Among the stars of the TA2 class is Rafa Matos, a native of Brazil who resides in Boca Raton, Fla. Matos was the 2009 IndyCar Series rookie of the year and spent three seasons in the IndyCar ranks. For much of his career he drove open-wheel machines, but returned to his native Brazil at the conclusion of his time in IndyCar to drive stock cars. That meant the transition to Trans-Am wasn’t a massive leap.
He finished runner-up in his first event for Peterson Racing in 2017 and claimed the 2018 TA2 championship in dominant fashion. He won the title again in 2021 and finished second to Thomas Merrill last year as Merrill snatched the championship on a tiebreaker in a race that came down to the final lap.
For Matos, who drives a Mustang for team owner Doug Peterson, much of the appeal of racing in TA2 is the machinery.
“The car itself is a whole lot of fun to drive, when you jump in one of those cars it’s exactly what a driver’s looking for,” he said. “There is no driver’s assist, it has no ABS, no traction control. The thing is a beast. It’s got 500 horsepower and it’s not very heavy. … Our time is gained under braking and in the corners. The car is made for road racing.”
He also thinks the series’ schedule, consisting of some of the most famous road courses in North America, and the cost-effective, yet competitive and friendly nature of the class are reasons for its recent explosion in popularity.
“This series really became a destination for drivers, teams, sponsors and people that take motorsports seriously and want to run a professional operation,” he said. “I think Trans-Am is a very, very good platform right now.”
Many of the cars that race on that platform were built by Mike Cope Racing Enterprises. Cope is a longtime racer who claimed the Slim Jim All Pro Series championship in 1994 and ’96. He and his son, Travis, are still heavily involved in the super late model scene in Florida.
However, over the past decade, Cope has also become synonymous with the Trans-Am TA2 class. He estimates that his Clearwater, Fla., facility has built more than 80 of the chassis competing across the country and at any given race his cars make up 35 to 50 percent of the field.
Despite his success as a chassis builder and team owner (Thomas Merrill drives one of Cope’s house cars), Cope is adamant there is no “black magic” involved with a TA2 car. Instead, the biggest advantage on any race car is located “somewhere between the seat and the steering wheel.”
“For the most part, we operate a very open book,” Cope said. “If you own one of our cars, you can come and download our data, you can come and look at our cars, take measurements with our house cars. I’ll give you the springs and shocks off it if you want.
“The biggest difference in these cars is the drivers and their level of experience.”
Although his house team fields six to eight Mustangs at each event, Mike Cope Racing Enterprises will build any of the three chassis. By next spring, Cope expects there to be close to 100 of his cars across the country. Today, his company is also involved in the parts business and light manufacturing, while maintaining arrive-and-drive and maintenance programs for a variety of racers.
Cope has been in TA2 since the beginning and has seen the class grow exponentially, while also witnessing the constant push and pull of the cubic dollar against Trans-Am’s desire to keep TA2 costs under control. Like Matos, Cope points to the general affordability and camaraderie of the series as selling points, along with the schedule, which visits some historic North American tracks annually.
Plus, he sees an appeal in racing against a younger generation who someday may become major stars.
Connor Mosack is the most recent TA2 driver to graduate to NASCAR’s national series, while 14-year-old Brent Crews of Denver, N.C., is a member of the next generation who has already made history in Trans-Am. Last summer, he became the youngest winner in the series with his TA2 victory at Road America in Wisconsin.
Crews, a development driver in the Toyota stable, is set to contest a full TA2 season for Nitro Motorsports while continuing to race on asphalt and dirt ovals.
Crews grew up racing go-karts and part of the appeal of TA2 for him is getting to continue to drive on road courses. But aside from simply having fun and honing his road-racing skills, Crews also sees TA2 benefitting his circle-track endeavors.
“I feel like if you can go fast on a road course and not really have the same mark you can hit every single lap, then I feel like you can be even better on an oval,” he said. “On an oval, you can find the same mark to hit pretty much every lap, and on a road course you’re going so fast and you have so many different corners that I feel like that mark isn’t as consistent.”
This story appeared in the March 15, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
