WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Matthew Brabham has, without question, had a leg up on the Trans Am Series by Pirelli field all throughout the season with Chris Dyson Racing, and it continued in a spectacular way on Saturday, as the driver of the No. 16 Gymweed Ford Mustang went to Victory Lane at Watkins Glen International.
The Boca Raton, Florida-native dominated the first of two scheduled 30-lap (or 75-minute) contests for this doubleheader weekend at Watkins Glen – the second and final doubleheader weekend of the 2026 Trans Am by Pirelli campaign.
Though, things got off to a slow start on Saturday, after a heavy rain shower and thunderstorm moved through the Finger Lakes region of New York and caused a delay of about an hour, and when the race got going, left the drivers to figure out what was a very slick surface.
That, nor the ever-changing conditions, seemed to impact Brabham, at all, though, who managed to quickly scurry away from the pack on restarts and gap the remainder of the field by a significant margin. The Chris Dyson Racing driver accredited that to his former experiences at Watkins Glen International.
“It was awesome fun out there, it’s almost more fun when you’ve got varying conditions, you’re kind of having a guessing game, you come to a corner and you never know what you’ve got,” said Brabham post-race. “I love that stuff, it’s so much fun.”
“It reminds me of racing in Stadium Super Trucks,” he added. “I’ve had a lot of experience here in the wet, racing Super Trucks here with Robby Gordon, and also IMSA here, so I knew I had an advantage coming here from the start, and I feel like that showed.”
After a restart inside the final 10 laps of Saturday’s 30-lapper, Brabham managed to blast away from the pack, again, on the restart, and by the finish, pulled out to a lead of more than 17 seconds. On the final lap, the driver of the No. 16 went 100% and laid down the fastest lap of the race, which will earn him the pole for Sunday’s second leg of the doubleheader.
Paul Menard, once again, finished in the runner-up position, with Chris Dyson in third. David Pintaric, despite a couple of off-track excursions throughout the event, managed to finish in the fourth position. Tomy Drissi, making his 200th Trans Am start, finished fifth.
Drissi was running as high as third-place overall in Saturday’s event, battling for a podium position with Chris Dyson, but crashed hard at Turn 6 in his No. 8 Trench Shoring Chevrolet Camaro. Drissi sustained major damage and will have to fix his racecar for tomorrow’s event.
