Story By: LAZ DENES / TEAMSLR – ST. AUGUSTINE, FL – Scenic Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway welcomes back the national competitors of the Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series this weekend for the first time since 2022.
In this first of back-to-back race weekends on the West Coast, an eight-pack of drivers wielding M1 Racecars equipment are ready to give it their all during Saturday’s 40-lap, 75-minute Sonoma SpeedTour event on the 2.52-mile, 11-turn circuit situated in the heart of California’s Wine Country.
Leading the way are 2025 TeamSLR regulars Tristan McKee and Barry Boes, who’ll be joined by the returning Carson Brown and Corey Day, who both made their TA2 Series debuts two races ago in the season-opener at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway. Bolstering the M1 Racecars effort are another four drivers led by TA2 Series regulars Mike Skeen of the Guthrie’s Garage team and Jared Odrick of Troy Benner Autosport. Rounding out the M1 Racecars lineup are Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series Western Championship regulars Brody Goble and Tim Carroll, whose six-race tour incorporates its rounds two and three into this weekend’s festivities at Sonoma, as well as next week at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca down the coast in Monterey, California.
The 14-year-old McKee’s official rookie TA2 Series season in the No. 28 Spire Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro began with a seventh-place finish from the fifth spot on the starting grid at Sebring, and a fifth-place finish from the 11th starting position last month at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Sunday will mark just the fifth TA2 start for the driver from Kannapolis, North Carolina, since debuting last October at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, where he finished fourth. McKee earlier this year signed a development agreement with Spire Motorsports and is also contesting a part-time schedule on the CARS Tour, where he opened the season with a runner-up finish in the Pro Late Model race March 1 at New River All-American Speedway in Jacksonville, North Carolina, then followed it up with a victory April 12 at Cordele (Ga.) Motor Speedway. McKee became the CARS Tour’s youngest winner in the Pro Late Model division as a 12-year-old in 2023. He heads to Sonoma fourth in the TA2 championship after the season’s first two events.
Boes, driver of the No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro, opened the season with a pair of runner-up finishes in the TA2 Series Pro-Am Challenge class at Sebring and Road Atlanta. Boes won the 2024 Pro-Am title behind seven class victories. The driver from Ooltewah, Tennessee, is also contesting the Western Championship this season, and he started that campaign with a third-place finish in the opening race March 16 at Buttonwillow (Calif.) Raceway in M1 Racecars equipment. His results this weekend, as well as next weekend at Laguna Seca, will count toward both the national and Western Championship standings. Boes scored his first career Western Championship overall victory last July at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway. He also scored a fourth-place finish in his No. 27 TeamSLR entry with co-driver Greg Biffle in the non-points SpeedTour All-Star Race last July at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.
Brown, the 16-year-old from New London, North Carolina, will the reins of the No. 8 PayCafe/Ebb Logistics/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro for the second time this weekend after a solid eighth-place finish from the 12th starting position at Sebring. He came to TeamSLR and the TA2 Series having shown his versatility over his almost five-year racing career starting in Legend cars, and has exceled in Microsprints, off-road trucks, the World of Outlaws and Lucas Oil Late Models. Most recently, he added the ARCA Menards Series East to his resume, having debuted in that tour’s East Series opener last month with a sixth-place finish from the sixth starting position at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. He was last year’s pavement Pro Late Model champion at Five Flags, and in early February scored a pair of victories at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway in his first week ever competing in Super Late Models.
The 19-year-old Day made his TA2 debut behind the wheel of the No. 17 Hendrickcars.com/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro at Sebring, as well, after first making his mark at the highest levels of Sprint car competition, then moving through the Late Model ranks to NASCAR and the ARCA Menards Series. The Hendrick Motorsports driver now claims Sonoma as his home road course as he hails from the Fresno suburb of Clovis, California. As a 15-year-old in 2021, Day became the youngest winner in the USAC National Midget Series, and last year was a five-time winner in the High Limit Racing series, then added another victory in the series last month on The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, beating his Henrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson to the checkered flag. Day also was tabbed to drive a Late Model for JR Motorsports last year and promptly scored a dominating victory in just his second start for the team at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway. He competed in four NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in 2024 with a best finish of 16th in October at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and added three ARCA Menards Series races with a best finish of fourth in the September race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
Skeen, the 38-year-old former TA2 champion from Durham, North Carolina, opened the season with TeamSLR at Sebring, where he drove the No. 48 Cube 3 Architecture/Guthrie’s Garage/Franklin Road Apparel/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro to a runner-up finish after qualifying on the pole. He moved to the No. 2 Guthrie’s Garage Chevrolet Camaro for round two at Road Atlanta, where he’s slated to finish the season. He arrives at Sonoma second in the championship after his seventh-place finish at Road Atlanta.
