With Pro-Am Title Clinched, Barry Boes Eyes Top Overall Result Joined by Teens Tristan McKee and Evan Slater, 21-Year-Old Carson Kvapil, for TA2 Season Finale
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (Oct. 31, 2024) – With one title already in the bag, a quartet of TeamSLR M1 Racecars competitors are ready to hit the majestic Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas, to close out the 2024 Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series season during Sunday’s COTA SpeedTour event.
First-year TeamSLR driver Barry Boes and his No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Ford Mustang arrive at the 3.4-mile, 20-turn circuit having clinched the 2024 Pro-Am Challenge championship within a championship by virtue of his seventh class win in 11 races this season Oct. 5 at Virginia International Raceway in Alton. Boes will be joined for Sunday’s 30-lap, 75-minute season finale by three young, part-time TA2 drivers all returning to the TeamSLR lineup after posting solid results in previous stints in M1 Racecars equipment this season – 21-year-old Carson Kvapil, 18-year-old Evan Slater, and 14-year-old Tristan McKee.
With Pro-Am title in hand, the pressure is off for Boes, the sixth-year TA2 Series competitor who from 1995 to 2023 called Austin, Texas, home before his offseason move to Ooltewah, Tennessee. He relishes the opportunity to go all out for a top overall finish Sunday against a packed field of 45 entries. It will be the sixth career TA2 appearance at COTA for Boes and first with TeamSLR. His first three resulted in finishes of ninth, seventh and 10th in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. In July, Boes scored his first career Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series Western Championship victory at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway in M1 Racecars equipment. He also scored a fourth-place finish in his No. 27 Ford with co-driver Greg Biffle in the non-points SpeedTour All-Star Race July 20 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.
McKee, who turned 14 on Aug. 3, returns to the cockpit of the No. 28 SLR-M1Racecars Chevrolet Camaro after a stellar official TA2 debut in the most recent round at VIR. He qualified sixth and held position among the leaders en route to a fourth-place finish, just .7 of a second behind the final podium position. McKee has shown his racing brilliance as a Chevrolet development driver this season. He’s been a regular in the Pro Late Model division of the popular CARS Tour, where in 2023 he became the series’ youngest winner at the age of 12. McKee added a win in the series’ July 3 round at Caraway Speedway in Sophia, North Carolina, and another in the Aug. 4 round at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. He got his first taste of TA2 competition when he co-drove a TeamSLR M1 Racecars entry with his Team Chevrolet mentor Scott speed in July’s All-Star Race at Lime Rock.
Kvapil will be making his fifth career TA2 start this weekend, his third of the season and first since it was announced Oct. 1 that he will drive fulltime in the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports. The son of 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil is also a Team Chevrolet development driver. His first TA2 outing of the year in the No. 17 SLR-M1Racecars Chevrolet Camaro came in the June 3 race at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex, where he drove to a third-place finish from the ninth starting position. He returned Aug. 25 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, where he qualified third and was running with the leaders before a shredded tire led to an early exit from the race. With zero road-racing experience prior to his TA2 debut in June 2023 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Kvapil qualified second and finished fifth, then qualified third the following weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and moved up to second on the opening lap of the race before getting punted off track and sustaining damage beyond repair. He’s enjoyed success in numerous other racing disciplines already this year, including three top-five Xfinity Series finishes in nine races with JR Motorsports, and top-three finishes for Pinnacle Racing Group in the ARCA Menards Series. Kvapil also has a pair of wins in six races on the zMAX CARS Tour in the Late Model Stock class.
Slater, the native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who’ll be behind the wheel of the No. 8 Cube 3 Architecture/Willis & Smith Capital/Paul Racing SLR-M1Racecars Chevrolet Camaro, returns to the team for the second time this season and first since qualifying and finishing second Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock, where he chased race-winner and two-time TA2 champion Rafa Matos across the finish line. Slater competed in six TA2 races in 2023 for Ken Thwaits’ Showtime Motorsports M1 Racecars team, scoring top-five finishes at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and another pair of top-10s at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana, and Lime Rock. Slater has one previous TA2 appearance at COTA, qualifying fourth but having to start at the back of the 42-car field, from where he drove to a 14th-place finish.
