Helio Meza Opens Sonoma Doubleheader With CUBE 3 TA2 Series Win

Helio Meza added another trophy to his 2026 collection, winning the first CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series event of the JM Environmental Trans Am Doubleheader weekend at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday.

Meza entered the weekend with wins at both Sebring International Raceway and Road Atlanta in the first two rounds of the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series season. The driver of the No. 28 Alessandros Racing/SLR-M1 Chevrolet Camaro continued his winning ways on Saturday in California, leading from wire to wire in the 40-lap contest.

The Texas driver earned pole position during qualifying on Friday, and never relinquished the top spot over the course of the feature race. Meza also won in his TA2 debut in 2025, coming in the season finale at Circuit of The Americas. With Saturday's win, Meza is now four-for-four with the series in his career.

Meza led a trio of TeamSLR cars on the TA2 podium, joined by teammates Alon Day and Connor Mosack. Lanie Buice, in another TeamSLR entry, also won the TA2 Western Championship classification with a sixth-place overall finish.

"I don't even know what to say. This team provides for me day in, day out, every weekend," said Meza. "I just think it all goes to their work ethic. They all work so hard. We're always super-late working on the cars. Even when we're fast, we're always trying to be better. We know that everyone else is trying to catch up, so we can't get content. We're working hard, and obviously, it shows.

"I think that's one, two, three for SLR, and it looks like Lanie won West as well, so congrats to her. It's just a team effort, and I can't thank everyone enough."

While Day and Mosack were happy to join Meza for a TeamSLR podium sweep, they also hope to contend with their teammate for the win on Sunday to cap off the doubleheader weekend.

"I'm very happy for TeamSLR," said Day after his runner-up finish. "We did an amazing job. For tomorrow, we're all top four to start the race. I want to thank TeamSLR for giving us the opportunity to be here.

"I wish I could do better and challenge Helio a bit. He did an amazing job. We will try to be better tomorrow."

"It's good to be back," said Mosack. "I love driving these cars, and it's always fun to be here at Sonoma. Hats off to these TeamSLR guys, obviously brought really fast race cars this weekend and have all year. It makes my job a lot easier, really, just racing these two guys here.

"Hats off to Helio, too. He's been really fast all year and this weekend, just been trying to catch him. Hopefully, we can do that tomorrow."

Buice, quite literally, drove the door off her No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage SLR-M1 Chevrolet Camaro. In the early laps, the driver's side door detached from her machine. That did not deter her from pursuing history during Saturday's race.

With her win in the Western Championship field, Buice becomes the first female winner in the history of the Trans Am Western Championship.

"I cannot thank this TeamSLR enough, Chevrolet for the opportunity to be out here," said Buice. "Everybody just gave me a good car this weekend, and I'm super grateful. Congrats to my teammates on top three, that's really cool to see.

"The door, I don't really know what happened there. They asked me, they were really hoping someone had hit it, but it really just fell off," added Buice with a smile. "It's fine, I didn't really need it anyway."

2025 TA2 Pro/Am champion Jared Odrick won the Pro/Am battle on Saturday, finishing ahead of Christina Lam and Matt Gray in his No. 00 Black Underwear/Helium Mobile Chevrolet Camaro.

"It was a great run," said Odrick. "I couldn't have done it without this guy Troy, TRB, Jared. It was awesome, man.

"We raced really hard, we raced really good, and we're going to get better next race."

The Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli will compete in its second race of the weekend at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, April 26. That race is scheduled for 1:45 PM ET. The CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series takes the track at 4:45 p.m. ET.

All of the TA Class and CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series events will be broadcast for FREE on RacingAmerica.TV, Racing America 24/7, and the official Trans Am Series YouTube Channel. The Racing America 24/7 Streaming Channel is available on The Roku Channel, Prime Video, My Free DirecTV, LG Channels, and PLEX. REVTV will serve as the official broadcast partner of Trans Am in Canada.

-Photo credit: Chris Clark Photography

CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series Unofficial Results - Sonoma Raceway