Pro-Am Challenge Leader Barry Boes Welcomes Back 16-Year-Old Julian DaCosta
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (Aug. 28, 2024) – Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, which began its life as an iconic road-racing circuit known as Mosport Park, plays host to its first Trans Am Series Presented by Pirelli headline event since 2014 this weekend, and TeamSLR and its M1 Racecars equipment are ready for the challenge with drivers Barry Boes, the TA2 Pro-Am Challenge-class frontrunner, and 16-year-old Julian DaCosta, who will be making his second career TA2 start.
When Trans Am competitors last turned laps on the 2.459-mile, 10-turn circuit about an hour’s drive north and east of Toronto eight seasons ago, it was Canadian road-racing veteran and former NASCAR road-course ringer Ron Fellows who scored the victory. Just two of the 27 drivers entered in Saturday’s 41-lap, 75-minute race took part in that 2014 race – Amy Ruman in the TA class, who was runner-up to Fellows by a scant 1.892 seconds, and Tom Sheehan, who with Boes is chasing this year’s Pro-Am Challenge championship.
Boes, driver of the No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Ford Mustang, hits town this weekend with a 102-point lead in the Pro-Am Challenge standings after scoring his fifth class win in nine races this season last Friday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. Boes’ most recent class victory came after he was spun from behind on the second lap of the race, then forced to limp his racecar back to the pits with a flat right-rear tire for a quick tire change before resuming on the lead lap in 26th place. He made a determined drive the rest of the way, picking up 16 spots en route to his top-10 overall finish. He looks to continue that momentum this weekend in his first career visit to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, just two races removed from his first career Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series Western Championship victory July 27 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, and his fourth-place finish with co-driver Greg Biffle the previous weekend in the SpeedTour All-Star Race at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.
Joining Boes and TeamSLR in the M1 Racecars camp for the second time this season is DaCosta, who enjoyed a solid, workmanlike TA2 Series debut April 13 at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana. The teenage driving prodigy from Myakka City, Florida, who’ll be behind the wheel of the No. 17 Powered by Hixon/Austin Hatcher Foundation/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro this weekend, qualified ninth and fought his way to an 11th-place finish after getting shoved off the track in the opening laps of the race at NOLA. DaCosta hopes to benefit from recent experience at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this weekend. A fulltime competitor in the Mazda MX-5 Cup Series this season, he took part in the series’ weekend doubleheader at the track July 13-14, scoring an impressive runner-up finish from the 20th starting position in the second of two races.
Riding along with this weekend’s TeamSLR drivers and their M1 Racecars, as it has all season long, is Nashville, Tennessee-based Franklin Road Apparel Company, which has been a longtime team supporter.
M1 Racecars was represented on the podium at 12 of the 13 TA2 rounds in 2023, highlighted by a pair of victories by Rafa Matos for Peterson Racing. Team SLR’s Dillon Machavern and Thad Moffitt both scored podium finishes, as did Connor Mosack at the season-opening event at Sebring, when he qualified on the pole and led the first 19 laps of the race before finishing third. Evan Slater earned TeamSLR’s first podium finish of 2024 Memorial Day weekend with his second-place finish at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, and Kvapil followed with his podium in the series’ inaugural race at Pittsburgh. Austin Green of Peterson Racing added a podium finish of second for M1 Racecars last weekend at Watkins Glen.
This weekend’s CTMP SpeedTour kicks off with a three-pack of test sessions Thursday at 10 a.m., noon and 2:40 p.m. EDT. Official practice is set for 11:50 a.m. Friday, followed by qualifying at 3:50 p.m. Race time is 2:15 p.m. Saturday with live television provided by series partner MAVTV, augmented by live-streaming video on the Trans Am and SpeedTour channels on YouTube. MAVTV will air a 60-minute race show at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Sept. 12.
Barry Boes, Driver, No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Ford Mustang:
Your overall thoughts as you head to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the first time this weekend?
“It looks like a really fun track, and it starts with a really interesting turn one. It’s blind, it’s fast, it crests over a hill, there’s a wall on the other side of it, and you have to carry a lot of speed through it because there’s kind of a straight after you get through it. You’ve got to work your way up to it, but once you get your confidence up on your way through it, then it’s go time. I’m going to have to get up to speed quickly since I’ve never been there before. But we have more than the usual amount of track time, so that’ll definitely help.”
