Author: Official Release

SascoSports to Continue as HSR Tire Supplier and At-Track Service and Support Partner

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (November 1, 2024) – SascoSports, Inc. and Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) have executed a multi-year partnership agreement that will see the longtime vintage and historic racing company continue as HSR’s Tire Supplier and At-Track Service and Support Partner.

Already a fixture in the HSR paddock as the go-to source for HSR competitor racing tire needs and solutions, the new long-term agreement supports the ongoing and multi-tiered relationship between SascoSports and HSR. In addition to bringing its more than three decades of racing tire experience and expertise to HSR members and competitors, the VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) based organization is also the title sponsor of the popular HSR SascoSports International/American Challenge racing series.

Staying true to the proven practice of “we race what we sell,” SascoSports is also a race and championship winning prep-shop and racing team. Company principal Dave Handy most recently co-drove to a Run Group B victory in this past June’s HSR Watkins Glen Classic 6 Hour Presented by Mission Foods with teammate Peter McLaughlin in a 1982 No. 05 March 822 Can-Am entered and prepared by SascoSports and riding on SascoSports mounted and supplied tires.

It is indeed, however, the tire supplier and service support operations of SascoSports that are at the foundation of partnership with HSR. Among the available brands SascoSports sells and supports are Avon, Dunlop, Goodyear, Hoosier, Michelin, Pirelli and Toyo racing tires.

Dave Handy, SascoSports President: “We are excited to be part of this winning team of amazing competitors and talented professionals in vintage and historic sports car racing and continuing to service our long time HSR tire customers. We also welcome and are ready to assist new HSR competitors into our growing sport, and look forward to what the future holds for HSR in the new IMSA era.”

Chris Ward, HSR President: “To say that SascoSports and Dave Handy and his wife Robyn Handy are fixtures in the HSR paddock and family is an understatement. It is people like Robyn and David with SascoSports that truly makeup the foundation on which HSR was established and how our organization operates on a daily basis. We are delighted to be able to announce this exciting new partnership on the eve of one of the biggest races in HSR’s history with the 10th running of this weekend’s HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hour Presented by Mission Foods.”

About HSR: An International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) property, Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) was formed in the mid-1970s with an event at Road Atlanta. There was one goal then and it remains true today: to celebrate the racing cars from the past. As a “time machine” of sights and sounds, HSR provides a venue for competitors and spectators alike to share in the wonderful history and excitement created by the cars that competed at race tracks around the world. HSR currently sanctions eight vintage and historic racing events at some of the world’s most renowned race tracks, including Daytona International Speedway, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Sebring International Raceway and more. The complete schedule and full event information can be found on HSR’s website at www.HSRRace.com. Look for the HSR Channel on YouTube and follow HSR on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/HSRrace/, on Twitter X @HSR_race and on Instagram @HistoricSportscarRacing.

Jake Drew Looks To Lock Down Rookie, Young Guns Championships Joined by Boris Said Jr., TA2 Series Newcomer Vincent Apple

HIGH POINT, N.C. (Oct. 31, 2024) – A pair of season-long championships are on the line in the Silver Hare Racing camp as it heads to the 2024 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series finale Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.

First-year TA2 competitor Jake Drew, the 24-year-old from Fullerton, California, heads to the 3.4-mile, 20-turn circuit that just two weekends ago hosted Round 19 of the 2024 Formula One World Championship hoping to emerge with both Rookie of the Year honors and first place in the Young Guns standings for drivers under 25. Drew will be joined in the three-car Silver Hare camp by season-long teammate Boris Said Jr., as well as series newcomer Vincent Apple, for Sunday’s 30-lap, 75-minute race.

