Menard Outruns Brabham, Meza Skirts Ahead of Day in Thrilling Finishes at CTMP

Since its inception in 1961, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) has delivered so many iconic races and finishes, across several divisions, and on Saturday, during the track’s annual Labor Day Weekend festivities, the Trans Am Series by Pirelli delivered yet another.

For the first, and only, time this season, both the TA and CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Classes were running their events at the same time, meaning four classes, all different speed variations, were competing around the 2.459-mile racetrack in Clarington, Ontario at the same time.

Each of these four classes, though, featured their own unique twists and turns.

Paul Menard (No. 31 Pittsburgh Paints / Menards Ford Mustang) has been looking to take the fight to Matthew Brabham, his biggest championship threat, all season long, as the Chris Dyson Racing driver and team have seemingly been one step ahead of the two-time TA Class champion. Menard does have a single victory in 2026, on Memorial Day Weekend at Lime Rock Park, but that fell into the lap of the Wisconsin-native after Brabham suffered a race-ending mechanical issue.

Regardless, the two-time defending winner of the Trans Am Series by Pirelli event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, is just happy to have been able to fight with Brabham, and come out on top, without anything getting in the way of a good old-fashioned motor race.

“My guys never give up. We’ve got two championships and just made this car so much faster over the years, and Brabham has been pushing us so hard,” Menard said post-race. “So, to beat him straight up in a dog fight, that’s what we needed, a good shot in the arm. We’ve got a lot of work to do, obviously, to close the championship, but if we can sweep the last two races, we’ll call that a success and keep working on it.”

Menard started the event in second-place, unable to foil Brabham’s perfect qualifying record this season, but as soon as the event got going, the No. 31 had more pace than the race-and-championship leader, making the pass for the lead pretty early in the event, and never looking back, despite a fierce fight to the end by Brabham.

Chris Dyson rounded out the podium position in third place, driving a second entry for Chris Dyson Racing. Cole Moore, driving a second entry for Drissi Motorsports in his TA Class debut, finished fourth. Tomy Drissi and David Pintaric both had issues early in the race and had to settle for fifth and sixth place in-class.

TA CLASS RACE RESULTS:

1. #3 Paul Menard
2. #16 Matthew Brabham
3. #20 Chris Dyson
4. #9 Cole Moore
5. #8 Tomy Drissi
6. #57 David Pintaric

Helio Meza (No. 28 Alessandro’s Racing Chevrolet Camaro) and Alon Day (No. 17 JSSI Chevrolet Camaro) have been the class of the field in the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series all year long, and Saturday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park was no different.

Much like Paul Menard and Matthew Brabham did in the TA Class (and for the overall win), Meza and Day were engaged in a tight-knit battle throughout the entire 41-lap contest, and even throughout several cautions and restarts, did not let each other get away at any point.

In the true nature of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the Mario Andretti Straightaway into Turn 9, 10, and 11, have decided so many races in exciting fashion – sometimes cleanly, sometimes not – but Meza and Day, teammates out of the Team SLR stable, maneuvered themselves flawlessly through those final corners side-by-side, and ended up drag racing each other to the checkered flag.

Meza secured the victory by 0.025 seconds over Day.

“Man, what a finish,” Meza said with a giant smile on his face in the Winner’s Circle. “That was definitely the hardest race I’ve had all year, and those are the races I enjoy the most because you have to work for them the hardest. Huge congrats to Alon [Day], he kept me honest the whole race and raced clean. So, super grateful and like you said, coming side-by-side across the line, what a way to finish in front of the awesome fans in Canada.”

After a pair of disappointing results at Road America and Watkins Glen, Meza still has a bit of a hole to dig himself out of if he wants to win the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series championship in 2026, but the Spring, Texas-native says his mindset isn’t any different than it’s been all year.

“It’s going to be hard to dig ourselves out of the hole we dug ourselves after the two bad races we had, but we’re going to try and execute just like we did today,” he continued. “So, my mindset doesn’t change, the team’s mindset doesn’t change, we’re always working as hard as we can, we’re never content, we’re always pushing for more as you can see.”

In third-place, Lanie Buice had a breakout run at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, picking up her first overall podium in the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series. Buice had a strong race for Team SLR, and for a lot of the green-flag racing was able to keep reasonable pace with both Meza and Day. Noah Harmon and Adrian Wlostowski rounding out the top five.

CUBE 3 TA2 RESULTS:

1. #28 Helio Meza
2. #17 Alon Day
3. #27 Lanie Buice
4. #7 Noah Harmon
5. #3 Adrian Wlostowski
6. #95 Gian Buffomante
7. #68 Jace Denmark
8. #10 Ethan Tovo
9. #30 Jackson Tovo
10. #75 Tanner Reif

Roberto Sabato (No. 61 6th Gear Racing Ford Mustang) took a hometown victory in Saturday’s PRO-AM Division of the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series. Sabato, now residing in California, is originally from the Toronto, Ontario area, and his team operates out of Ontario, making Canadian Tire Motorsport Park an important race to win.

Jared Odrick, in the midst of a title fight with Cale Phillips, was battling for the class-lead with Sabato early in the 41-lap contest, when he got booted by the No. 61 and lost track position. While trying to get those spots back, Odrick fell victim to an accident breaking out in the mid-pack.

“I had some pace on some guys, I got booted by Sabato early, so it put me behind some guys that I knew I had more pace then, bided my time, got around [Joe Federl] in Turn 3 and then Eric [Cayton] was always slower than me coming up the hill and into Turns 9 and 10, so I got to the inside of him in Turn 10 and then once he got there, somebody nudged him from behind it seemed because he was out of control when he was next to me and then our tires touched and we went around.”

CUBE 3 TA2 PRO-AM RESULTS:

1. #61 Roberto Sobato
2. #99 Cale Phillips
3. #98 Doug Winston
4. #91 Justin Elder
5. #66 Christina Lam
6. #00 Jared Odrick

Zach Arnold and Patrick Utt fought hard to see who would take the victory in the SGT Class at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday, and although both drivers had to make unscheduled trips to pit road, it ended up being Arnold (No. 72 Arnold Machine Porsche GT3 Cup) that took the class victory.

Arnold finished 22nd overall, two laps behind the leader, while Utt finished 23rd, three laps down.

SGT CLASS RESULTS:

1. #72 Zach Arnold
2. #49 Patrick Utt

The Trans Am Series by Pirelli returns to action on September 17-20 at VIRginia International Raceway with two separate events – the Trans Am Series by Pirelli (TA and GT Classes) and the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series (Pro and Pro-Am Classes).