What are your impressions of the track based on your preparation?
“I’ve watched videos, it looks like a tricky track, it looks like a fun track, there’s a lot of blind stuff, and there are some nice concrete walls that I really don’t want to have to encounter. There are plenty of sim resources out there, but the sim resources, when you go to a track that doesn’t have a lot of concrete walls everywhere, work a little better because the walls can appear a little intimidating. But that was the case before I first went to Watkins Glen back in the day and it turned out pretty well.”
What’s your approach to getting up to speed on a track you’re driving on for the first time?
“I’ve actually gotten pretty good at finding success at tracks my first time there. The first time I ever went to Portland (in July), I actually won there. I’ve been to enough different kinds of tracks that usually ‘this is like that,’ and ‘that is like that from another track.’ And you kind of put it all together in your mind after you go around there a few times, and kind of a la carte you pick and choose how you get through best at those kind of segments at other tracks.”
How does it change the complexion of the race when you have all of the Trans Am classes on track at the same time, and how do you deal with it?
“Well, I have excellent spotters, and having fantastic spotters is an absolute must this weekend. The TA cars come up on you fast, and it is essentially a sprint race and they don’t have time to wait for you to get out of their way. So you’ve got to know when they’re coming and you’ve got to be prepared for where you’re going to go, and you have to let them by when they get to you whether it’s convenient or not. You can drive in your mirrors the entire race and you can get wrecked, or you can have great spotters, and having great spotters is what I’ve got and it’s the best way to go.”
Julian DaCosta, Driver, No. 17 Powered by Hixon/Austin Hatcher Foundation SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You’ll be one of the few drivers in the race this weekend with any firsthand experience on the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park circuit after your successful Mazda MX-5 Cup Series weekend there in July. Your thoughts?
“When we were there with IMSA, race one didn’t go our way and I ended up starting race two from the back and ended up finishing second. That race was really good, obviously. It lifted our spirits up from the day before, when we didn’t even finish. It’s a really fun track, so I’m pretty excited.”
Based on your experience on that track, how are you expecting things to go in your TeamSLR M1 Racecars equipment there?
“I definitely think it’s going to be different in TA2 just because of how the car is, fundamentally, but I think there are a lot of things that I can transfer over, especially momentum. TA2, obviously you have a ton of horsepower and it’s a big car, so a lot of people assume you can just throw it in and drive it out. But at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, I’m pretty confident that whoever can roll the most speed is going to be able to build a pretty good gap. I guess we’ll see, but that’s what I think it’s going to come down to. I’ve looked over the entry list and I think there are a good many drivers who are going to be able to do that.”
Your first race with TeamSLR at NOLA in April was the typical race with all TA2 cars in the field. This weekend, there will be five different classes of racecars, from the big TA cars to the various GT classes. How are you preparing to deal with that?
“To be completely honest, I’m not really thinking about that much. For me, that’s something you get on track – you think about it before you get on track and before the race about what to expect from some of the fast cars and the slower cars. Obviously, you go into the race cautiously and knowing there’s going to be different speed variations, but it’s not something you can really plan beforehand. NOLA for us was really good. Obviously, being our first race in TA2, it went well. The team did a great job putting the car together and getting me comfortable. In the race, we had a pretty good start up until turn one – we got turned going into turn one – and we made it back to finish 11th. Obviously that’s not where we wanted to be, but I think it was a pretty solid run for our first race. The team did great. I loved the environment, everything about it, they did a great job on the car throughout the whole weekend. I’m really looking forward to this weekend, especially knowing this track and how these cars are going to handle on this track.”
About TeamSLR:
TeamSLR (Scott Lagasse Racing) competes fulltime in the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s newly renamed Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series in a multifaceted effort that includes dedicated entries in the TA2 division, customer programs, driver coaching and car construction. Its history dates back to 1985 and covers a wide spectrum of motorsports, including NASCAR, IMSA, SCCA, ARCA and ASA. TeamSLR is a family-owned organization run by Scott Lagasse Sr., and Scott Lagasse Jr., The father-and-son duo have combined to win more than 120 races and seven championships across a variety of series and styles of racecars, from paved ovals to road courses to dirt tracks. For more information, please visit us online at www.TeamSLR.com, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram and on LinkedIn.