Drew will contest the 12th and final round of the 2024 TA2 Series season behind the wheel of the No. 57 Silver Hare Racing/Franklin Road Apparel Chevrolet Camaro. He didn’t make his TA2 debut until the season’s second round in March at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, where he finished just one position short of the podium, but has been a model of consistency ever since with three podium finishes and seven top-fives in 10 races. He arrives for COTA SpeedTour weekend atop the Rookie of the Year standings by a hefty, 76-point margin over second-place Josh Hurley, and is within striking distance in the Young Guns race, trailing leader Thomas Annunziata by 21 points. Drew sits fourth in the overall TA2 standings despite missing the season opener at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway by the same 21-point margin behind third-place Annunziata, who’s contested all 11 rounds thus far. Drew’s most recent podium finish of third came in the Oct. 6 round at Virginia International Raceway, High Point, North Carolina-based Silver Hare Racing’s home track. Drew came to Silver Hare after running a half-dozen NASCAR Truck Series events in 2023 and a 23-race slate of ARCA Menards Series outings from 2021 to 2023 that featured three road-course victories in 2022.

Said, the 20-year-old first-year driver of the No. 75 HendrickCars.com/Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro, returns to the scene of his 2023 season-best finish of seventh a year ago this weekend. He, too, has been a model of consistency in his second fulltime TA2 season, having scored back-to-back career-best finishes of sixth May 25 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, and June 22 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington during a string of five top-eight finishes. The son of NASCAR and sportscar racing veteran Boris Said arrives at COTA eighth in the TA2 standings and fourth among the Young Guns despite also missing a round this season, the June 9 race at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.

Making his TA2 Series debut this weekend in the No. 5 Silver Hare Racing/Hope for the City Chevrolet Camaro will be the 43-year-old Apple, an open-wheel racing veteran who hails from Las Vegas who made his mark driving Formula Fords in the U.S. and on the European Formula Renault circuit as a teenager in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He began racing go-karts against the likes of Patrick Long and Danica Patrick at the age of 12, and competed against name drivers, including Kimi Räikkönen, during his three-year Formula Renault run in Europe. As his schedule running the family mining company has allowed in recent years, Apple has dabbled in sportscar endurance races in the West. Last November, he co-drove to a class victory in the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California. He was behind the wheel for eight of the race’s 25 hours for his five-driver team, which was victorious by a 12-lap margin.

This weekend’s COTA SpeedTour kicks off with a pair of TA2 test sessions at 10:55 and 4:55 p.m. EDT Friday. Official practice is set for 11:30 a.m. Saturday, followed by qualifying at 4:45 p.m. Race time is 10:35 a.m. EST Sunday with live television provided by series partner MAVTV, augmented by live-streaming video on the Trans Am and SpeedTour channels on YouTube. MAVTV will air a 60-minute race show at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 7.

Silver Hare Racing leverages its Trans Am effort to promote its arrive-and-drive program, where aspiring racers and even tenured professionals hone their road-racing skills on some of the most revered tracks in North America. NASCAR Cup Series drivers Daniel Suárez, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Harrison Burton have all wheeled Silver Hare Racing-prepared cars to burnish their road-racing abilities in top-flight equipment.

The team offers six, professionally built and maintained TA2 chassis from Howe Racing for both competition and private testing. Silver Hare Racing has a dedicated, fulltime crew and operates out of a state-of-the-art facility in High Point, North Carolina. At the track, two 53-foot Featherlite transporters serve as the team’s base, each outfitted with a lounge and smart TVs for data and video review, as well as for hospitality.

“With NASCAR having so many more road-course races, it’s our goal for Silver Hare Racing to be the preferred team for drivers to get that road-course experience,” said Laura Hull, Silver Hare Racing co-owner and team manager. “We want to be that important step in the ladder for the young, up-and-coming drivers. We want people to know we have an arrive-and-drive program, where for people who want to run this track or another, we provide the opportunity to do that and be successful.”

Jake Drew, driver, No. 57 Silver Hare Racing/Franklin Road Apparel Chevrolet Camaro:

You’re down to the last race of your first career season in TA2. How are you planning to approach the weekend at COTA?

