New-Look Silver Hare Lineup Set for Sebring Season Opener

Fulltimers Connor Mosack and Boris Said Jr., Joined by Red Hot Connor Zilisch as Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series Kicks Off Its 2024 Campaign

HIGH POINT, N.C. (Feb. 21, 2024) – It’s a new-look Silver Hare Racing team that opens the 2024 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series campaign this weekend at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway with the same high expectations of being in the championship hunt by season’s end after winning four of its last eight races and five of its last 11.

TA2’s winningest team in 2023 welcomes Connor Mosack and Boris Said Jr., as its fulltime drivers this season, kicking off with Saturday’s 27-lap, 75-minute Sebring SpeedTour race on the iconic 3.74-mile, 17-turn Sebring circuit. And the familiar face of Connor Zilisch, the team’s fulltime driver the past two seasons who rallied for each of those five wins in 2023, completes Silver Hare’s high-caliber, three-car effort this weekend.

The versatile Mosack will be behind the wheel of the No. 77 Silver Hare Racing/Pinnacle Chevrolet Camaro this season. A 25-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, he’s back for his first fulltime TA2 season since 2021 and 2022, when he scored a pair of victories among his nine podium finishes and 15 top-fives. A year ago this weekend, Mosack qualified on the pole and led the first 19 laps of the Sebring season opener en route to a third-place finish. The pole was his sixth in 31 career TA2 outings from 2020 to 2023, including a series-high five in 2022.

Mosack competed in just three TA2 events in 2023 as part of a busy schedule that included 24 NASCAR Xfinity Series races and six in the ARCA Menards Series. His 31 previous TA2 appearances included full-season runs in 2021 and 2022 that resulted in finishes of third and fourth, respectively, in the championship and featured a victory each year at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

Said, the 20-year-old son of veteran NASCAR and sportscar racer Boris Said, embarks on his first full TA2 season behind the wheel of the No. 75 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro after competing in 13 events the past two years. He has a best finish of seventh in last year’s season finale at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The third-generation driver from Escondido, California, began competing in dirt bikes and go-karts, then advanced through two seasons of Spec Miata super tours and major events before making his TA2 debut in October 2022 at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, the home track for High Point, North Carolina-based Silver Hare Racing.

The 17-year-old Zilisch, who’ll be behind the wheel of the familiar No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro, has graduated to a mixed racing bag this season featuring Xfinity Series, Truck Series and ARCA events, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series endurance races, and Late Model competition. His year got off to a resounding start in January when he signed a multiyear contract as a Trackhouse Racing development driver, then became the second-youngest driver ever to win the prestigious Rolex 24 At Daytona, co-driving for the LMP2-class Era Motorsport team.

Saturday’s TA2 season opener is set for 11:15 a.m. EST with live television coverage by MAVTV, augmented by live streaming video on the Trans Am and SpeedTour channels on YouTube. MAVTV will also broadcast a 60-minute race highlight show at 8 p.m. ET on the Thursday following each race this season.

Silver Hare Racing leverages its Trans Am effort to promote its arrive-and-drive program, where aspiring racers and even tenured professionals hone their road-racing skills on some of the most revered tracks in North America. NASCAR Cup Series drivers Daniel Suárez, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Harrison Burton have all wheeled Silver Hare Racing-prepared cars to burnish their road-racing abilities in top-flight equipment.

The team offers six, professionally built and maintained TA2 chassis from Howe Racing for both competition and private testing. Silver Hare Racing has a dedicated, fulltime crew and operates out of a state-of-the-art facility in High Point, North Carolina. At the track, two 53-foot Featherlite transporters serve as the team’s base, each outfitted with a lounge and smart TVs for data and video review, as well as for hospitality.

To further Silver Hare Racing’s driver development capabilities, the team’s race shop in High Point is now equipped with a SHOCKWAVE Simulator, a tool specifically developed for drivers to accelerate racetrack familiarity, improve car control and confidence, and build stamina. SHOCKWAVE has been involved in racing since 1965 and is currently actively participating in NASCAR, ARCA, Trans Am, Late Models, and Sprint cars. Its Trans Am package replicates a Howe Racing TA2 chassis, complete with cockpit controls and sounds.

“With NASCAR having so many more road-course races, it’s our goal for Silver Hare Racing to be the preferred team for drivers to get that road-course experience,” said Laura Hull, Silver Hare Racing co-owner and team manager. “We want to be that important step in the ladder for the young, up-and-coming drivers like Connor. We want people to know we have an arrive-and-drive program, where for people who want to run this track or another, we provide the opportunity to do that and be successful.”

Connor Mosack, driver, No. 77 Silver Hare Racing/Pinnacle Chevrolet Camaro:

“I’m excited to be back in Trans Am and being with a new team. Obviously, Silver Hare was the team to beat all of last year, especially in the second half. I’m definitely excited to see what their cars race like, and to have Connor (Zilisch) as my teammate and be able to compare notes and that sort of thing will be really good, and I’m just excited to get going and hopefully kick off the season with a win and get things going right.

