ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (Oct. 28, 2025) – With two of three possible driver championships already locked up, TeamSLR and M1 Racecars head to the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, determined to close out the Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series season on the highest of notes.
Teen rookie Tristan McKee, the youngest champion in the 60-year history of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli, clinched the TA2 Series national tour title with a pole-to-checkered-flag victory at the penultimate event of 2025 two weekends ago at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. It was his fourth win in the last six races and TeamSLR’s sixth in a row. McKee will be joined at COTA by returning fellow teens Carson Brown and Lanie Buice, with another teenager, 17-year-old Helio Meza of Houston, set to make his TA2 Series debut at his home track this weekend.
Wrapping up their 2025 campaign concurrently with the national series this weekend are the competitors from the Trans Am Western Championship, where Canadian Brody Goble wrapped up his second series title in three seasons Oct. 12 at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California, in M1 Racecars equipment.
Meanwhile, M1 Racecars is within striking distance of a third championship at the COTA finale as second-year Pro-Am Championship driver Jared Odrick sits just nine points out of the class lead.
The 15-year-old McKee, driver of the No. 28 Spire/Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Chevrolet Camaro, and the 17-year-old Brown, driver of the No. 2 PayCafe/Ebb Logistics/SLR-M1/Guthrie’s Garage entry, will be pulling double duty this weekend at racetracks separated by two time zones. Both will be driving Chevrolets in Saturday’s ARCA Menards Series West finale on the desert mile oval at Phoenix Raceway. They will forego Friday’s two TA2 test sessions and Saturday morning’s official practice session at COTA, but are scheduled to arrive at the 3.4-mile, 20-turn Texas circuit just in time for TA2 national series qualifying at 6:10 p.m. CDT. The 100-lap ARCA race at Phoenix goes green at 10:45 a.m. MST (12:45 p.m. CDT). Travel between the two tracks is expected to take roughly two hours.
McKee will arrive at COTA with an insurmountable 169-point lead atop the overall driver championship, as well as the rookie standings and Young Guns championship for drivers under 25, all three leads over second-place driver and fellow teen Sam Corry. Prior to his Barber victory, McKee scored his first three 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, added 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 sweep of the podium flanked by victorious veteran Mike Skeen and third-place-finishing Corey Day. McKee saw a seven-race string of podium finishes come to an end Sept. 20 at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, where he laid down his second of three pole qualifying laps 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 transmission issue dropped him three laps off the pace.
Brown, who’s from New London, North Carolina, joined the TeamSLR victory parade at that VIR round in just his fourth TA2 Series start. He earned his first series podium in his previous start at Watkins Glen, where he qualified third and finished third. The versatile young driver opened the season in February with an eighth-place finish from the 12th starting position at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway, then followed it up with a fourth-place finish from the sixth starting position at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in April. In March, the primarily dirt and asphalt short-oval specialist finished sixth in his ARCA Menards Series East debut at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. He also drove to a Super Late Model victory at Madison (Wis.) International Speedway this season.
Buice, the 18-year-old from Jackson, Georgia, took the reins of the No. 8 SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro for the first time at VIR thanks to the support of Chevrolet, Franklin Road Apparel and Cube 3 Architecture. She qualified sixth and was running in the top-five 20 laps into the race before a fuel injection gremlin sent her to pit lane twice and dropped her four laps off the pace. Buice has been a regular on the zMAX CARS Tour this season, finishing 11th in the final Late Model Stock Car standings behind a pair of top-fives and six top-10s for Lee Pulliam Performance. Buice also made her ARCA Menards Series debut this season, driving part-time for Rev Racing. She finished in the top-12 in all five events she entered with best results of eighth at both Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway in February and Kansas Speedway in Kansas City in April.
Meza is set for his first TA2 start behind the wheel of the No. 27 Alessandros Racing/Chevrolet/SLR-M1 Racecars Camaro. It’s the same car number sported by the late Barry Boes during his season and a half with TeamSLR before he was involved in a fatal aviation accident Aug. 18 and will serve as this weekend’s tribute to the 2024 Pro-Am Challenge champion, who was on pace to successfully defend his title at the time of his death. Coincidentally, No. 27 is Meza’s car number in the Mazda MX-5 Cup series, where the young driver recently wrapped up 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. The three-time national karting champion has competed in numerous stock car and open-wheel racing disciplines, including the NASCAR Mexico Challenge Series, where he was a two-time winner this season. Like McKee and Buice, Meza is part of the Chevrolet Motorsports roster of young development drivers under the mentorship of Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier.