“We’ll try and win this thing. I mean, it’s the last race of the year, and of course everybody wants to win, but that’s one of the last things on our list of things to achieve. We have a couple of poles, some podiums, we’ve brought the car back clean every race, looking good for Rookie of the Year. You can’t ask for much more other than let’s go and end the year with a win, give everybody something to stay pumped over the offseason. I haven’t really gotten much advice about how to get around the track at COTA, but I’ve definitely watched a lot of race broadcasts from the last couple of years and it definitely looks like it gets pretty racy and pretty wild at times. So I’ll just have to keep my head on a swivel and try to be ahead of the game on that. I think just keeping everything clean for the whole 100 miles is the biggest part of it. It looks like tempers get going pretty high and there are definitely a lot of danger zones with curves and stuff that can tear up the car. So we’ll try to take care of the car throughout the weekend and throughout the race, and I think we can be in the hunt for a win at the end if we can do that.”

In recent years, while your career centered around stock cars, most notably the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, did you ever think you’d be racing in a road racing series like Trans Am?

“Not really, to be honest with you. I mean, as I started my racing career, I guess I kind of always wondered what it would be like if I got the opportunity to run primarily road courses because it was my whole background, so it’s been really cool to run this whole year with Silver Hare, with the support of Cube 3 and Franklin Road to help finish this year. It’s been humbling, really. It’s been a really tough year, but in a good way, and I appreciate that. I’ve had to push myself really hard to do well and pushing to keep getting better, and we’ve had pretty consistent results. It seems like we’re just looking for that last couple of percent and looking to try and extract that this weekend with our first win together.”

Do you feel a particular cool factor being able to race on a track that just two weeks ago hosted the Formula One World Championship?

“I mean, I think the track’s cool, for sure. I’ve been watching races on it for years and it’s pretty much like a lot of the places we’ve been to this year, and places I got to go to last year and stuff. As I keep progressing in my professional career, it’s cool to visit a lot of these well-known and famous racetracks and look forward to checking one of the bigger ones off the list this weekend. Hopefully we can go out and make it a really memorable one.”

Boris Said Jr., driver, No. 75 HendrickCars.com/Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro:

Your overall thoughts about heading to COTA this weekend in your HendrickCars.com/Silver Hare Camaro, particularly in light of your 2023 season-best finish of seventh there a year ago this weekend?

“The first thing I’m looking forward to is it’s a good field this week with 45 cars out there. There will be a lot of fast cars and it’s going to be really competitive, which is always a good thing. It’s a cool track for TA2 cars and it’s fun, and I like it a lot, so I’m excited. Last year was pretty good. It was very chaotic, but it was a fun and it ended up well. There were quite a few yellows but luckily we ended up missing them all. I’m looking forward to going there this time in my HendrickCars.com Camaro.”

How would you describe what it’s like to race at COTA?

“I think it’s a tighter track than people might think. It has the most slow corners of any track we go to, a lot of hard braking into slow corners, so that’s an element of fun in its own way. I like turn 19 the best, the second-to-last corner, a left-hand sweeper that leads you to the last turn that puts you onto the front straight. I think our Silver Hare cars should be really good there like they have been the last few years.”

Looking back on your first season with Silver Hare Racing, what stands about working with the team?

“It’s been a good year. I’m happy to have done some good racing with Silver Hare this season and I’m looking forward to whatever the future holds. The team has such a tight-knit, family feel to it and everyone really cares a lot about each other and about doing everything the right way. It’s a good place to be, and it’s been a really good experience. Right now, we’re just focused on getting a good, strong finish this weekend, for sure.”

Vincent Apple, driver, No. 5 Silver Hare Racing/Hope for the City Chevrolet Camaro:

With your extensive open-wheel racing background, how did you end up in the Trans Am Series and with Silver Hare Racing?

“I’ve been interested in the Trans Am Series for probably a year and a half now. I’ll be one of the older guys out there, so when I was growing up racing, we didn’t have all the electronics and paddle shifts and ABS and traction control that they have in so many forms of racing today. So I was looking at the Trans Am Series because they call it a driver’s car, there’s not all the computers and aids, it’s up to the driver, which really interested in me. My search for a team led me to Silver Hare and everything kind of came to fruition, which has been really nice. I flew to the shop to do a seat fitting just because I know how important it is to fit in the car properly, so that’s all I’ve had a chance to do. It’ll be out of the pan and into the fire when we get to COTA.”

This will be not only your first time in a TA2 car, but your first outing at COTA. What have you been doing to prepare, and how are you going to approach the weekend?