“Sebring hasn’t been the greatest to me, at least finish-wise. But we’ve been really fast there, so hopefully the fourth time is a charm this year to finally get it done. I’m hoping to be able to close that book and move on.

“I got to run the Silver Hare cars for just a few laps at VIR at the end of last year, and we had our one test at Carolina Motorsports Park recently. The car drove really good and we made some good changes. I feel like it was really fast, it’s hard to tell lap-time-wise at CMP, but I felt really good about everything. Working with the guys, I feel like we meshed well. They listened to my feedback and made improvements on the car, which is all I can ask for, so I think that’s a good sign going into Sebring.

“The chemistry is good. I’ve known some these guys from just being around Trans Am. It’s not like everything is brand new, at least we’ve had a relationship going before this year, so I feel like that’s helped make this a smooth transition. Gil Martin (competition director) is really smart and knows what he’s doing. At the test, everything we communicated to each other, I feel like we were able to use that to improve the car, so that’s a good sign going into the race because, even if you are a little off when you get there, you have the confidence you can work with each other well and get it to where you need to be.

“The first time I ever went to a road course was at VIR, and Maurice and Laura were there, so we’ve had a little bit of a relationship for a while, as well, which I think has helped things. I’m just thankful to them for giving me this opportunity for this year, and I know they want to win the championship as badly as I do, so that’s a good sign going into the season.”

Boris Said Jr., driver, No. 75 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro:

“I’m really excited. We tested at Carolina Motorsports Park for the first time and it went pretty well, so I’m really excited for the race. I love Sebring, it’s one of my favorite tracks, especially in a TA2 car. It’s a lot of fun. I want to get there and see how it shakes out, but I think it should be pretty good.

“Sebring is known to be a rough track, but it’s really only rough in two corners, the first and the last. But it’s a very on-edge track, there are not a lot of slow corners. There are a lot of fast corners and you’re rolling a lot of speed everywhere. The tires wear down a bit, too, so you have to think about that a little. It’s more technical, there’s a lot to it. I really like the high-speed, more on-edge tracks.

“They’re really good cars. They’re slightly different than what I’m used to, but they’re really good cars, the equipment is good. One of the best parts of the test was how easy it was to work with everyone on the team. Overall, it was a very positive experience from that aspect.

“I just want to get faster every race, a little bit faster than the last race, and see where we end up. Obviously winning is the main goal, but if I can just keep achieving the first goal, the winning will take care of itself.”

Connor Zilisch, driver, No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro:

“It’s going to be really cool to come back with Silver Hare. Hopefully the team will be as dominant this season with Connor, Boris and all the guys as we were last year. For the few races that I’ll be running, I’m looking forward to continuing where we left off last year and having success right away. I feel like we have a really great group of guys and not much has changed since last season, so I’m confident we’ll have some really fast cars and we’ll be able to build on what we did last year.

“I feel like this year we’re going to have a really good chance of going out and winning at Sebring, where last year we showed up basically hoping to get a podium and doing really well. I feel like with the chemistry we’ve built with the guys over the last 12 months, we’ve all worked together well and I feel like we’re all really confident and ready to have a good weekend to kick off the season.

“It’s been a really exciting past few months for me. Honestly, it’s overwhelming to see all the support, even from people out there who I didn’t even know. Signing with Trackhouse and winning the Rolex 24 in the same month was pretty surreal. Hoping I can carry that momentum and carry it through 2024 and just have a great year. We’re only a month in and it’s already been a great year. Hopefully we can start off well in the Trans Am race at Sebring, and then few weeks later in the 12-hour. I’ve got a lot of really cool races this year – bucket list races for me – and I can’t wait.

“I feel like the success I’ve had in Trans Am is a lot of the reason that I have the opportunities that I have now. I’ll forever be grateful for what Laura and Maurice Hull have done for me, giving me the chance to go out there and show my talent. They stuck with me through the good and the bad. We’ve had a lot of good times together and we’re going to continue over the coming years as they’re basically family to me. I’m hoping we can continue the success and bring them with me wherever I may go and continue to support their team and what they do at Silver Hare Racing.”

About Silver Hare Racing:

Silver Hare Racing is a fulltime competitor in the TA2 division of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli. The multicar team has won the TA2 masters class championship three times (2018, 2019 and 2020) with driver and team co-owner Maurice Hull. Under the leadership of Hull’s wife, co-owner and team manager Laura Hull, Silver Hare Racing provides a variety of services that includes private testing and arrive-and-drive programs. The team offers six, professionally built and maintained TA2 chassis from Howe Racing and operates from a state-of-the-art facility in High Point, North Carolina. For more information, please visit SilverHareRacing.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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