those races took place at tracks he’ll visit during this year’s TA2 Series campaign, including Sonoma, twice. Most recently, Day qualified on the front row in his Venturini Motorsports entry in the ARCA Menards Series West race at Sonoma last July and brought it home in third place behind race-winner William Sawalich and runner-up Christian Eckes. Day’s first Sonoma outing came in the June 2017 NASCAR Cup Series race with BK Racing.
Meza, an 18-year-old Chevrolet development driver from Houston, stood tall on the top step of the Road Atlanta podium last month after his third consecutive pole-to-checkered-flag victory. The driver of the No. 28 Alessandros Racing/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro was also victorious in the March 1 season opener at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway in followup to his victory in his first career TA2 Series race at the 2025 season finale Nov. 3 at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The trifecta made Meza the first driver to win his first three races in the 60-year history of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli. Moreover, Meza's COTA triumph gave TeamSLR seven consecutive wins to close the season at the hands of four different drivers, including four by 15-year-old Tristan McKee en route to the 2025 TA2 Series championship.
Before bursting onto the Trans Am scene last November, Meza enjoyed successful 2025 runs in both the NASCAR Mexico Challenge Series and Mazda MX-5 Cup. Driving for Alessandros Racing under the guidance of veteran Ruben Rovello, Meza was a two-time Mexico Challenge Series race winner. In MX-5 Cup, Meza earned Rookie of the Year honors behind a pair of runner-up finishes and another pair of top-fives that placed him fifth in the final standings. He’s part of the stable of Chevrolet development drivers under the direction of Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier, as is a long list of past and present TeamSLR drivers, including Buice. TeamSLR is an official driver development partner of Chevrolet Motorsports.
Mosack, the 27-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, returns to TeamSLR for the second time this season and the sixth since graduating to the NASCAR and ARCA ranks after fulltime TA2 Series seasons in 2021 and 2022. He’ll be behind the wheel of the No. 48 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro this weekend for his fourth career Sonoma outing. After qualifying third and finishing sixth at the track with TeamSLR in 2022, he returned to the track for NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races for owners Sam Hunt in 2023 and Bobby Dotter in 2025. Mosack scored a pair of victories for TeamSLR in 2021 and 2022, both at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, and finished top-four in the championship both years. His schedule this season includes a dozen NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races for Spire Motorsports, with whom he posted a fifth-place finish March 20 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. He also qualified that truck on the pole Feb. 28 on the Streets of St. Petersburg (Fla.) circuit.
Buice, the 19-year-old from Jackson, Georgia, heads to Sonoma fresh off her best career ARCA Menards Series finish of fifth Saturday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. She’s looking to take advantage of this weekend’s two opportunities to post top finishes after encountering issues in this season’s opening two events at Sebring and Road Atlanta in her No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro. This weekend marks her fifth and sixth TA2 Series outings dating back to last September’s race at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, and November’s finale at COTA. Buice’s 2026 season features the full TA2 Series campaign with TeamSLR, as well as another four ARCA races and a mix of Late Model weekly series events.
This weekend’s field of 35 TA2 entries includes another trio of competitors in M1 Racecars equipment, led by defending Pro-Am Challenge champion Jared Odrick of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and his No. 00 Black Underwear/Helium Mobile Chevrolet Camaro for Troy Benner Autosport. Joining the TA2 Series National and Pro-Am field is the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series Western Championship, which will contest its first two of six rounds of 2026 this weekend. Tim Carroll of Santa Ana, California, returns to the Western Championship with his No. 46 CRD MFG Inc. Chevrolet Camaro, and will be joined in the M1 camp by John Moore of Loomis, California, who takes over the chassis Canadian Brody Goble drove to last year’s Western Championship title.
Riding along with TeamSLR drivers and their M1 Racecars once again this season are Guthrie’s Garage, CUBE 3 Architecture and longtime supporters Franklin Road Apparel Company and Kallberg Racing.
The weekend at Sonoma kicks off Thursday with a pair of TA2 test sessions set for 12:05 and 5:40 p.m. PDT. Friday begins with official TA2 practice at 10:40 a.m., followed by qualifying at 3:55 p.m. Saturday’s race is set for 1:30 p.m. while Sunday’s race is set for 2:10 p.m. Live television coverage of both races is available at no charge at RacingAmerica.TV, as well as the official Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli YouTube channel (@gotransam).
