ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — When 15-year-old Tristan McKee was first across the finish line Oct. 19 at Barber Motorsports Park, it put an exclamation point on much more than just his fourth win in the last six Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series races to clinch the series championship with one race remaining.
In a grander scheme, it became the high-water mark of a master plan years in the making within the walls of TeamSLR (Scott Lagasse Racing) and its integral role as an official driver development partner for Chevrolet Motorsports.
McKee is one of the elite, young talents mentored by Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier at the Chevrolet Tech Center in Concord, North Carolina. The aspiring NASCAR driver signed a development contract with Spire Motorsports in January.
Now, one race before his official TA2 Series rookie season concludes with the Nov. 2 finale at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, McKee is already the youngest champion in the 60-year history of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli at 15 years, two months and 16 days.
“He’s a phenomenal talent, we knew that from day one,” said Scott Lagasse Jr., who with his dad Scott Lagasse Sr., co-owns the team that has helped nurture the road-racing craft of numerous young drivers who are now making headlines in NASCAR’s Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series – Sam Mayer, William Sawalich, Sammy Smith, Carson Kvapil, Connor Mosack and Jack Wood among them.
“Tristan’s done so good, and our collaborative effort with Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier at Chevrolet was executed so well, that we’re actually going to lose him some next year to series further up the racing ladder,” Lagasse Jr., continued. “That’s a good problem to have, right? What makes me the most proud is his work ethic, his ability to listen, internalize, and get better. He’ll qualify on the pole, then go break down a lap and study data for hours.”
McKee led every race lap en route to three of his four wins this season – June 22 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, July 12 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, and Sunday at Barber – and all but the first five laps of his Aug. 30 victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. Through 11 of 12 events, he has an average start of 4.18 and an average finish of 3.36. He posted seven consecutive podium finishes in one stretch, during which his lead atop the driver standings ballooned.
The podium streak ended with his lone mechanical issue of the season Sept. 20 at Virginia International Raceway, but that transmission part failure only served to heighten McKee’s determination to lock up the championship at the next round during Trans Am’s first visit to Barber.
“Tristan had never seen the place, but Josh (Wise) called me before we even got there and said, ‘Get ready, he’s the best-prepped I’ve seen him, yet.’ He knew he might have to carry us as a race team and he was ready for it,” Lagasse Jr., said. “Then during the weekend, at nine o’clock that night, after leading every session during practice and qualifying, he was still in the motorhome with me watching video, asking questions, talking theory and approach. That’s what separates him.”
McKee and his No. 28 Spire/Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro will arrive at COTA with championship in-hand and ready to have some fun as the team looks to close out the season with its seventh win in a row.
“It feels so good to lock it up before the season is over,” McKee said. “I feel like that shows how good we’ve been lately and how hard we’ve been working at it with Scotty (Lagasse Jr.), all the TeamSLR crew, and everyone back at Chevrolet. It’s always going to be a work in progress, but I feel like I’ve gotten really, really good at this TA2 car. Even in the past two races, I made a lot of gains and that helped us finish strong. There’s always something to learn. Every car’s different, every road course is different. But here, lately, I’ve been really comfortable in this car and confident in what I can do with it.”
That McKee rose from road-course newby to the ranks of TA2 Series champion with just 13 races under his belt is not surprising to those who know him. It’s also a testament to the years-long effort by TeamSLR and its M1 Racecars operation to become the most complete, data-driven, driver-focused organization in the TA2 paddock, according to Lagasse Sr.
“Tristan’s program this year is by far the best product we’ve put together, yet,” he said. “Every part of our program has improved – the people, the organization, the cars, the setups. We were the best program on the racetrack all year long. It’s this driver, it’s what happens on the racetrack, it’s the mechanical side, it’s the crew guys, it’s the organizational structure, all those things play into a championship. Scotty, from an operations and management side, has been phenomenal. All the crew, every single individual who had a hand in this, did a great job. We had one mechanical failure with Tristan’s car all year, and that was an internal transmission issue. That’s it. Our guys have done a tremendous job at solving and preventing a lot of those typical problems that can persist.”
Chevrolet’s Ranier first took notice of McKee in December 2021 when, as an 11-year-old, he qualified a Late Model Stock car on the pole for the Christmas Clash at Carteret County Speedway in Swansboro, North Carolina.
Ranier told Wise and Speed that he’d found “a true phenom” and that they needed to keep an eye on him, which they did over the next two seasons of short-track racing. By December of 2023, an intensive testing plan was in place with TeamSLR for McKee to learn the tracks on the Trans Am schedule in 2024, and to run a pair of races at the end of the season to prepare for a full-season effort in 2025.
“Our goal was to make him the youngest champion in Trans Am history, and he did it,” Ranier said. “It’s a testament to the planning, the people, and the partnership with TeamSLR that it all came together. We’ve been doing this with TeamSLR since 2019, starting with Sam Mayer, and it’s just worked. The way Scotty interacts with Josh Wise and Scott Speed at the Tech Center – the energy, the prep, the communication – it all ties together perfectly. Enough can’t be said for the Lagasses and how they’ve handled Tristan. They’re great partners. The relationship between Chevrolet and that team has been outstanding. We knew from all the testing and sim work that Tristan was going to be good. The prep that Scotty, Josh Wise and Scott Speed put him through was just unbelievable. He was so well-prepared for every race.”
Lagasse Jr., points out that the stage for this year’s championship run, as well as the overall success now enjoyed by TeamSLR and its M1 Racecars customer programs, was set when the team campaigned Mosack for full-season runs in 2021 and 2022, netting a pair of race wins, eight podium finishes and 14 top-10s in 24 starts, with finishes of third in the championship the first year and fourth the next.
“We are without a doubt a better organization than we were during the Connor Mosack years,” he said. “I’m better. We’re much more organized. Connor deserved that championship, but there were things that caught us off guard back then that we’ve fixed. The failures from that era are why we have systems in place now. So we took those lessons and just got better.”
