Cole Moore to Make TA Class Debut at CTMP

It’s going to be a weekend full of unknowns for Cole Moore at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The Granite Bay, California-native has never turned a lap around the 2.459-mile road course in Bowmanville, Ontario, and, for the first time in his Trans Am Series by Pirelli career, will be competing in the highest horsepower, fastest, and most difficult class of them all, the TA Class.

Moore will be partnered with Drissi Motorsports, driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro.

An initial connection between Moore and Drissi was formed earlier this year at Sebring International Raceway, after the two engaged in a hard-fought inter-class battle in practice, which brought the two together for a light-hearted conversation when the session finished.

“It all started in Sebring when I found myself in front of Tomy Drissi in practice and was giving him hell trying to get by me in the TA Cup car,” Moore said. “He came over to me after practice and was like, who is driving that orange No. 32 car. I think he was pissed at first and then he saw me have a big smile on my face, and he comes over and we’re both just laughing, and it’s almost like we had a bond right away.”

That final push, Moore says, actually came courtesy of Trans Am President Andy Lally, who did his best throughout the year to vouch for the 29-year-old to get an opportunity to drive in the TA Class.

“I got a call from Tomy [Drissi] maybe a month ago; and he’s like, what can we do to put together a TA deal for this year, I want to see you in one of my cars.” Moore recalled. “I had already been kind of putting together a budget to run Canada or VIR and the timing was right and the feeling was right, I basically just said, if we can put together a deal for Canada [Canadian Tire Motorsport Park], I’d really like to race Canada.”

So, why is the TA Class so attractive to Moore?

“It’s the cars themselves, the big horsepower. It’s the marquee class,” Moore said. “I know the TA2 Class has a lot of hype and young drivers, but I’m 29 and I’d like to be in the top class and the fastest cars and the biggest challenge, I love racing the Paul Menards, the Matthew Brabhams, the guys who are real veterans. I see myself as more of a veteran in racing, so I just think that I’m a better personality for that class overall.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t love the TA2 Class and wouldn’t continue to do that if the opportunities were there, but this, it just feels right for me.”

It’s difficult to refer to Moore as anything but a youngster, given his age (29), but his racing resume is exponentially longer and more diverse than some of the veteran drivers in the Trans Am Series by Pirelli – or any other professional racing divisions for that matter – spanning more than 25 years.

Moore began his career racing primarily on two wheels, riding motorcycles from the age of two up until the West Coast Late Model scene called his name as a teenager. For a while after, Moore pivoted back-and-forth between motorcycles and stock cars, until deciding to make it a goal to reach NASCAR, which led him to the ARCA Menards Series West, where he stayed for several years.

In his time on the short tracks across the West Coast, both in Late Models and ARCA, Moore raced against several talented drivers like Noah Gragson, Zane Smith, Todd Gilliland, Riley Herbst, and Jesse Love, all of whom have reached the NASCAR Cup Series. But it was funding – a crucial element of making a career in NASCAR – that ultimately held Moore back from climbing the mountain with his peers.

Then, Moore and his father, John, found Trans Am.

“It was the fun of it,” Moore explained. “I’ve had so many ups and downs of wanting to make this a full-time career and then being let down, not having the funds to make that happen, or you know, all the excuses you could have as a young driver. I ran into a lot of challenges. So ultimately, it boiled down to, I had to sit myself down and go, hey, this is a passion. I want to do this for the rest of my life. I want to work hard and be able to earn money to go racing. What’s the funnest thing I could go? Well, Trans Am racing has got to be the dang funnest thing you could do.”

“So, that was really what it was, was I had to ask myself, what do I want to spend my hard-earned money on? What am I going to have the most fun doing? So, I found out quickly once I got in a TA2 car that, man, this is a great put together series. The drivers are top-shelf, and man, I’m just smiling ear-to-ear while I’m doing this.”

Moore put together a two-race effort to run the TA2 Class in the Trans Am West Coast Championship in 2024, and the following season, looked poised to make a run at the championship, until he snapped his humerus while riding motocross, taking him out of the car for the remainder of the season and leaving him with a long road to recovery.

That, however, led to an interesting phone call at the start of 2026; “I was on recovery throughout the winter and Chris Evans called me, two weeks before Sebring, and was like, how you feeling? I want to get you in a TA Cup car at Sebring.” Moore recalled.

So, Moore went to Sebring, drove the No. 32 Chris Evans Race Cars Ford Mustang, and won. The rest, as they say, was history. The Granite Bay, California-native kept putting together rides to run the entirety of the inaugural TA Cup Championship Class, won four of the six races, and won the championship.

It wasn’t as simple as just winning the championship, though…

Earlier this year, on Memorial Day Weekend, Cole and his father, John, were involved in a “a total freak” aviation accident while flying to a vintage race weekend in Sonoma, California. While attempting to land the plane, it got caught in adverse weather conditions and had a failed landing, which forced them to do a go-around, but the wind flipped the plane due to a lack of air speed and crashed into the ground.

“I thought that was it, I thought we were dead, for sure, when we were coming to the ground, and it was just a miracle,” Moore explained. “We recently went to the wrecking yard to see the plane and it just, it doesn’t even look possible that we survived. I’ve always had a pretty stoic outlook on life and such, but it definitely made me feel like there is a bigger purpose why I’m still here and to kind of just put my faith in God that I’m on the right path and that I’m supposed to be here still.”

Cole’s father walked away with 15 broken bones, and had to have knee surgery, but has “healed up like he’s 18 [years old],” his son says. Meanwhile, Cole walked away with just minor cuts, scrapes and cosmetic injuries, all of which have since healed… and of course, the two are back flying, after what Moore now says is “just a little bump in the road”.

This entire journey, the motorcycle racing, the stock car racing, a failed NASCAR dream, a broken arm, a freak aviation accident, and a TA Cup Championship, has all led to this weekend, where Moore makes his first of what he hopes is several starts in the TA Class of the Trans Am Series by Pirelli, and you can be certain, that he’ll be ready.

“I’ve been training my ass off physically for this track and as I do throughout the season, just to not leave anything on the table physically, not be falling out of the seat at any point in this race,” Moore assured. “I’m pretty good at acclimating to new tracks, I give that to my motorcross background because showing up to a new dirt bike track and figuring out all the jumps and everything.”

“I just come into it with the mindset of very slow, smooth at first and then I’m a rhythm driver. So, I find my rhythm, I find my points on the track and then I just pick up the tempo slowly and that’s always worked out for me well. So, I’m hoping I’ll be successful with that approach.”

Moore says he isn’t quite sure where he’ll stack up this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, but he’s going to show up to the track physically and mentally prepared. Ideally, that will result in a podium finish for the Californian.

“I kind of look at it as, I have the mindset of like any race could be your last. Give it your best effort and you never know what could happen.”

The Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli and CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 series battle at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday, September 5 at 2:45 PM ET on Racing America, RacingAmerica.TV, and @TheTransAmSeries on YouTube.

-Photo credit: Chris Clark Photography