ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (May 20, 2026) – A foursome of TeamSLR drivers head to scenic Northwest Connecticut for Saturday’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series Memorial Day Classic at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville relishing the opportunity to tackle one of the most unique challenges in American motorsports, and to do it on a weekend that always carries extra meaning.
Round five of the TA2 Series campaign takes the team’s 2026 regulars Alon Day and Helio Meza, joined by former TeamSLR fulltime driver Connor Mosack and newcomer to the team Ben Maier, to the fast, narrow and relentlessly technical 1.478-mile, seven-turn New England circuit notorious for demanding equal parts precision, patience and bravery. Mosack answered the last-minute call to substitute for Lanie Buice, the team’s third fulltime driver in 2026, while she recovers from the aftereffects of an accident during a Late Model event Saturday night at Tri County Speedway in Granite Falls, North Carolina.
Meza and Day arrive in Connecticut first and second, respectively, in the TA2 Series driver championship through four of 12 rounds this season after the team swept five of the six possible podium positions during the April 25-26 doubleheader weekend at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. The 19-year-old Meza and his No. 28 Alessandros Racing/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro won both races from the pole, as he has done in each of his five career TA2 Series outings beginning with his debut in the 2025 season finale Nov. 3 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Day, the 34-year-old from Ashdod, Israel, and driver of the No. 17 JSSI/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro, finished second from the outside-front-row starting spot in both Sonoma races to give him three consecutive podium finishes. Mosack finished third in the Saturday race at Sonoma to give the team five podiums on the weekend.
While Meza will be seeing Lime Rock for the first time in his career this weekend, Day returns to the track where he drove to an improbable runner-up finish in his first career ARCA Menards Series race last June, and endured a chaotic travel experience in the process. He and his Venturini Motorsports entry dominated the early part of the race, leading 20 of the opening 35 laps heading into the series’ midrace break for mandatory, non-competitive pit stops. But radio miscommunication caused Day to miss the call to enter pit road during the appointed caution lap and led to a penalty that sent him to the back of the field for the ensuing restart. Over the final 33 laps, the four-time NASCAR Euro Series champion proved his mettle as he picked off all but one car before the checkered flag, finishing 4.139 seconds behind race-winner Thomas Annunziata.
Just making it to Lime Rock in time to race last June was an adventure in itself for Day. With Israeli airspace closed due to a brief conflict in a neighboring country, he had to begin his journey 10 days before the race weekend with a 30-hour boat ride from Israel to Cyprus, followed by commercial flights to Athens, New York and Charlotte, North Carolina, and the final leg to Lime Rock on the Venturini team plane. It was a 60-hour ordeal in total.
Day’s second career TA2 Series outing March 14 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta certainly hearkened memories of his improbable runner-up ARCA Series finish at Lime Rock. An accident in final practice forced him to miss TA2 qualifying and sent him to the back of the starting grid on race day. But, once again, he methodically picked off car after car on his way to a third-place finish that gave TeamSLR a sweep of the Road Atlanta podium.
Meza, a Houston native and, like Buice and Maier, is part of the stable of young Chevrolet development drivers under the manufacturer’s Wise Optimization program, looks to add this weekend to his record-setting streak of five consecutive victories to start his TA2 Series career. His sweep of the Sonoma weekend gave TeamSLR 11 straight TA2 Series wins dating back to 15-year-old Tristan McKee’s win last June at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington en route to the 2025 TA2 Series championship. Meza is coming off the overall victory for Alessandros Racing this past Sunday in the NASCAR Mexico Series event at the Autodromo Miguel E. Abed in Puebla. He was a two-time winner in the series’ Challenge Division last season.
Buice, the 19-year-old from Jackson, Georgia, and regular driver of the No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro, walked away after hard contact with the turn three wall after a part failure in her Late Model Saturday night at Tri County. She will forego this weekend’s race at Lime Rock as a precaution. Buice made Trans Am history during the Sonoma rounds last month, becoming the first female driver to win a TA2 Series Western Championship race with her sixth-place overall finish in the Saturday race. She was entered in both the TA2 national series and Western Championship series that ran concurrently during the weekend doubleheader.
Mosack, the 27-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, will make his fourth start of the season with TeamSLR this weekend. After his third-place finish in the Saturday race at Sonoma last month, a cooler issue led to his early exit in the Sunday race. Mosack opened the season with TeamSLR at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway the same February weekend he qualified on the pole and finished 13th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on the Streets of St. Petersburg (Fla.). A fulltime competitor for TeamSLR in 2021 and 2011, Mosack scored victories both seasons 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.