Another pair of M1 Racecars entries fielded by Peterson Racing return to the TA2 Series for the fourth time this season. Last year’s TA2 Series Rookie of the Year Austin Green returns to the cockpit of the No. 89 Ford Mustang that he drove to a runner-up finish at Watkins Glen in August, qualified on the pole at Mid-Ohio in June, and drove to a fifth-place finish at the season-opening race at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway in February. Meanwhile, team owner and Masters-class competitor Doug Peterson is back behind the wheel of the No. 87 Ford Mustang.
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 and serves as associate partner on all four TeamSLR entries this weekend. Also supporting the overall TeamSLR effort is Cube 3 Architecture. TeamSLR is also supporting part-time TA2 driver Julian DaCosta’s Powered by Hixson-backed SVRA vintage car effort this weekend at COTA.
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.
This weekend’s COTA SpeedTour kicks off with a pair of TA2 test sessions at 10:55 and 4:55 p.m. EDT Friday. Official practice is set for 11:30 a.m. Saturday, followed by qualifying at 4:45 p.m. Race time is 10:35 a.m. EST Sunday 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. EST on Thursday, Nov. 7.
Barry Boes, Driver, No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Racecars Ford Mustang:
What are your thoughts about the track, considering you lived fulltime in the Austin area from 1995 until last year?
“COTA is one of those racetracks where, if you’ve never been on a racetrack and you get on it in a racecar, it feels like you’re on a Formula One track, because you are. You’ve got all the great big, huge curbing and the big, painted runoff areas, and the gantries going over the racetrack and all that sort of stuff. It looks larger than life. But as a competitor, especially in TA2, it’s a track where there’s not a ton of risk. You go straight, you brake hard, you go straight, you brake hard, there’s a little bit of fiddly stuff, and you start all over again. Turn 13 is a challenge to get right, and then really nailing 18 and 19 is way harder than it looks. To be really fast, it’s really tough to get that one right and a lot of fun to work on perfecting, same with 13 and 14. I lived there since well before the racetrack was ever there, and the track was there for years before I started racing, so I’ve raced at a lot of other tracks a lot more than I have at COTA. Still, I’m looking forward to having a good run there this weekend.”
You arrive at this weekend’s season finale at COTA with an insurmountable 125-point lead in the Pro-Am Challenge standings. How does that affect the way you approach this race compared to a typical weekend?
“With Pro-Am in the bag, I’m just going to go flat out as opposed to having to be as careful as I can be if it wasn’t in the bag. I’m going to just see how far up there I can run among the ‘national series’ guys and just give it everything I’ve got.”
You’re wrapping up your first season driving for TeamSLR. How would you describe the experience?
“Yeah, I mean, this has been both my most successful and most rewarding year of racing. And, obviously, the people and the equipment that have been standing behind me are a very big part of that.”
Carson Kvapil, Driver, No. 17 SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
Since we last saw you at Watkins Glen, it was announced you will drive fulltime next year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports. How does that affect your perspective as you race this weekend at COTA, which is on the Xfinity Series schedule?
“Obviously, I want to go there and treat it as any other race, I want to go out there and try to win. We’ll just try to get really good test and practice sessions in, qualify well and run all the laps in the race to get as much experience as we can. With the Xfinity schedule having pretty limited practice time, it’s good to get as much track time as you can on these road courses, which is kind of not my forte, I guess you’d say. I’m just looking forward to it and I know TeamSLR is going to bring me a good piece, so I’m sure we’ll have a pretty good shot to win the race, or at least have a good shot to run really well.”
You recently had a chance to run some laps at COTA in a stock Camaro. What are your impressions of the track and what it takes to run well there?
“It’s a really huge place, and I think it’s kind of cool. It’s not just 10 or 11 turns, it’s really long and the facility is really, really nice, more so than I’ve witnessed at any other road course. It’ll be pretty cool and super exciting to race on a track like that. Like every other road course, it’s got its little quirks and little tough spots. Hopefully, we can go in this weekend and figure it all out and learn all the turns, which sometimes can be tough on a big track like that.”
How would you describe your experience working with TeamSLR and its contribution to helping you make it to the next level in the Xfinity Series?
