TeamSLR Trio Is ’Bama Bound

Teen Rookie Tristan McKee Takes TA2 Points Lead to Barber Motorsports Park for Penultimate Event of 2025 Alongside Returning Corey Day, Naz Olkhovskyi

Fifteen-year-old Tristan McKee leads the three-car TeamSLR entry to the heart of the Yellowhammer State holding a 152-point lead atop the TA2 standings with just Sunday’s 42-lap, 75-minute race, and the Nov. 2 Mission Foods COTA SpeedTour at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, left on the schedule. Fellow teen Sam Corry is the second-place driver in the standings and needs to leave Alabama within 109 points of McKee to have a mathematical shot to overtake the TeamSLR driver in the championship finale at COTA.

McKee and his No. 28 Spire/Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro welcome Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day back to the TeamSLR camp this weekend for the first time since late June, as well as Pro-Am Challenge-class competitor Naz Olkhovskyi, who made his TA2 Series debut last month at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton. Jared Odrick of TRB Autosport completes the four-car M1 Racecars lineup and looks to extend his lead in the Pro-Am standings this weekend.

TeamSLR arrives at Barber on a five-race winning streak at the hands of three different drivers. McKee scored three of those wins during a four-race summer stretch that began June 22 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, and concluded with back-to-back victories July 12 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Aug. 30 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. The driver from Kannapolis, North Carolina, scored a runner-up finish during that stretch on June 29 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, where he was part of a 1-2-3 TeamSLR effort flanked by victorious veteran Mike Skeen and the third-place-finishing Day. Another teen prodigy, 17-year-old Carson Brown, brought home the victory for TeamSLR in the most recent round Sept. 20 at VIR behind the wheel of the No. 2 PayCafe/Ebb Logistics/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars entry in just his fourth TA2 start.

McKee saw a seven-race string of podium finishes come to an end at VIR, where he qualified on the pole for the second time this season but had to settle for a finish outside the top-10 for just the second time in his 12-race TA2 career after an early-race transmission issue dropped him three laps off the pace. Since VIR weekend, McKee, a Chevrolet Motorsports development driver under contract with NASCAR’s Spire Motorsports, won a Late Model Stock heat race during the NASCAR Regional Series event Sept. 28 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, and finished third in the ARCA Menards Series national tour finale Oct. 4 at Toledo (Ohio) Speedway.

The 19-year-old Day will be back behind the wheel of the No. 17 HendrickCars.com/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro for the fifth time this season, looking to better his third-place finish and front-row qualifying effort the last weekend in June at Road America. The short-track specialist from Clovis, California, has taken quickly to TA2 Series competition this season, having qualified on the pole in just his third race at Mid-Ohio after qualifying fourth in his previous outing April 26 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, the latter race in preparation for his NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA outings at the Northern California track on July 11-12. Day is coming off back-to-back Xfinity Series outings Oct. 4 on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, where he qualified sixth and finished 22^nd, and last Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he qualified 19^th and finished a series career-high fourth.

After a solid start to his TA2 Series career at VIR, Olkhovskyi returns to the No. 48 TeamSLR/StandWithUkraine Chevrolet Camaro in which he qualified ninth and finished eighth among the Pro-Am entries at VIR. The 38-year-old Ukraine native was a regular competitor on the European shifter kart circuit as a teen and has dabbled in various SCCA regional classes since moving to the United States in 2008.

Odrick, the 37-year-old from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who played seven seasons with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars from 2010 through 2016, brings a six-point lead over second-place Keith Prociuk in the Pro-Am Challenge standings into the weekend. The second-year Pro-Am competitor is coming off his third class victory of the season at VIR, which marked his sixth top-two finish in the last eight events. Odrick finished fifth overall in the 26-car field at the Virginia track. His other victories came May 3 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, and at Mid-Ohio behind the wheel of his No. 00 Black Underwear/CoolBoxx/M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro.

TeamSLR will once again honor the memories of Barry Boes and Tom Ellis this weekend. Boes, the defending Pro-Am Challenge champion who was on pace to make it back-to-back titles this season, was involved in a fatal aviation accident Aug. 18. Ellis, the longtime TeamSLR supporter whose son Thomas drove for the team at selected events last season, passed away in early September.

Riding along with TeamSLR drivers and their M1 Racecars once again this season is Nashville, Tennessee-based Franklin Road Apparel Company, which has been a longtime team supporter and serves as associate partner on all TeamSLR entries. Also continuing its support of the overall TeamSLR effort is Cube 3 Architecture, as well as Kallberg Racing, and Guthrie’s Garage.

Barber SpeedTour weekend kicks off Friday with the first of two official TA2 practice sessions set for 12:20 p.m. CDT. The second practice session takes place at 8:55 a.m. Saturday, followed by TA2 qualifying at 1:25 p.m. Race time for Sunday’s 42-lap, 75-minute event is 1:50 p.m., with series broadcast partner Speed Sport 1 providing live TV coverage, augmented by a live stream on the Trans Am channel on YouTube.

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

You’re down to the last two races of the season. Overall thoughts as you and the Trans Am Series head to Barber Motorsports Park for the first time ever?