Maier, the 17-year-old from Chester, Maryland, steps into the No. 8 Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro that NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Andres Perez de Lara drove to a runner-up finish in TeamSLR’s podium sweep at Road Atlanta. Saturday’s 68-lap, 75-minute race will mark Maier’s 27th career TA2 Series start and his first with TeamSLR. He drove the full 2024 season and finished fifth in the driver championship behind a victory from the pole at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, and a runner-up finish from the pole at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Last year, Maier won the Pro Late Model championship and Rookie of the Year honors on the zMAX CARS Tour, and also made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in June at Lime Rock, qualifying 20th and finishing 18th in a Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet. His latest Truck Series outing came in February with Niece Motorsports at the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Grand Prix, where he drove from the back of the field to an 11th-place finish. Maier has also competed in the CRA JEGS All-Stars Tour, the Stadium Stuper Truck Series, and the Michelin Pilot Challenge.
This weekend’s field of 34 TA2 entries includes defending CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series Pro-Am Challenge champion Jared Odrick of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and his No. 00 Black Underwear/Helium Mobile Chevrolet Camaro for Troy Benner Autosport. Odrick the Pro-Am class in both races last month at Sonoma to give him three wins in the four Pro-Am rounds this season, starting on the class pole in all four races.
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.
Memorial Day Classic weekend kicks off Thursday with a pair of TA2 test sessions set for 12:05 and 4:30 p.m. EDT. Friday begins with official TA2 practice at 11:20 a.m., followed by qualifying at 4:25 p.m. Race time Saturday is 2:30 p.m. with live television coverage 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:
“We had just finalized the ARCA race with Venturini when the airspace was shut down. In Israel, it’s not as easy as just crossing a border and flying somewhere else. So the plan started with a 30-hour boat ride to Cyprus, then I flew to Athens, then JFK, then Charlotte. The whole trip took about 60 hours. My wife was pregnant at the time and honestly it felt like something from another century, like a World War II soldier leaving on a ship while his wife waves goodbye from the dock. It was very emotional.”
After all that, the ARCA race at Lime Rock turned chaotic for you, as well, but you mounted a furious rally from the back of the field to finish second. How did you pull that off on a racetrack notorious for being extremely difficult to make passes?
“Yeah, English isn’t my first language, so on the radio I like communication to be very clear and precise. I was leading the race when it was time for the scheduled non-competitive pit stops at the halfway point, and my spotter was joking with me right as I was trying to ask whether it was the lap we were supposed to pit. The pace car stayed out, and from everything I’ve learned since I was a kid racing, you follow the pace car, so I stayed out. But I saw in the mirror everybody behind me pitted, so I got penalized and sent to the back. I had to fight from there all the way back to second. Lime Rock is one of the hardest tracks to pass on, so I had to be aggressive, but I was clean. That’s my style. I’m a European-style driver, very clean racing.”
You’re on a streak of three consecutive podium finishes after an up-and-down weekend in your TA2 debut at the Sebring season opener. Do you feel like you’re settling in comfortably?
“Definitely. At Sebring I basically jumped in the car without knowing what to expect. Now I understand the car better, the communication with the team, the competition, everything. My confidence is growing because I know more about what I’m doing and what to expect, but there’s still a lot to learn if I want to beat my teammates. I’m motivated coming back to Lime Rock for the second year in a row, but I also know this is a completely different challenge. Trans Am is extremely competitive. My teammates are strong, the other teams are strong, and Lime Rock is such a unique track in these cars. I’m approaching it like a new experience all over again and trying to learn as quickly as possible.”
Helio Meza, Driver, No. 28 Alessandros Racing/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:
“I’m excited. It looks like a lot of fun, but it also looks like qualifying is going to be extremely important because passing seems really difficult there. Turn one looks like the main opportunity if you can get a good run off the final corner. Other than that, it feels like you’re mostly single file unless somebody really sends it in somewhere. For us, the key is making sure the car is strong in practice so we can qualify up front and control the race from there. The prep has been pretty similar to every other race – lots of video and studying film. What stands out is how little time there is to relax. Outside of the front straight, it’s just constant rhythm and direction changes. And then there’s the jump. That section looks pretty gnarly. You want the car back on the ground as quickly as possible because hanging in the air costs time. It actually reminds me of Supercross when riders scrub jumps to stay low and keep momentum.”
How would you describe the learning process as you are still early in your rookie TA2 Series season, bearing in mind you’ve achieved remarkable success?