The M1 Racecars contingent looks to make it a perfect season in Western Championship competition this weekend. The win at Thunderhill for Goble, driver of the No. 69 Brown Bros. Ford Lincoln Mustang from Surrey, British Columbia, was his fifth through the season’s first seven events. The other two wins for M1 Racecars came at the hands of Boes April 26 at Sonoma, and by Tim Carroll, driver of the No. 46 CRDMFG.com Chevrolet Camaro from Costa Mesa, California, in the first race of the weekend doubleheader Oct. 11 at Thunderhill.
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, stands second in the Pro-Am Challenge standings, just nine points behind leader Keith Prociuk. The driver of the No. 00 Black Underwear/CoolBoxx/M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro for Troy Benner Autosport posted a runner-up finish in class at Barber two weekends ago to mark his seventh top-two result of the season, which includes a three victories – May 3 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, June 22 at Mid-Ohio, and Sept. 20 at VIR.
In addition to Boes, TeamSLR will once again honor the memory of longtime team supporter Tom Ellis this weekend. Ellis, 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 has been 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.
Mission Foods COTA SpeedTour weekend kicks off Friday with a pair of TA2 test sessions set for 11:30 a.m. and 5:55 p.m. CDT. Saturday begins with official TA2 practice at 11:30 a.m., followed by qualifying at 5:50 p.m. Race time for Sunday’s 30-lap, 75-minute event is 9:15 a.m., with series broadcast partner Speed Sport 1 providing live TV coverage, augmented by a live stream on the Trans Am channel on YouTube.
How does it feel to head to COTA this weekend with the championship locked up and being able to race without the pressure trying to win a championship brings?
“It feels good to not have any championship pressure. We’re just going to be pushing 100 percent the whole time, taking every opportunity, and hopefully parking it on the top step (of the podium) at the end. We’ve had a big points lead for a while, so I was able to just focus on racing smart. Now we can really go all-out and try to finish the season strong. It’s nice to just go out, have fun, and do what we do best – race hard and try to win.”
You’ll miss Friday testing and Saturday practice at COTA while you’ll be competing in Saturday morning’s ARCA West race at Phoenix. What will be your mindset once you take the wheel late Saturday at COTA?
“It might take me a couple of laps to get used to it, but we’re going straight into qualifying, so it’s pretty much go, go, go right away. Hopefully we can put down a really good lap and be up toward the front. The goal would be to put it on the pole – it’d be really cool to do that without getting any practice. I think with the prep I’ve done, I’ll be up to speed quickly. I just need to trust what I know and go for it right away.”
Does it seem surreal to be tasked with driving at two different tracks, two time zones apart, all in the same day?
“If it all works out right, we should make it just in time for qualifying at COTA. We won’t get to do any practice, but I’ve got laps there from last year and I’ve done a lot of prep work, so I think I’ll be comfortable when I get there. I don’t think I’ve ever driven in two different parts of the country in two different cars, two different tracks – one an oval, one a road course. It’s definitely going to be cool. I feel like I can switch my mindset from the ARCA car at Phoenix to the Trans Am car at COTA pretty easily. I’ll be just fine with that part of it. It’s going to be a crazy weekend, but also a lot of fun, just trying to take it all in and make the most of both races.”
You had a solid run going at COTA a year ago in only your second-ever TA2 Series race. Thoughts on coming back to the circuit this weekend?
“COTA is a really, really cool track. F1 races there, NASCAR races there. It’s just an awesome layout with elevation changes, the esses, the carousel, and that tight stadium section. There’s a little bit of everything, which makes it really fun. The elevation into turn one is crazy, and then you’re flying down through the esses. It’s a place that keeps you on your toes. Last year we had a really good run going, running inside the top-five in only my second TA2 race. I’ve gotten so much better since then, and the team’s gotten better, too, so it’s going to be really good. It’s one of those tracks where if you get into a rhythm, you can really make up ground. I learned that last year when we charged from 37th up to 13th by the end of the race.”
You had the chance to test at COTA recently. What are your impressions after your first experience at the track?
“COTA’s one of the most prestigious tracks on the schedule, and when I started the year, it was the one I was most looking forward to. Turn one is wild. The elevation change is pretty crazy. It’s just a really neat racetrack and one of the most popular on the circuit. When we tested there, it was a lot of fun. I did some sim work before and after, and it was cool how accurate it was. It felt like the wheel just fell into my hands. It’s different than any other track I’ve run. There’s so much elevation change that you really have to manage grip and know where to make up time and where to just maintain. There are a few sections where you’ve got to be smart, like off turn 11 leading onto that long straight. It’s all about setting up your run and not losing momentum. We’ll definitely have more cars than what the TA2 field usually is, which I think is good. I love when there are more cars and more competition. It just makes it that much more fun.”