Odrick, the 37-year-old from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who played seven seasons with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars from 2010 through 2016, joined the M1 Racecars brigade when he took delivery of his new chassis after the Sebring season opener and put it right to work in the March 8-9 SCCA Hoosier Super Tour weekend doubleheader at Road Atlanta, scoring GT2-class victories from the pole in both races. The second-year TA2 Pro-Am Challenge-class competitor then drove his No. 00 Black Underwear Chevrolet Camaro to a fourth-place finish on the Road Atlanta circuit. He arrives at Sonoma fourth in the Pro-Am standings.
Goble, the 2023 Western Championship title winner from Surrey, British Columbia, returned to the series this season and promptly scored a victory in the opening event at Buttonwillow in his No. 69 Brown Brothers Ford Lincoln Mustang entry. He’ll be joined by fellow M1 Racecars Western Championship competitor Carroll, driver of the No. 46 CRDMFG.com Chevrolet Camaro. Carroll scored his first career Western Championship victory in the second race of last July’s doubleheader weekend at Portland.
M1 Racecars is no stranger to victory lane at Sonoma as now-NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Jack Wood qualified on the pole and scored a dominating victory in the 2023 Western Championship event at the track.
This weekend’s Sonoma SpeedTour kicks off with a pair of TA2 test sessions at 11:30 and 4:05 p.m. PDT Thursday. Official practice is set for 10:20 a.m. Friday, followed by qualifying at 3:40 p.m. Race time is 12:40 p.m. Saturday with live video streaming coverage provided by new series broadcast Speed Sport 1, as well as the Trans Am channel on YouTube.
Riding along with TeamSLR drivers and their M1 Racecars once again this season is Nashville, Tennessee-based Franklin Road Apparel Company, which has been a longtime team supporter and serves as associate partner on all TeamSLR entries. Also continuing its support of the overall TeamSLR effort is Cube 3 Architecture.
Tristan Mckee, Driver, No. 28 Spire Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
From your testing experience at Sonoma Raceway, what are your observations about the track, and what do you feel it takes to make fast laps there?
“You have to maximize everything just like you do at any other track. At Sonoma, it’s more about getting over the hills and using the elevation changes and the crests to your advantage, knowing how to get over those and be in the right place on the track to be able to use those to your advantage. There are still a few things to work on. There always is. I’m not sure how I envision the race playing out, but I feel like there could be some cautions and stuff. We’ll just have to see how it plays out. It should be interesting, though.”
Do you notice any difference in the character of the West Coast tracks, a different vibe perhaps, compared to the tracks in the South and East?
“What I noticed a lot is the surfaces are definitely more sandy. On the tracks I’ve been to, there just seems to be a lot of sand everywhere. They’ve done some paving at Sonoma, so I’m not sure how abrasive it will be on the tires. One thing about Sonoma is the mountains are really cool – you’re running through the esses and you can see the mountains all around. And there are hundreds of sheep everywhere, just grazing on the grass. That’s definitely different.”
Since we saw you at Road Atlanta last month, you earned your first win on the zMAX CARS Tour in Cordele, Georgia. Talk about your win and how that form of racing might help your road racing, and vice versa.
“Yeah, it was a good one. That was the second race of the season for the Pro Late Models, so that was good to get a win in my personal car. It felt good, it was a tough race. We qualified fifth, dropped back a little bit and then drove to the front, so it was definitely a good one. It gives me some confidence going into the next few races and for the TA2 stuff. There are always different techniques you use for different kinds of racing, but I also feel like there’s some stuff that can transfer over. There are techniques that you can use if a car is doing something that you don’t want it to do, there are definitely things that you can take away from TA2, or take away from Late Model racing and put it into TA2. It kind of goes both ways.”
Barry Boes, Driver, No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You’ve been to most of the tracks on the Trans Am schedule numerous times in your career, but Sonoma not so much. What are your thoughts as you head back there this weekend?
“I qualified and finished fifth there two years ago, but that was a standalone Western Championship race. It will be challenging to get a top-five with all the national guys there this weekend, but we’ll be in better equipment with our M1 Racecars and we’ll do what we can do. Last year was pretty disappointing during our Western Championship doubleheader. I had a tire blow out in the worst possible place early in the first race, and that essentially ended the rest of our weekend. So, yeah, that cost us a lot of experience there. We’ll attack it hard this weekend.”
What characterizes Sonoma in your mind? What would you consider unique about the place, and how do you describe getting around there?
“That’s a good question because there’s a lot to it. It’s dicey, and you have to have a lot of courage. There are places you have to carry as much speed as you possibly can, and there are places where the track sort of starts to fall off from you and you’re turning and you’re braking and you’re slowing down at the same time, places where you can lose a lot of time if you’re not perfect, and if you mess it up even a little bit, you’re going to go find the wall. There are a lot of fiddly things there where you’ve really got to manage the car very well, and a lot of those things are strengths of mine. The tracks that have more high-speed, NASCAR style corners, the kids tend to kick my tail, and the more fiddly a track is, the more road-course characteristics it has, the more advantage I have. If I can get out there this weekend and stay clean, make it through the start and have a little bit of luck, I mean, I could have a top-five overall finish. I would expect to have a top-10 overall finish, for sure.”