“I’ve never climbed out of a racecar thinking I drove a perfect race, even on weekends where statistically everything went right. As drivers, we remember every little mistake. At Sonoma, for example, I spun the tires a little on a restart and Alon (Day) was immediately on my bumper. I was lucky to recover and still pull away, but afterward I was frustrated with myself. Then on the next restart, I replayed the situation in my head and fixed it. That’s how you improve. I’m surrounded by experienced people like Alon and Connor Mosack, and I’m always asking questions. I’d rather ask something stupid than pretend I know everything. The mindset I use is, practice like you’ve never won, and race like you’ve never lost. During practice and qualifying, I’m extremely hard on myself and constantly looking for mistakes. But once the race starts, you have to trust yourself completely. If you overanalyze every little error during a race, you’ll just bury yourself mentally.”
Connor Mosack, Driver, No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
“I’ll start by saying we’re thinking about Lanie and know that she’ll be back stronger than ever in no time at all. Lime Rock really is a place I’ve always liked going to, especially in the TA2 cars. I’ve always have had a lot of speed there but just never had the luck in the race, or translated to a really good finish there. Hopefully this time will be a different story for us. We have a full weekend to prepare. I think the last three times I’ve been there I really just showed up and raced, so it’ll be nice to have the full weekend to dial everything in. Definitely looking forward to that. It looks like a chance of rain, as well. Lime Rock’s probably one of my favorite tracks to run in the rain so as long as the race doesn’t get too chaotic with changing tires back and forth like it has in the past. Hopefully it’ll be a fun weekend.”
What is it about Lime Rock that you like it so much?
“It seems like a simple little track, but it definitely has unique characteristics and I think there are little things that you can pick up there after going around a few times. You’ve got to be disciplined with your line. You’ve got curbs you can play with, and there are a few different things you can do to kind of change the balance of your car, which always helps. It’s definitely tough to pass there, but it, it can be rewarding, and it’s a fun place to race somebody, especially when you get side by side. You can be side by side for at least the first three or four corners, so we’ll see.
You were a very late add to the lineup, but given the fact you’re very familiar with the team, and very familiar with the track, does that almost make you a plug-and-play addition to the lineup?
“Obviously, I might be a little behind on preparation, definitely less than normal, but I’ve been there several times and the speed’s usually been there. And I know the TeamSLR cars really well, and the program, and I’ll have three good teammates to work with while I’m there. That’ll really be a plus for all of us. And then, for me, it’s at Lime Rock, too, with the (NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) race I’m running there later this summer. It’ll be good to get back up there and knock the rust off before that race, as well.”
Ben Maier, Driver, No. 8 Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro:
“It’s pretty incredible. The team’s obviously had a ton of success, and I think we should hit it off quickly. I’ve got a lot of TA2 experience now, basically two full seasons, so I have a good understanding of these cars already. I think I’ll adapt to the M1 car pretty fast and hopefully be competitive right away. The cars are obviously very good, but a lot of it is the people. Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier at Chevrolet, everybody involved does an incredible job preparing drivers and getting them ready, not just for TA2 but for everything else they race, too. It’s a really strong development program, and you can see that in the results.”
You’ve come a long way since racing TA2 as a 14-year-old. What has the series done for your development, and how has the experience translated to your endeavors in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the CARS Tour?
“TA2 is one of the best training grounds in the country because it’s one of the few places where you’re racing stock-type cars on road courses. If your goal is NASCAR, there’s really no better way to learn that style of racing. The cars are also just a blast to drive. They’ve got over 500 horsepower, they handle really well, and honestly they’re some of the most fun racecars I’ve ever driven. It’s helped a ton. Most of my Truck Series starts have been on road courses, so already having that stock-car road racing background from TA2 made that transition much easier. At St. Pete earlier this year, I was second in practice, then qualifying got rained out so I had to start 35th, but I drove the truck up to finish 11th. A lot of that comes from the experience I gained in TA2.”
Do you feel your previous TA2 experience, including having already raced in the series at Lime Rock, will help you get up to speed more quickly this weekend?
“Definitely. It’s a different field now than when I first started, but experience always helps. You learn how people race, who’s aggressive, who races clean, and how to survive the chaos. Hopefully we’re running up front and staying out of the mess. Lime Rock is probably one of the most unique tracks there is. It’s really short, but there’s a ton of elevation change, a jump, and then that huge downhill run onto the front straight. Almost every corner is high-speed, so you never really slow the car down much. That’s what makes passing so difficult. There aren’t many heavy braking zones outside of turn one, so it’s hard to create opportunities. But that also makes it one of the most fun tracks I’ve ever raced on.”
-TeamSLR-