Alon Day, Driver, No. 17 JSSI/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You raced at Sonoma in the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series event, and in last year’s ARCA Menards Series West race. Will either of those two experiences translate to your first time at the circuit in a TA2 car?
“I don't know, yet. This is going to be the first time for me driving on the grand prix layout, with the carousel corner, so it’ll still be a new challenge for me. But I love Sonoma, it’s a super unique track and I have good memories from racing there in the past.”
Does Sonoma compare to any other track you’ve raced on?
“With so many fast corners and not many hard braking zones, it is a bit like Road Atlanta. You want to keep the flow and the highest minimum speed you can get.”
Last race, at Road Atlanta, you rallied from the back of the grid for a podium finish in just your second career TA2 Series race. How do you feel about that weekend, looking back?
“It was a bittersweet situation for me. The JSSI car was so fast that weekend, but it was such an unfortunate situation with the crash during Friday practice and missing qualifying. At the beginning of the weekend, I felt we could really challenge for the victory but, on the other hand, I was extremely happy with what we got – a good result, a podium, and a handful of championship points.”
After such a strong finish to the Road Atlanta weekend, do you wish you didn’t have to wait five weeks until the next race weekend?
“Well, you have to remember that it wasn't a normal five weeks for me and my family due to the situation in the Middle East. I actually just had to go back to my family (in Israel) to recharge my battery after the two weeks I couldn’t go home to my family between Sebring and Road Atlanta. That was overkill for me, mentally. So it was a good five-week break for me, to be honest, and now I’m ready more than ever.”
What are your expectations for this doubleheader weekend at Sonoma?
“I honestly don't know, we had so many ups and downs in the first two races that it’s hard to predict. But for sure I want to keep the car out of trouble, have two clean races, because that is the key to good results. And hopefully we will see the JSSI car at the top of the podium this time.”
Helio Meza, Driver, No. 28 Alessandros Racing/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:
Sonoma is another new track for you. Based on your experience in the sim and what people have told you about getting around that circuit, what will it be throwing at you, and what will you have to do to be able to get around there quickly?
“From the sim and videos and onboards that I’ve watched, it has a lot of elevation. Typically, all the encounters I’ve had with tracks that I’ve never been to, the elevation doesn’t seem that crazy on video or TV, but when you see it in person, it’s pretty wild, so I can imagine getting to the track for the first time is going to be like that. Turn one simply has plenty of elevation. The whole the track just seems like a rollercoaster. You’re going up, down, up, down, all the way throughout the track, and then you get to the final sector, where it’s a flatter part of the circuit,but it still has some elevation. I’m really looking forward to it. Obviously, a lot of history at that track, similar to Road Atlanta and Sebring. We’ve been prepping, working really hard to do the best that I can, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do.”
Is the thought of getting to race twice in the same weekend something special, especially after you’ve had to sit on your Road Atlanta victory for the last five weeks?
“Yeah, I think that’s pretty cool. Obviously, last year when I drove in MX-5 Cup, that’s usually what we did – we raced Saturday and Sunday – so I’m pretty used to that format. But, definitely, I always like the doubleheader weekends because, let’s say you had a bad race in race one, you still had something to look forward to the next day. You didn’t have to wait four or five weeks to try and redeem yourself. So it’ll definitely be a lot of seat time this weekend, for sure.”
Knowing you have to keep your racecar relatively intact for the Sunday race, does that affect how you race on Saturday?
“Actually, it doesn’t really enter my mind, per se, because typically I always try and keep the car as clean as I can, anyway. I think you can definitely tell the drivers you’re going against in race one, they won’t make as aggressive of a pass as they would on a one-race weekend, just because they know they have to compete on day two. You can kind of play that to your advantage, knowing that maybe you could squeeze a driver a little bit more or kind of open the corner up a little bit more, but I’m sure there are still going to be guys that are going to go for the move whether it’s there or not. I’m still going to drive every driver hard but respectfully, but there are definitely some guys that you can tell it gets in their head a little bit, so you can kind of take advantage of that in race one.”
Connor Mosack, Driver, No. 48 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You’ve had a good amount of experience at Sonoma in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races in 2024 and 2025, and the TA2 race in 2022. Thoughts about going back there, and about getting to race twice in the same weekend?