“I’m ready. I made some laps there in a test car and the track seems super fun. It’s kind of more toward my style, like a Mid-Ohio kind of track where it’s just super flowy, not a ton of big brake zones, just flowy with long corners and a lot of elevation and crests. I’m definitely super excited for that.”

Does the fact it will be the series’ first visit to the track put everybody on more equal footing heading into the race?

“I’ve been able to learn the tracks pretty quickly and get the hang of things pretty quickly. Some other teams maybe have tested there, but since Trans Am hasn’t been there, nobody’s raced there and I feel like that’ll be good for us. We’ll be learning the track with the crew, and I’ll be learning the track as far as my part goes, so I’m definitely looking forward to that part of it. It’s a pretty narrow track, which should make for some really tight racing.”

Your streak of seven consecutive podium finishes came to an end at VIR. Does that give you added motivation to start a new streak at Barber?

“We definitely wanted to complete all the laps, that was one of our goals for the season because I don’t think anyone’s ever done that. So that’s kind of a bummer, but we still have a healthy points lead. We broke the transmission not too many laps into the race and got it changed super quickly, and even got out and made some more laps there at the end just to learn a little bit more and see what we need for the cars to keep getting better. So huge props to the crew on that. It was really good that we were able to get it changed that quickly and get back on the racetrack. So, in a way that gives us a little momentum for this weekend.”

Corey Day, Driver, No. 17 HendrickCars.com/SLR-M1 Racecars/Chevrolet Camaro:

You’re back with TeamSLR and M1 Racecars for the first time since back-to-back weekends at Mid-Ohio and Road America at the end of June. Overall thoughts about racing with the team at Barber this weekend?

“It’ll be the first time there for me, just like all the places we’ve raced this year, but that’s all right. Our stuff has been good off the truck all year, which is definitely helpful. I’ll have some sim work done by the time we get there, and I’ve watched a little bit of video and it seems like a cool place, pretty technical. I’m excited.”

Being the first time Trans Am has ever raced there, do you feel like that will be a great equalizer?

“Yeah, for sure. That’s always a good thing for me because I’m used to showing up to a new track in a sprint car and getting three hot laps, and then you’ve got to go qualify, so I’m good at adapting quicker than probably some other guys are because of that experience. I think that could play into my favor, for sure, so we’ll see. That gives me confidence going into the weekend, and if the car’s close, just like it was at Mid-Ohio and Road America – where I think we had the best cars, we were fast – we should be good.”

You qualified on the pole for the first time in just your third TA2 race at Mid-Ohio, then qualified second the following weekend at Road America and drove to your first podium finish there. Both of those weekends resulted in victories for TeamSLR, and it has won three more times since. Does that give you added confidence at Barber?

“It’s been cool to see, for sure. Tristan’s doing a really good job, and it just goes to show the team’s ability to perform. Scotty (Scott Lagasse Jr.) does a really good job helping us and giving us his knowledge, and he’s really smart with the mechanics of the car, too. I actually have a lot of fun racing for Scotty. He’s a pretty fun car owner to race for and he’s a great guy. It’d be really cool to get a win in only my fifth race this year. I know Tristan will be really good this weekend. He’s definitely got some seat time on me, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot with this road-course stuff and I’m pretty excited to give it another shot.”

Naz Olkhovskyi, Driver, No. 48 #StandWithUkraine/TeamSLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:

Now that you’ve had a few weeks to digest what happened during your TA2 debut at VIR, what are your thoughts about how it all went down for you and what you learned and how it will come into play this weekend?

“I’m really excited for this one and ready to push hard, have some fun and keep making progress every time I hit the track. I’ve been busy getting the car ready for Barber because it takes a lot of work to get these cars prepped between the races. I’m really grateful to Scott (Lagasse Jr.) and TeamSLR for helping me with this because there’s a ton of work that goes into it. I do the work on it and the team helps me with everything that I need as far as parts and pieces, and explaining to me what to do here and there. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to getting back on track this weekend at Barber. It’s such a fun and technical track and I cannot wait to get some laps in there. I feel like I learned a lot at VIR so, going to Barber, I have a little bit higher expectations for myself now that I learned a little bit more, and I’m excited to see how this experience pays off. The goal is to take everything I learned at VIR and use it to be more consistent and more competitive at Barber.”

What particular things did you learn at VIR that you would consider most valuable as you move forward?

“It was mostly the procedural things that I learned – how the practice goes, how the communication goes during practice, qualifying and the race. Now that I also know what to expect from other people around me on the track – I learned some faces, the other cars and how they drive – and I have a better idea who I will be racing at Barber. That kind of experience helps a lot. And I learned a little bit more about the car. We did some changes for Barber, so hopefully these changes will help me to go faster.”

Your thoughts about the Barber circuit?

“I haven’t had a chance to drive the track, yet, but I’ve done work on the sim. It’s a slower track than VIR and I feel it will suit me better. I feel like it will correlate better to the karting experience I’ve had. At VIR, I had the most challenges in the fast corners where, at Barber, there are way fewer fast corners. I feel like the slower sections at VIR are similar to a lot of the sections at Barber. That’s where I felt like I was stronger at VIR. I wasn’t losing as much time there in the slower sections as I was losing in the faster sections. So now that deficit is gone and I feel like not only me, but everybody will be much closer together at Barber. There’s never been a Trans Am race there, so that could be an equalizer.”

-TeamSLR-