Chris Dyson drove his No. 16 GYM WEED Ford Mustang to a blazing-fast time of 1m20.674s, claiming the pole award for Sunday’s inaugural Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli race at Barber Motorsports Park. Dyson is one of the few competitors to have past experience at the Alabama track, making a 2003 start in Grand-Am Cup and a 2015 start in Pirelli World Challenge.
“Well, it’s great to be back here at Barber Motorsports Park,” said Dyson. “The Trans Am cars around here are just amazing; absolute monsters. The team has raced here before, about 10 years ago, so we had a decent idea of what to expect. We did a lot of work on the simulator. My guys absolutely nailed it on the gear ratios. Thanks to Mike Lanci on the engine, I can’t say enough about the performance of the car. We lost yesterday’s practice session, but I felt like we were pretty well prepared. And in first practice today, it was absolutely great. I think we’ve got an awesome race car. Great to be leading the pack around here. This place is very tight. I’m absolutely thrilled to have the GYM WEED car up front, and we’re looking forward to a great result tomorrow.”
Danny Lowry (No. 42 Bennett/BridgeHaul/Pitboxes.com Mercedes AMG GT3) was the fastest competitor in XGT, while Eric Foss (No. 54 South Dallas Turf Chevrolet Corvette) led the SGT class. Adrian Wlostowski (No. 9 CMI/F.A.S.T./Howe Racing How HR6) was the best in GT for his first-career start in the class. Wlostowski will be pulling double duty Sunday, racing in both the TA/GT race and the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series event.
Tristan McKee (No. 28 Spire/Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Chevrolet Camaro) was the quickest in the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series session with a best time of 1m25.323s, earning his third-career pole award. With the five bonus points awarded for the top qualifying position, McKee is that much closer to clinching the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series championship this weekend. A finish of 11th or better Sunday would make him the youngest champion in Trans Am history at 15 years, two months and 16 days old.
“It feels good to get the pole here at Barber,” said McKee. “It’s a super fun track. All the SLR boys brought me a really, really fast car, and it showed all weekend. We won every session so far, so hopefully we can carry that on to the race and keep the streak going. We have one more race left [after this weekend] and we’re leading the championship. There’s quite a big points gap that we have over the No. 70 car, so feeling good going into these last two races. Thank you to Gainbridge, Hendrick Cars, Spire and Jeff Dickerson for everything they do.”
Jared Odrick (No. 00 Black Underwear/CoolBoxx Chevrolet Camaro) was the fastest of the Pro/Am Challenge contenders with a time of 1m27.438s.
The Barber SpeedTour TA/GT race will be contested Sunday at 10:30 a.m. ET and will be streamed live on Trans Am’s YouTube channel, @TheTransAmSeries and broadcast live on SPEED SPORT 1. The CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series race is set to go green at 2:50 p.m. and will be streamed live on Trans Am’s YouTube channel and broadcast live on SPEED SPORT 1 as well.
An encore presentation will air on SPEED SPORT 1 Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET in a block that will also include the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series. For more information on where you can watch SPEED SPORT 1, click here.
TRANS AM RESULTS