“COTA’s a track that always kind of stood out to me, one that I know I would love to drive. So here we are, it’s COTA, it’s a TA2 car, I can’t wait to see what I’m capable of. I’ve been telling a lot of people this weekend is going to show me if I’m delusional or not, do I really have what I think, and how this will test me? And that’s what I really want is to see what I’m capable of, see if I’m really as fast as I think I am. I’ve raced against some big names and done fairly well against them, so hopefully some of that will come back and I’ll be good. I’ve been watching a lot of in-car on YouTube to get an idea of shift points, breaking points, and stuff like that so at least I have some kind of an idea. And a lot of it for the weekend for me is just keeping the car in the right direction and just building up slowly, just get used to the car, go out and make sure to get the laps in. I’ll need to be in the upper half of the field in qualifying so that way I can race on Sunday, and of course the biggest thing that I could see is getting through turn one because that seems like a crazy turn with everybody going five- and six-wide and crazy stuff like that.”

About Hendrick Automotive Group:

Representing 131 franchises and 25 manufacturer nameplates from the Carolinas to California, Hendrick Automotive Group is the largest privately held automotive retail organization in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company employs more than 10,000 people in its 94 dealership locations, 21 collision centers and four accessories distributor installers in 13 states. For more information, please visit HendrickCars.com.

About HendrickCars.com:

HendrickCars.com is the online home for everything Hendrick Automotive Group. Visitors can shop thousands of new or pre-owned vehicles, locate centers for service and collision repair, receive a value to sell or trade their car, chat online with customer service, discover career opportunities, learn more about vehicle protection programs, and explore how the company gives back to the community.

About Silver Hare Racing:

Silver Hare Racing is a fulltime competitor in the TA2 division of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli. The multicar team has won the TA2 masters class championship three times (2018, 2019 and 2020) with driver and team co-owner Maurice Hull. Under the leadership of Hull’s wife, co-owner and team manager Laura Hull, Silver Hare Racing provides a variety of services that includes private testing and arrive-and-drive programs. The team offers six, professionally built and maintained TA2 chassis from Howe Racing and operates from a state-of-the-art facility in High Point, North Carolina. For more information, please call 336-870-5151 or visit SilverHareRacing.com.

With Pro-Am Title Clinched, Barry Boes Eyes Top Overall Result Joined by Teens Tristan McKee and Evan Slater, 21-Year-Old Carson Kvapil, for TA2 Season Finale

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (Oct. 31, 2024) – With one title already in the bag, a quartet of TeamSLR M1 Racecars competitors are ready to hit the majestic Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas, to close out the 2024 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series season during Sunday’s COTA SpeedTour event.

First-year TeamSLR driver Barry Boes and his No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Ford Mustang arrive at the 3.4-mile, 20-turn circuit having clinched the 2024 Pro-Am Challenge championship within a championship by virtue of his seventh class win in 11 races this season Oct. 5 at Virginia International Raceway in Alton. Boes will be joined for Sunday’s 30-lap, 75-minute season finale by three young, part-time TA2 drivers all returning to the TeamSLR lineup after posting solid results in previous stints in M1 Racecars equipment this season – 21-year-old Carson Kvapil, 18-year-old Evan Slater, and 14-year-old Tristan McKee.

With Pro-Am title in hand, the pressure is off for Boes, the sixth-year TA2 Series competitor who from 1995 to 2023 called Austin, Texas, home before his offseason move to Ooltewah, Tennessee. He relishes the opportunity to go all out for a top overall finish Sunday against a packed field of 45 entries. It will be the sixth career TA2 appearance at COTA for Boes and first with TeamSLR. His first three resulted in finishes of ninth, seventh and 10th in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. In July, Boes scored his first career Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series Western Championship victory at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway in M1 Racecars equipment. He also scored a fourth-place finish in his No. 27 Ford with co-driver Greg Biffle in the non-points SpeedTour All-Star Race July 20 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.

