Matos snatches TA2 lap record in Laguna Seca qualifying
Three-time Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series champion Rafa Matos in the No. 57 Concord (...)
Three-time Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series champion Rafa Matos in the No. 57 Concord American Flagpole/SHR Chevrolet Camaro earned his first pole award of 2025, setting a new qualifying record at Laguna Seca with a best lap time of 1m26.330s, beating out 2020 champion Mike Skeen (No. 2 Guthrie’s Garage Chevrolet Camaro) by a mere 0.032s at the Mission Foods Laguna Seca SpeedTour.
“It was an awesome session, a lot of fun; the cars were really fast,” said Matos after qualifying. “We’re going about two seconds faster than last time we were here, so quite surprising with the speed. The Pirelli tires are really grippy, the weather is good, the engines are running really strong, so I’m quite happy with the performance of the No. 57 Silver Hare Camaro racecar. Obviously, the Silver Hare boys are doing a tremendous job prepping the car. We had a tremendous weekend last week, finishing second, but definitely looking forward to getting a win here tomorrow.”
Brody Goble in the No. 69 Brown Bros. Ford Lincoln Ford Mustang took the pole for the Western Championship, laying down a lap time of 1m27.103s.
“Our weekend’s been going pretty good here,” said Goble. “We got one practice session which, arguably, could help us being a privateer team against all the big National guys who have a ton of data. We kind of unloaded in the top 10 as far as the overall field goes, and we were the quickest in practice in the West, and then we were able to back it up in qualifying here and went P1 in the Western Championship, and I think seventh overall in TA2, so we’re getting there. We’re definitely pushing to make a couple more changes. I definitely made a couple little mistakes that I’m kicking myself on. I was hoping to get a 0.26s out of the car, and I think we ended up at 0.27s.1, but the team’s done a great job here. We’re thrashing to make all the changes we can and get up to speed against these National boys.”
Barry Boes (No. 27 Accio Data/SLR-M1 Chevrolet Camaro) was the fastest of the Pro/Am Challenge contenders with a time of 1m27.286s.
The race will be contested Saturday at 3:05 p.m. ET. It will be streamed live on Trans Am’s YouTube channel, @TheTransAmSeries, and broadcast live on SPEED SPORT 1, with coverage beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET. An encore presentation will air on SPEED SPORT 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET. For more information on where you can watch SPEED SPORT 1, click here.