“Running a handful of races with TeamSLR these last two seasons, the whole team has been a great experience and I’m going to say it’s going to be a big help going into next year’s Xfinity schedule. Being able to run Watkins Glen earlier this year and now COTA with the Lagasses is going to pay big dividends. Working with a group like TeamSLR makes my job a lot easier. They’re super good about how they look at data and driver training for the road courses, and with their NASCAR experience, we’ve been speaking the same language, so I couldn’t be with a better group, and we’re excited to hit it this weekend.”
Tristan Mckee, Driver, No. 28 SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You got a sneak peek at the COTA layout driving a stock Camaro a few weeks ago. What are your initial impressions of the track, and how did it help your preparation?
“I’m excited. The elevation change all around the track is cool. I’ve done some sim work with Scott Speed and their preparation has been great, so I think I’m pretty ready. It’ll be good to actually get to run there for real in a TA2 car. F1 was there a couple of weeks ago, that adds to the excitement of being able to drive there. It’s a super huge racetrack and one of the coolest in the country, so I’m really excited.”
Did you identify any key parts of the track that are important to turning fast laps there?
“Yeah, there’s so much to that track. It was just a matter of making sure you get all the proximity right in the corners, cutting everything as close as you can. There are some track limits all around and they’ll be pretty strict on that, especially through the esses, so cutting those as tight as you can will be important. The lap there is so long, there are many different things to think about every lap.”
You came within one spot of a podium finish in your official TA2 debut with TeamSLR at VIR the first weekend in October. How was that experience for you?
“It was great. I’ve been working with TeamSLR since December last year, we’ve been testing a lot. It’s been great to work with Scotty (Scott Lagasse Jr.) and his dad (Scott Lagasse Sr.) and getting to know all the guys, it’s been good. They helped me a lot at VIR. I think I could’ve done a few things a little bit better, but obviously I’m still learning. That was my first real TA2 race, so I’m excited to see what we can do at COTA.”
Evan Slater, Driver, No. 8 Cube 3 Architecture/Willis & Smith Capital SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro:
You’re back with TeamSLR and the Trans Am Series for the second time this year and the first time since your runner-up finish at Lime Rock in May. How are you approaching this weekend?
“I don’t think it’ll take too long to break the rust off. Lime Rock was my first time back in the car in nine months and we got second in the race, I think we went second the first practice session, so it didn’t take long to knock the rust off there. So, COTA, I haven’t driven the track in two years, and they’ve done some repaving, but I expect to be fast right out of the box. I’ve been driving racecars here and there since Lime Rock, a lot of coaching in TA2 cars – sometimes I hop in for a data lap. Um, and I’ve been driving other forms of cars like Radicals, prototypes, sportscars. I’ve been staying active, so I don’t think it’ll be too much of a learning curve to get back into it.”
You have one previous TA2 outing at COTA, which resulted in a 14th-place finish in 2022. What do you expect to take from that race into this weekend?
“COTA is such an interesting track, a ton of turns, a lot of different types of turns. You’ve got fast-flowing turns, tight turns, turns where you need to get good power down, you have hard braking zones. So, what a great track. There are a lot of different types of turns and options, which makes it really fun. In 2022, I had a good run, but it didn’t look as good on paper. We qualified fourth, but then I missed the driver meeting in my worst move of the season, so I had to start 43rd, but went from 43rd to 14th in the race, which was a great race, I thought. Obviously, we would have liked to have started fourth rather than 43rd, but it showed that you can pass around that track, and I was able to find the gaps, find the opportunities around there. This year, I’m definitely not going to miss the driver meeting, so hopefully we can stay at the front end of the field the whole time. I already have my alarm set for the for the COTA driver meeting in my phone, so I’m not going to miss this one.”
How would you describe your first experience with TeamSLR at Lime Rock in May?
“Lime Rock was my first experience with Scott Sr. and Scott Jr., and I enjoyed it from the start, they know so much. I mean, they built the car, so they know it inside and out. The level of professionalism they brought was unmatched from anything I’ve seen. They were so great at so many things, like figuring out what setup changes that we needed to do starting a practice, laying out the plan – ‘We’re going to do a few laps, pit, make a change, and go out again, then make another change.’ They have a layout and a plan for all the practice sessions, which I think is great. They know what they need to learn to make the cars drive the best they can. And it’s just a super-professional environment, everybody knows what they’re doing, and everybody’s really good at their job.”
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.