You’re back with TeamSLR after your first TA2 podium at Watkins Glen, then your first victory at VIR. What do you think about the momentum the team is arriving with at COTA?
“The SLR crew is one of the most stout teams out there. I’m coming off a win, Tristan just wrapped up a championship, and Brody Gobel won the Western Championship title. There are a lot of really good people making these cars go fast on lefts and rights. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going at COTA.”
Thoughts about pulling double duty, along with Tristan, driving the ARCA West race at Phoenix and then hustling over to COTA in time to qualify Saturday?
“I’ve done double duty before, but nothing like what I’m about to do, and definitely not on this big of a stage. It’s going to be interesting and fun at the same time, as long as everything goes to plan. Bouncing back and forth between races isn’t easy, but hopefully we can make qualifying and run strong at both Phoenix and COTA.”
You had a chance to run some laps at COTA recently. What are your impressions of the track and your expectations for the weekend?
“It definitely gave me a good perspective of the track before going there for race weekend. I’m really excited. It’s a really cool racetrack and I feel like it’s going to be a great race. I just want to keep learning and getting better at this road-course-racing stuff because I really enjoy it. COTA’s a lot different than anything I’ve ever done before. It’s really wide, it’s huge, and nothing like VIR. There’s more runoff, tighter corners, harder brake zones, it’s definitely more technical. A lot of people say VIR is one of the hardest places, but I actually think COTA is more challenging. I’ve done a lot of prepping with Scott Speed and Josh Wise and everybody at Chevrolet. They’ve really helped me prepare in the best way for the track, but you don’t really know what you’ve got until you get out there. Now it’s about focusing on the little things, nailing down where you’re supposed to be on the track based on the data and everything.”
Now that you’ve had a chance to process your debut TA2 Series weekend at VIR, how would you assess your performance there?
“Overall, the weekend at VIR was really successful. I learned a ton, I progressed a ton, and I really set myself up better for this next one. That was the whole point – to get better and prepare for the end of the season. Working with Tristan and Carson and looking at their data compared to mine was really valuable. Same with Scotty (Scott Lagasse Jr.) and Scott Sr., everyone put in the work to make me better that weekend. I learned at VIR just how good everyone at TeamSLR is and how helpful they are in making you really good at such a technical place. That’s why I’m so excited to go to COTA with them and really focus on the details to find speed. It’s really cool to be on a team that has the championship locked down and a teammate who’s worked so hard to be the champion. I get to learn from him in so many ways, and that’s super valuable for me.”
You’re from Houston. Safe to say there’s a level of excitement for you to be making your TA2 Series debut at your home road course?
“COTA’s actually one track I haven’t raced at before, but funny enough, it was the first TA2 race I ever saw in person. I went to watch Connor Zilisch a couple of years ago, so it’s kind of a full-circle moment, from being in the stands watching to now racing there myself. I’ve done some sim work, and from what I’ve done, I think it’s a really proper track. The esses are going to be really cool in a TA2 car with how much speed you carry, and that long backstraight. It’s going to be a pretty fun track to drive.”
You had the opportunity to test with TeamSLR at VIR last month. What are your impressions of the TA2 car?
“Driving the car in testing was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a car on track, just because of the combination of power and grip you have. I’m really looking forward to this weekend and actually getting to race alongside some guys. It was great to meet the team formally, and I learned a lot that day. Scott (Lagasse Jr.) helped me learn the ropes really quickly, and it almost felt like I was at home right away. Everyone was super nice, and I just expect the same this weekend, to pick up where we left off and keep learning as much as I can. The team has had so much success the past six races, winning all of those and being the championship-winning team with Tristan McKee, a guy I’ve been able to work with at the GM Technical Center. Every time I think back to driving with them at VIR, it puts a smile on my face because of how fun it was. I’m just itching to get back into it this weekend.”
You’ve made your mark in recent years in the MX-5 Cup Series and the NASCAR Mexico Challenge Series, among others. What are your impressions of the TA2 Series, in general?
“For the stock car world, if you want to race in NASCAR and in the Cup Series one day, this series is super beneficial. You’re learning how to race on road courses while driving what’s basically a proper stock car. So when you hop into an Xfinity or Cup car, it’s not going to seem foreign at all.”
-TeamSLR-