Your season-long points implications are double this weekend, and next weekend at Laguna Seca, as the Western Championship is combined with the national event as a race-within-the-race. How does that affect your approach?
“It’s going to be really important for me to qualify high and stay near the front because there’s always the chance we might not get much green-flag running during the race, or even in practice and qualifying. We were runner-up in Pro-Am at Sebring and Road Atlanta, and third in the first Western Championship race at Buttonwillow last month, so we’re in pretty good positions, there, but I feel like I can’t afford to mess up. That means I need to finish high, I can’t afford to get wrecked out, or to take too much risk, so this is going to be a race where I’ve got to drive just a little bit conservatively to make sure that I finish well. There’s no need to just can’t go out there and risk it all.”
Carson Brown, Driver, No. 8 PayCafe/Ebb Logistics/SLR-M1Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You had the chance to test at Sonoma earlier this month. How did that go, and how will it bode for your return to race there this weekend?
“I think it went really well. We got the car really comfortable at the end and, yeah, everything went really well. It took a little bit to get used to the track and all the blind corners, and we just had to make a few adjustments on the car. We got it to where it needed to be, and then from there on out, we were just fine tuning to make it fast.”
What were your impressions of the track, and what do you feel it takes to make fast laps there?
“It was actually really cool because I was born in San Jose/Mountain View area, just south of San Francisco, and it was the first time I’ve been back since I was a baby. It was really cool just seeing California again, in general. The track was really cool and I liked it a lot – just getting to see another road course and my second road course in a TA2 car. And, yeah, it was very blind. It’s a lot smoother than Sebring, and it’s a lot more blind than I expected. There’s a lot of elevation change, which makes the track really fun, very unique, and the facility and property is just really awesome, too. Overall, it’s an awesome racetrack. There’s a lot of high-speed stuff, but there’s also some slow-speed stuff. With the elevation changes, you’re always mindful of how the car unloads, you can’t be bottoming out. It takes a lot out of the car and a lot out of the driver because the corners are really blind and it’s a very car-oriented and driver-oriented track, and you’ve got to know where your marks are. I’m definitely lower on experience there than most of the drivers are going to be in the field, but overall it should be a great weekend.”
You’ve had plenty of time to digest your season-opening weekend at Sebring back in February. What are your takeaways from that weekend that you want to bring to this weekend?
“I’m feeling pretty good and pretty confident going into this weekend. I mean, we got the big debut out of the way, got a decent finish, and just need to improve on that. I feel like qualifying is going to be a pretty big factor, just need to get a clean lap, a good lap, a fast lap, qualify closer to the front than the back, and I feel like we can make up some ground from there. At Sebring, we started driving through the field even though there weren’t very many long runs, so I feel like if there are longer runs at Sonoma, which I’m not quite sure if there will be or not, then we might be able to pick some people off. Overall, it’s just about getting more laps in a TA2 car, it’s definitely about more experience, learning the race craft part of things. If we can get more long runs, I feel like that’ll help me in the future.”
Corey Day, Driver, No. 17 Hendrickcars.com/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You’re back with TeamSLR for your second TA2 race after debuting at the Sebring season opener in February. What are your thoughts about racing at Sonoma this weekend?
“I’m super excited. I got to test there in November and it was a lot of fun. It’s a California race, so I’ve been able to spend a good bit of time at my parents’ house (in Clovis) after having moved to Mooresville in January. It’s awesome that I get to be home for a week and then go race. It makes me feel like when I started my Sprint car career out there. I’ve got Sprint car and Xfinty Series races at Texas the following weekend, otherwise I could have done the TA2 race at Laguna Seca, which is even closer to my parents’ house. And I actually lived in Monterey for the first eight years of my life. But it’s all good.”
What were your impressions of the Sonoma track during your testing there last fall?
“I think it’s super fun. When I tested there, it was an absolute blast. The elevation change is a lot of fun and it just feels like a very unique track. There are a lot of different corners that are really tight, others that aren’t. There are hard-braking zones and there are not-so-hard braking zones. There are slow sections, fast sections, it’s got about everything you could want on a road course, in my opinion. Being a California guy, I just love the thought of racing there, and getting some quality laps there will be super beneficial, too, for the NASCAR and ARCA weekend there in July.”
Are there any takeaways from your TA2 debut weekend at Sebring, as well as your Sonoma test, that might come into play this weekend?
“It will be super important to get a good qualifying lap and start as close to the front as possible. It’ll be good to go back to a track I have turned good laps at. I gained a lot of experience in my Sonoma test in November and have a lot of mental notes about things that I could take back there this weekend. That’s the thing, I feel like I took good enough mental notes to where, when I go out on the track, I know where to go already. Coming from the dirt racing world, my biggest challenge is remembering all the corners and different lines on a road course, and how to connect the lines. I feel confident in my ability to get around there and confident in the car that TeamSLR is bringing me, so it should be a good weekend.”