“Sonoma’s a fun place to race. It’s a great area to go and hang out in, which always helps. I have a little bit of experience there, but I’ve run only one race there since it was repaved two years ago, which definitely changes how the track drives and races. Sonoma had a lot of tire fall-off before the repave, so you really had to work on your setup to be good in the long run. Taking care of your tires and keep driving forward was the main thing. Now the fall-off isn’t much of a factor. You’ll still have some, for sure, but now you can kind of build in more speed and you don’t really have to worry about the long run as much. You can just focus on raw speed in your car, and I think it allows you to drive the track a lot harder, where before you kind of just had to take care of your equipment and couldn’t race quite as hard. I think having laps there with the repave is going to be helpful going into this weekend. This will also only be my second time running the carousel configuration as I ran the Trans Am race there back in ’22. Our car’s going to be really good, and if that’s the case, it should be a fun weekend.”
What make Sonoma so unique? Does it compare to any other track you’ve been to?
“Yeah, there are definitely some comparisons. You have a lot of elevation change and a lot of blind corners, which you have at a place like Road Atlanta – I would say it probably reminds me of it the most, just for those two reasons. You don’t have as many high-speed corners, and it’s a little slower, more technical, I would say. A lot of it is just knowing where you’re at on the track and being able to set yourself up for the next corner, especially the blind corners. It’s really easy to drop wheels off in a lot of places at Sonoma, which can make it challenging when you’re in traffic and makes visibility even harder. I think the challenge of all that is what makes the place fun.”
Is there any difference in the way you approach the Saturday race knowing you have to take care of your car for the Sunday race?
“If I was full-time, racing for points, I think you’d get a little different perspective. But for me, my goal is just to go there and win – whatever it takes on Saturday to get it done, that’s the plan, and then we’ll worry about Sunday after the Saturday race.”
Overall thoughts about coming back to TeamSLR for the first time since this year’s season opener at Sebring?
“Well, it’s always exciting to know you’re going to be in the best stuff. It allows you to just focus on what you’re doing as a driver. You still have to give feedback and make the car as good as you can because you’ve got to beat your teammates. And other teams make gains, so you always have to be ready to get after it against whoever you’ll have to race. But, I think going into this weekend, you just get to focus on driving and making the most out of the car that you have. And having the other teammates to compare to will hopefully make us all better for the two races.”
Lanie Buice, Driver, No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
Based on your preparation, what are your overall thoughts on heading to Sonoma for this weekend’s doubleheader?
“It’s a really iconic racetrack, and I also think it’s beautiful out there, so I’m excited to go race there. I think it’s going to be really interesting. There are not very many long straightaways, so the passing is going to be fun. I’ve done a lot of sim prep with the Wise Optimization guys – Josh Wise and Scott Speed – and they have really prepared me well for the weekend, so I’m looking forward to it and seeing what we can do. I feel a lot more comfortable as this year has progressed, and I’m ready to take on a new place.”
Describe what you think it will take to get around there quickly.
“There aren’t very many places to pass, maybe only three spots that are going to be really, really important to set up for passes. But I think what makes that place so unique is just how difficult it is to pass, and all of the elevation changes, the compression zones, and just how technical it is. I think that’s what makes that place special and I think that’s what’s going to make it a lot of fun to race there.”
Two races into the season, what would be your overall goals for the weekend?
“I would say my biggest goal for the weekend is just to finish every lap, try to finish up front. I feel like putting all the laps together and staying out of trouble this weekend is going to be really important for us to continue to build on and start working our way back in the points – trying to get those back on track and working toward getting in contention for Rookie of the Year. I definitely feel like, going into this weekend, I’m more prepared than I have been just because of the experience I’ve gotten from the previous road courses we’ve been to, and the oval races I’ve been to the last few months. And just with the preparation that goes into this weekend, I’m feeling a lot better about it. So I’m feeling way more confident going into the weekend, especially coming off of a good (ARCA Menards Series) run in Kansas this past weekend, and I just think a lot of things continue to build up and are keeping momentum going for me.”
You talk about gaining positions in the point standings, do you feel two races in the same weekend gives you a chance to make good progress in that respect?
“Yeah, I think it’s going to be really interesting with the doubleheader. It’ll be about trying to keep the car clean the first race so that we can be in contention to do really well in the second race as well as the first. I think the weekend gives us a really good chance to kind of come back on the points side of things. I think I just have to set myself up for a good weekend and I think I’ve done that preparing for the weekend. Now it’s just time to go to the racetrack and do my job.”
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