McKee, who turned 14 on Aug. 3, returns to the cockpit of the No. 28 SLR-M1Racecars Chevrolet Camaro after a stellar official TA2 debut in the most recent round at VIR. He qualified sixth and held position among the leaders en route to a fourth-place finish, just .7 of a second behind the final podium position. McKee has shown his racing brilliance as a Chevrolet development driver this season. He’s been a regular in the Pro Late Model division of the popular CARS Tour, where in 2023 he became the series’ youngest winner at the age of 12. McKee added a win in the series’ July 3 round at Caraway Speedway in Sophia, North Carolina, and another in the Aug. 4 round at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. He got his first taste of TA2 competition when he co-drove a TeamSLR M1 Racecars entry with his Team Chevrolet mentor Scott speed in July’s All-Star Race at Lime Rock.

Kvapil will be making his fifth career TA2 start this weekend, his third of the season and first since it was announced Oct. 1 that he will drive fulltime in the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports. The son of 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil is also a Team Chevrolet development driver. His first TA2 outing of the year in the No. 17 SLR-M1Racecars Chevrolet Camaro came in the June 3 race at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex, where he drove to a third-place finish from the ninth starting position. He returned Aug. 25 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, where he qualified third and was running with the leaders before a shredded tire led to an early exit from the race. With zero road-racing experience prior to his TA2 debut in June 2023 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Kvapil qualified second and finished fifth, then qualified third the following weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and moved up to second on the opening lap of the race before getting punted off track and sustaining damage beyond repair. He’s enjoyed success in numerous other racing disciplines already this year, including three top-five Xfinity Series finishes in nine races with JR Motorsports, and top-three finishes for Pinnacle Racing Group in the ARCA Menards Series. Kvapil also has a pair of wins in six races on the zMAX CARS Tour in the Late Model Stock class.

Slater, the native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who’ll be behind the wheel of the No. 8 Cube 3 Architecture/Willis & Smith Capital/Paul Racing SLR-M1Racecars Chevrolet Camaro, returns to the team for the second time this season and first since qualifying and finishing second Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock, where he chased race-winner and two-time TA2 champion Rafa Matos across the finish line. Slater competed in six TA2 races in 2023 for Ken Thwaits’ Showtime Motorsports M1 Racecars team, scoring top-five finishes at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and another pair of top-10s at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana, and Lime Rock. Slater has one previous TA2 appearance at COTA, qualifying fourth but having to start at the back of the 42-car field, from where he drove to a 14th-place finish.

Another pair of M1 Racecars entries fielded by Peterson Racing return to the TA2 Series for the fourth time this season. Last year’s TA2 Series Rookie of the Year Austin Green returns to the cockpit of the No. 89 Ford Mustang that he drove to a runner-up finish at Watkins Glen in August, qualified on the pole at Mid-Ohio in June, and drove to a fifth-place finish at the season-opening race at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway in February. Meanwhile, team owner and Masters-class competitor Doug Peterson is back behind the wheel of the No. 87 Ford Mustang.

Riding along with this weekend’s TeamSLR drivers and their M1 Racecars, as it has all season long, is Nashville, Tennessee-based Franklin Road Apparel Company, which has been a longtime team supporter and serves as associate partner on all four TeamSLR entries this weekend. Also supporting the overall TeamSLR effort is Cube 3 Architecture. TeamSLR is also supporting part-time TA2 driver Julian DaCosta’s Powered by Hixson-backed SVRA vintage car effort this weekend at COTA.

M1 Racecars was represented on the podium at 12 of the 13 TA2 rounds in 2023, highlighted by a pair of victories by Rafa Matos for Peterson Racing. Team SLR’s Dillon Machavern and Thad Moffitt both scored podium finishes, as did Connor Mosack at the season-opening event at Sebring, when he qualified on the pole and led the first 19 laps of the race before finishing third.

This weekend’s COTA SpeedTour kicks off with a pair of TA2 test sessions at 10:55 and 4:55 p.m. EDT Friday. Official practice is set for 11:30 a.m. Saturday, followed by qualifying at 4:45 p.m. Race time is 10:35 a.m. EST Sunday with live television provided by series partner MAVTV, augmented by live-streaming video on the Trans Am and SpeedTour channels on YouTube. MAVTV will air a 60-minute race show at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 7.

