Matthew Brabham Dominates Road America; Cole Moore Clinches TA Cup Title

Matthew Brabham (No. 16 Gymweed Ford Mustang) continued his lights-out dominance of the Trans Am Series by Pirelli at Road America on Sunday, winning his sixth event in seven races this season, and the 14th of his career in just 23 starts.

After demolishing the track record (which was set by him, last year) in qualifying on Saturday, Brabham was able to get a jump off the line and pull away from his closest opponent, Paul Menard, in the early moments of the 25-lap contest.

Laying down some qualifying-type laps around the 4.048-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Brabham had at one point in the race, extended his lead north of five seconds, before an issue with Paul Menard’s No. 3 Pittsburgh Paints / Menards Ford Mustang, took the Wisconsin-native out of contention for the victory.

Menard was forced to hit pit road after suffering a major tire failure, which left him a lap behind the race-leader, and off the podium for the TA Class… and suddenly, Brabham’s lead had extended to more than a full minute.

That astronomical lead was quickly erased with four laps remaining, though, after TA Cup Championship driver Ken Thwaits crashed hard in Canada Corner, drawing the caution, and forcing the race into a one-lap shootout for the victory.

Brabham lined up with the rapid lapped car of Paul Menard as a buffer between him, Tomy Drissi, and David Pintaric, ensuring that the Chris Dyson Racing machine could pull away and get to Victory Lane, while getting to have some on-track fun with Menard.

“It’s never easy out there, obviously Paul [Menard] had some issues there, but he was there for that restart. I know he was a lap down, but I thought, ‘hey, I know he’s going to want to have a race, especially after the race he’s already had’, and he had something there for me,” said Matthew Brabham. “We were so close in qualifying. I think it’s the closest they’ve been to our car all year and those guys are doing a great job. So, hats off to Paul Menard, I know that sucks for him in that race, but he’s getting there, it’s going to be on for the rest of the year.”

Brabham crossed the start-finish line 6.864 seconds ahead of runner-up Tomy Drissi, while third-place in the TA Class, David Pintaric, didn’t get the opportunity to finish the final lap of the race, after crashing with GT1 Challenge winner Colin Comer in Turn 3.

Paul Menard finished fourth in-class, a lap down, with Jon DeGaynor in fifth, 24 laps down. Amy Ruman didn’t start Sunday’s Trans Am Series by Pirelli event after a crash during practice that forced the No. 23 McNichols Co. Chevrolet Corvette to withdraw.

The day isn’t over for Brabham, though, who will get behind the wheel of the No. 48 in the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series event and try to win there, on debut, against teammates Helio Meza and Alon Day.

TA Class Finishing Results:

1. #16 Matthew Brabham
2. #8 Tomy Drissi
3. #57 David Pintaric
4. #3 Paul Menard
5. #4 Jon DeGaynor
6. #23 Amy Ruman (DNS)

The Trans Am Series by Pirelli has officially crowned its first championship in the TA Cup Championship, and his name is Cole Moore.

Moore, a native of Grantie Bay, California, carried four different car numbers throughout the seven-race TA Cup Championship campaign in 2026 – No. 32, No. 27, No. 89, and No. 99 – but still visited Victory Lane four different times (Sebring, Sonoma, Indianapolis, and Road America).

That performance, culminating in a victory Sunday at Road America, was good enough for the 29-year-old driver to defeat Jim Guthrie for the inaugural TA Cup title. However, there were some nervous moments on the way to Sunday’s victory in Wisconsin.

After laying down some unreal lap times throughout the weekend, which, at times, were comparable to that of a top-three-running car in the TA Class, Moore was on cruise control with a massive advantage over his fellow TA Cup classmates, when the No. 99 picked up a vibration, which turned out to be a broken splitter.

Moore backed up to Jim Guthrie, Ken Sutherland, and David Kunicki late in the going trying to preserve his car, and when a caution came late for Ken Thwaits, had to hold off the hungry back behind in a one-lap shootout to clinch a third-place finish overall, and his championship.

“Oh my god, I’m so happy that turned out the way it did,” Moore said post-race. “That was a pretty crazy last lap with three different classes battling into Turn 1, it got a little close for us but we came out on the good side.”

“After [Tomy] Drissi got by us we picked up a really bad vibration from the front splitter that broke. I thought I might have a tire going down but Jeff let me know that it was the splitter, so at that point, I had been saving tires for 10 to 12 laps, and I knew with a green-white-checkered that we were going to be the car to beat.”

Jim Guthrie finished second in the race, and second in the championship. Teammates David Kunicki and Ken Sutherland finished third and fourth in-class, with Ken Thwaits, who crashed hard in Canada Corner with four laps to go, finishing fifth.

TA Cup Championship Finishing Results:

1. #99 Cole Moore
2. #62 Jim Guthrie
3. #86 David Kunicki
4. #85 Ken Sutherland
5. #9 Ken Thwaits

Despite a final-lap crash with TA Class driver David Pintaric, Colin Comer (No. 6 Colin’s Classic Auto Ford Mustang) found himself taking victory in the GT1 Challenge at Road America, even though he was stuck in the gravel trap in Turn 3.

The River Hills, Wisconsin-native was the class of the field in the GT1 Challenge this weekend at Road America, and until the race got the green flag, was the only one who had turned laps on-track. But, Rob Dickey, after a lot of work to his racecar, was able to get his No. 64 Lost Bean Coffee Chevrolet Camaro on track for the race.

Comer was running as high as fourth-place overall in the late stages of the 25-lap contest, and wanted to battle David Pintaric for an overall podium, when they collided entering Turn 3, and crashed into the wall and slid into the gravel trap.

The No. 6 Ford Mustang ended up finishing eighth overall.

GT1 Challenge Finishing Results:

1. #6 Colin Comer
2. #64 Rob Dickey
3. #00 Lawrence Loshak (DNS)

Derric Carter (No. 24 PortableHoist.com Ford Mustang GT 500) has found a lot of success in the GT Class this season in the Trans Am Series by Pirelli, winning events at Sebring and Road Atlanta and finishing runner-up at Lime Rock. However, this weekend at Road America, the Davenport, Iowa-native decided it was time for a change, moving up to the SGT Class to further bolster his learning curve.

That changed paid off in a mighty way Sunday, after Carter made a last-lap move around Austen Dinger to put him on the top step of the podium in the SGT Class, his first career victory in his debut in the class.

Austen Dinger finished in the runner-up position Sunday, and the Fort Worth, Texas-native is eyeing two additional Trans Am Series by Pirelli events in 2026, before contemplating running the full schedule in 2027.

Patrick Utt, a full-timer in the SGT Class, finished third and will make a major gain on points leader Chris Coffey, with Tim Gray finishing the day in fourth place.

SGT Class Finishing Results:

1. #24 Derric Carter
2. #88 Austen Dinger
3. #49 Patrick Utt
4. #60 Tim Gray