AUSTIN, Texas — The Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli wraps up its season deep in the heart of Texas at Circuit of The Americas for the Mission Foods COTA SpeedTour.
Always the biggest weekend of the year, in both stakes and car count, a field of 51 competitors from the National and Western Championships will take the green flag in Sunday’s two 100-mile feature races.
Watch Sunday’s races live on SPEED SPORT 1.
Multiple titles are yet to be clinched, including the TA, GT1 Challenge and CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series Pro/Am Challenge crowns
Twelve drivers on this week’s entry list have previously celebrated in GYM WEED Winners Circle at Circuit of The Americas. Among the past victors, two racers have stood on the top step three times, tying the all-time record for most wins at the track: Adam Andretti earned a TA2 win in 2015, a TA victory in 2019 and a TAH triumph in 2022. Chris Coffey, making his SGT debut this weekend, has scored GT wins in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Menard Clinching
The TA championship fight has been an exciting one, shaping up as the closest battle in recent class history. Paul Menard (No. 3 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Ford Mustang) holds a slim 43-point edge over Adam Andretti (No. 17 Top Liner Chevrolet Camaro) heading into the season finale.
Andretti made a valiant effort at claiming his first Trans Am title, capturing his first win of the season in Trans Am’s inaugural race at Barber Motorsports Park. However, with the current points discrepancy and the number of entrants in Sunday’s event, the title is out of Andretti’s grasp if Menard takes the green flag. Once Menard starts the race, he will officially become a two-time champion in the TA class.
Fight For Third
With first and second all but decided in TA, the biggest battle still remaining in the class is the fight for third in the standings. 2009 TA champion Tomy Drissi (No. 8 Trench Shoring Co./Motul Chevrolet Camaro), who has won at COTA in the Western Championship, currently occupies the third spot, but three-time champ Chris Dyson (No. 16 Gym Weed Ford Mustang) lurks just two points behind, and has two National wins at the Austin circuit.
While Drissi has been consistent throughout the season, claiming three podium finishes and nine top fives, Dyson has made a dramatic comeback from a crash in the Sebring season opener, which took him out of the car at Road Atlanta, and bounced back from the bottom of the standings to score three wins on his way up to fourth. Drissi has finished in the top three in points every year since 2020, while Dyson’s top-three streak dates back to when he first started racing full time in 2018.
Old Friend Returns
For the first time since 2022, 2012 TA champion Simon Gregg returns to the Trans Am Series.
A fixture in the series for a decade and a half, Gregg will get behind the wheel of the No. 59 Drissi Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro owned by fellow title winner Tomy Drissi. Competing full time in the TA class from 1998 until 2021, Gregg has earned four victories in 206 starts. Gregg has seven previous starts at COTA, with a best finish of fourth in 2016.
A Step Up
For the second season in a row, Chris Coffey has handily clinched GT title, locking up the championship this season with multiple races to spare.
The Murphy, Texas, native is also one to watch this weekend, as he has won every GT race that he has entered at his home track since his Trans Am debut in 2022, in addition to driving to Victory Lane at COTA in NASA and SCCA events.
But this weekend will look a bit different for Coffey, as he leaves behind his GT-class Maserati and steps into the No. 97 Norwood Auto Italia/Traffic Grafix Ferrari 458 Challenge to make his SGT debut.
GT1’s Winner
Jon DeGaynor will clinch the inaugural GT1 Challenge title when he takes the green flag in his No. 04 Speed Dream’n Racing Ford Mustang on Sunday.
DeGaynor is also a past-winner at COTA, claiming a previous victory at the track in the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association, earning one of the series’ coveted Bell Gold Helmets in 2018.
TA Cup
Following the Western Championship doubleheader at Thunderhill Raceway Park, the first-ever TA Cup championship has been decided. Coming off of a five-race winning streak, Ken Sutherland (No. 85 Kallberg Racing Dodge Challenger) has clinched the title for the class, which is in its first season of competition.
The Youngest
A victory in the Trans Am Series’ inaugural visit to Barber Motorsports Park was enough for Tristan McKee (No. 28 Spire/Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Chevrolet Camaro) to clinch the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series championship in the penultimate round, making him the youngest title holder in Trans Am history at 15 years, two months and 16 days.
The clinch also earned him Rookie of the Year honors and the Sunoco Race Fuels Young Gun Award, which comes with a $20,000 prize, making him the first driver to earn all three titles in the same season.
The Final Laps
With the National and Western Championship title winners already decided, the most exciting CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series championship hunt of the season is the Pro/Am Challenge. HP Tuners co-owner and CEO Keith Prociuk (No. 9 HP Tuners/Cope Race Cars Ford Mustang) leads former NFL player Jared Odrick (No. 00 Black Underwear/CoolBoxx Chevrolet Camaro) by just nine points heading into this weekend’s race.
Only a driver’s top-nine finishes contribute to the title, so the scoring is more complicated than whoever scores more points.
With their lowest finishes thus far already dropped coming into COTA, their next worst result will be eliminated depending on the finishing order of Sunday’s race. As it stands, if Prociuk finishes third or better, his next dropped race would be a third-place finish, worth 93 points, while if Odrick finishes fifth or better, his next worst result would be fifth, worth 90 points.
Double Duty
Two TeamSLR drivers will be doing double duty this weekend, commuting between COTA and the NASCAR and ARCA season finales at Phoenix Raceway.
Tristan McKee and Carson Brown (No. 2 PayCafe/Ebb Logistics/SLR-M1 Toyota Camry) will begin the weekend in Phoenix, competing on Friday and Saturday in the ARCA Menards Series West finale in a pair of Chevrolets.
McKee will be behind the wheel of the same Spire Motorsports No. 77 that he drove to Victory Lane in his ARCA debut at Watkins Glen, while Brown will be in the Pinnacle Racing Group No. 28. After racing on Saturday, the drivers will commute to Austin in hopes of arriving in time to qualify for Sunday’s race.