Barry Boes, Driver, No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Ford Mustang:

What are your thoughts about the track, considering you lived fulltime in the Austin area from 1995 until last year?

“COTA is one of those racetracks where, if you’ve never been on a racetrack and you get on it in a racecar, it feels like you’re on a Formula One track, because you are. You’ve got all the great big, huge curbing and the big, painted runoff areas, and the gantries going over the racetrack and all that sort of stuff. It looks larger than life. But as a competitor, especially in TA2, it’s a track where there’s not a ton of risk. You go straight, you brake hard, you go straight, you brake hard, there’s a little bit of fiddly stuff, and you start all over again. Turn 13 is a challenge to get right, and then really nailing 18 and 19 is way harder than it looks. To be really fast, it’s really tough to get that one right and a lot of fun to work on perfecting, same with 13 and 14. I lived there since well before the racetrack was ever there, and the track was there for years before I started racing, so I’ve raced at a lot of other tracks a lot more than I have at COTA. Still, I’m looking forward to having a good run there this weekend.”

You arrive at this weekend’s season finale at COTA with an insurmountable 125-point lead in the Pro-Am Challenge standings. How does that affect the way you approach this race compared to a typical weekend?

“With Pro-Am in the bag, I’m just going to go flat out as opposed to having to be as careful as I can be if it wasn’t in the bag. I’m going to just see how far up there I can run among the ‘national series’ guys and just give it everything I’ve got.”

You’re wrapping up your first season driving for TeamSLR. How would you describe the experience?

“Yeah, I mean, this has been both my most successful and most rewarding year of racing. And, obviously, the people and the equipment that have been standing behind me are a very big part of that.”

Carson Kvapil, Driver, No. 17 SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:

Since we last saw you at Watkins Glen, it was announced you will drive fulltime next year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports. How does that affect your perspective as you race this weekend at COTA, which is on the Xfinity Series schedule?

“Obviously, I want to go there and treat it as any other race, I want to go out there and try to win. We’ll just try to get really good test and practice sessions in, qualify well and run all the laps in the race to get as much experience as we can. With the Xfinity schedule having pretty limited practice time, it’s good to get as much track time as you can on these road courses, which is kind of not my forte, I guess you’d say. I’m just looking forward to it and I know TeamSLR is going to bring me a good piece, so I’m sure we’ll have a pretty good shot to win the race, or at least have a good shot to run really well.”

You recently had a chance to run some laps at COTA in a stock Camaro. What are your impressions of the track and what it takes to run well there?

“It’s a really huge place, and I think it’s kind of cool. It’s not just 10 or 11 turns, it’s really long and the facility is really, really nice, more so than I’ve witnessed at any other road course. It’ll be pretty cool and super exciting to race on a track like that. Like every other road course, it’s got its little quirks and little tough spots. Hopefully, we can go in this weekend and figure it all out and learn all the turns, which sometimes can be tough on a big track like that.”

How would you describe your experience working with TeamSLR and its contribution to helping you make it to the next level in the Xfinity Series?

“Running a handful of races with TeamSLR these last two seasons, the whole team has been a great experience and I’m going to say it’s going to be a big help going into next year’s Xfinity schedule. Being able to run Watkins Glen earlier this year and now COTA with the Lagasses is going to pay big dividends. Working with a group like TeamSLR makes my job a lot easier. They’re super good about how they look at data and driver training for the road courses, and with their NASCAR experience, we’ve been speaking the same language, so I couldn’t be with a better group, and we’re excited to hit it this weekend.”

Tristan Mckee, Driver, No. 28 SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:

You got a sneak peek at the COTA layout driving a stock Camaro a few weeks ago. What are your initial impressions of the track, and how did it help your preparation?

“I’m excited. The elevation change all around the track is cool. I’ve done some sim work with Scott Speed and their preparation has been great, so I think I’m pretty ready. It’ll be good to actually get to run there for real in a TA2 car. F1 was there a couple of weeks ago, that adds to the excitement of being able to drive there. It’s a super huge racetrack and one of the coolest in the country, so I’m really excited.”

