AUSTIN, Texas — Matthew Brabham (No. 16 GYMWEED Ford Mustang) and Chris Dyson Racing have completed a full season sweep of pole positions in the Trans Am Series by Pirelli’s TA Class, winning the pole for Sunday’s season finale at Circuit of The Americas.
The Indianapolis, Indiana-native, who enters this weekend with an incredibly solid 57-point lead over championship rival Paul Menard, will lead the field to green at the 3.41-mile road course, after winning the pole position by more than three and a half seconds.
Tomy Drissi (No. 8 Trench Shoring Chevrolet Camaro) will start in the runner-up position, with Chris Dyson (No. 20 RACER / Gym Soda Ford Mustang) in third. David Pintaric, Simon Gregg, Jon DeGaynor, and Paul Menard rounded out the seven-driver TA Class for this weekend’s event.
Menard (No. 3 Pittsburgh Paints / Menards Ford Mustang) typically takes the fight to Brabham and qualifying and was within striking distance of the No. 16 throughout the weekend’s testing sessions and practices but had a mechanical issue when it came time to lay down a hot lap and ended up seventh.
Phil Fogg, Jr. will have total command over the TA Cup Western Championship class on Sunday at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), as the division’s only entrant, but he’ll be grouped together with several other classes, so the driver of the No. 92 Chris Evans Race Car Ford Mustang will still get to have some fun on track.
Fogg was pretty close to matching his lap time from practice in his qualifying effort, turning a 2:09.598.
In two previous starts in the Trans Am Series by Pirelli, Austen Dinger has either started on the pole or won the race in the SGT Class. Saturday, in his homestate of Texas, he put the No. 88 Dinger Excavation Ford Mustang on the pole for the championship-deciding event at Circuit of The Americas.
Dinger has been the class of the field all weekend in the SGT Class, leading all on-track sessions, but the first-place spot hasn’t been uncontested, at all, with both Zach Arnold and Chris Coffey being in close proximity in lap times, which should make Sunday’s event a dogfight amongst the top three.
Zach Arnold will start in second, with Chris Coffey in third. Patrick Utt (running both the Western Championship event and the National Series event) and Milton Grant rounded out the five-driver class.
