Strong Start For TeamSLR’S Title Defense

Riley is right. While his expertise comes from six decades in professional basketball, the words of the three-time NBA Coach of the Year are applicable to all sports, particularly motorsports, where a technological arms race runs parallel to the actual racing. Yet there is an outlier in Trans Am’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series, where the reigning series champions are making it look easy, even without the driver who delivered their 2025 title.

TeamSLR won last year’s TA2 championship with Tristan McKee, who, at 15 years, two months and 16 days of age, became the youngest champion in Trans Am history. McKee leveraged that title into a fulltime ride in the ARCA Menards Series in 2026, grabbing another rung on the racing ladder as he works toward the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series – the two stepping-stone divisions to the elite NASCAR Cup Series. With McKee having graduated with honors from TeamSLR’s driver development program, which is an official driver development partner for GM Motorsports, the organization needed to reload for 2026.

For Scott Lagasse and Scott Lagasse Jr., the father-and-son duo behind TeamSLR, their plans for this year began in the 2025 season finale at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, when they put Helio Meza in their car. With some road- racing experience in Mazda MX-5 Cup and the NASCAR Mexico Challenge Series, Meza promptly won the pole and then led all but two of the race’s 30 laps on his way to an impressive 11.677-second margin of victory. It was a preview of what was to come in 2026, when, in the first two TA2 races of the season at Sebring International Raceway in Florida and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Georgia, competitors have been left with a strong sense of déjà vu.

The 18-year-old Meza won the pole, led every lap and won. At both races. In fact, in his three career TA2 starts dating back to last November at COTA, Meza is batting 1.000, having won every race from the pole. So far in 2026, no other driver has led a single lap. “Last year, I went to my first race at COTA, my debut, not really expecting much, and here I am, having won for the third time in a row. I’m just kind of speechless,” said Meza from victory lane at Road Atlanta. “I can’t thank Chevrolet and TeamSLR enough. They worked really hard in the offseason to get these cars super fast, and obviously it shows.”

Meza has been working just as hard. As a member of GM Motorsports’ driver development program, Meza’s race preparation is guided by Wise Optimization, led by former driver Josh Wise, an accomplished USAC racer who won the 2005 National Midget Series championship. Embedded inside the 130,000-square-foot GM Tech Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, Wise works in concert with the Lagasses to place next-generation talent like Meza in TeamSLR-prepared racecars.

“What Helio is doing is exceptional, especially in TA2 where the competition is deep and the margins are tight,” Wise said. “He’s controlling these races from the very beginning of the race weekend, applying what he’s learned in practice to pole runs in qualifying. He’s taking a fast car and making it faster, and it all culminates in the race. He’s got a very disciplined approach and it’s paying off. “It also speaks to what the Lagasses have built with TeamSLR. They provide drivers with a platform that’s fast and consistent, and when you pair that with a driver who’s prepared and executing at a high level, you can achieve results like this. It’s been impressive, but far from unexpected considering the level of preparation that Chevrolet, Wise Optimization and TeamSLR have invested into developing Helio.” TeamSLR continues to build beyond its championship-winning race team.

Roaring Pines Motorclub is the Lagasses’ latest endeavor to simultaneously fuel future racing talent while providing a year- round home for motorsports enthusiasts. On 480 acres outside of St. Augustine, Florida, a 3.5-mile road course will soon be carved into the earth, with a layout that can be transformed into multiple configurations. Elite pit garages and upscale garage condos will complement the track, as will a planned boutique hotel.

“At TeamSLR, we focus on giving drivers a complete foundation for success, and Roaring Pines Motorclub is the next step in that evolution,” said Scott Lagasse Sr. “It’s a place where drivers can put in the work year- round to accelerate their development, and it also provides owners of high-performance vehicles with a purpose-built environment to explore the full potential of their cars in a safe and structured manner.” A groundbreaking is slated for later this year following the TA2 campaign, where the goal is to hoist a second straight championship trophy in November at COTA and soon afterward plunge shovels into the sandy soil of coastal Florida to begin construction of Roaring Pines.