Did you identify any key parts of the track that are important to turning fast laps there?

“Yeah, there’s so much to that track. It was just a matter of making sure you get all the proximity right in the corners, cutting everything as close as you can. There are some track limits all around and they’ll be pretty strict on that, especially through the esses, so cutting those as tight as you can will be important. The lap there is so long, there are many different things to think about every lap.”

You came within one spot of a podium finish in your official TA2 debut with TeamSLR at VIR the first weekend in October. How was that experience for you?

“It was great. I’ve been working with TeamSLR since December last year, we’ve been testing a lot. It’s been great to work with Scotty (Scott Lagasse Jr.) and his dad (Scott Lagasse Sr.) and getting to know all the guys, it’s been good. They helped me a lot at VIR. I think I could’ve done a few things a little bit better, but obviously I’m still learning. That was my first real TA2 race, so I’m excited to see what we can do at COTA.”

Evan Slater, Driver, No. 8 Cube 3 Architecture/Willis & Smith Capital SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:

You’re back with TeamSLR and the Trans Am Series for the second time this year and the first time since your runner-up finish at Lime Rock in May. How are you approaching this weekend?

“I don’t think it’ll take too long to break the rust off. Lime Rock was my first time back in the car in nine months and we got second in the race, I think we went second the first practice session, so it didn’t take long to knock the rust off there. So, COTA, I haven’t driven the track in two years, and they’ve done some repaving, but I expect to be fast right out of the box. I’ve been driving racecars here and there since Lime Rock, a lot of coaching in TA2 cars – sometimes I hop in for a data lap. Um, and I’ve been driving other forms of cars like Radicals, prototypes, sportscars. I’ve been staying active, so I don’t think it’ll be too much of a learning curve to get back into it.”

You have one previous TA2 outing at COTA, which resulted in a 14th-place finish in 2022. What do you expect to take from that race into this weekend?

“COTA is such an interesting track, a ton of turns, a lot of different types of turns. You’ve got fast-flowing turns, tight turns, turns where you need to get good power down, you have hard braking zones. So, what a great track. There are a lot of different types of turns and options, which makes it really fun. In 2022, I had a good run, but it didn’t look as good on paper. We qualified fourth, but then I missed the driver meeting in my worst move of the season, so I had to start 43rd, but went from 43rd to 14th in the race, which was a great race, I thought. Obviously, we would have liked to have started fourth rather than 43rd, but it showed that you can pass around that track, and I was able to find the gaps, find the opportunities around there. This year, I’m definitely not going to miss the driver meeting, so hopefully we can stay at the front end of the field the whole time. I already have my alarm set for the for the COTA driver meeting in my phone, so I’m not going to miss this one.”

How would you describe your first experience with TeamSLR at Lime Rock in May?

“Lime Rock was my first experience with Scott Sr. and Scott Jr., and I enjoyed it from the start, they know so much. I mean, they built the car, so they know it inside and out. The level of professionalism they brought was unmatched from anything I’ve seen. They were so great at so many things, like figuring out what setup changes that we needed to do starting a practice, laying out the plan – ‘We’re going to do a few laps, pit, make a change, and go out again, then make another change.’ They have a layout and a plan for all the practice sessions, which I think is great. They know what they need to learn to make the cars drive the best they can. And it’s just a super-professional environment, everybody knows what they’re doing, and everybody’s really good at their job.”

About TeamSLR:

TeamSLR (Scott Lagasse Racing) competes fulltime in the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s newly renamed Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series in a multifaceted effort that includes dedicated entries in the TA2 division, customer programs, driver coaching and car construction. Its history dates back to 1985 and covers a wide spectrum of motorsports, including NASCAR, IMSA, SCCA, ARCA and ASA. TeamSLR is a family-owned organization run by Scott Lagasse Sr., and Scott Lagasse Jr., The father-and-son duo have combined to win more than 120 races and seven championships across a variety of series and styles of racecars, from paved ovals to road courses to dirt tracks. For more information, please visit us online at www.TeamSLR.com, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and on LinkedIn.