Menard opens Trans Am western swing strong with Sonoma win

2024 TA Champion Paul Menard earned his second win of the season in the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli, leading every lap of a close and competitive race at Sonoma Raceway. Menard was challenged fervently by three-time TA Champion Chris Dyson, who was anxious for redemption after a crash in Sebring kept him out of the seat for round two at Road Atlanta. However, despite Dyson’s valiant efforts, Menard took the checkered flag with a narrow 0.291s margin of victory.

Menard (No. 3 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Ford Mustang) took the green flag from the first position after a washed-out qualifying session led to the grid being set by practice speeds. Starting the race side-by-side with Dyson (No. 16 GYM WEED Ford Mustang), Menard pulled out to the lead smoothly, but Dyson remained tight on his tail. Behind them, third-place starter Adam Andretti (No. 17 Top Liner Chevrolet Camaro) and fourth-place starter Brent Crews (No. 2 Weaver Concepts/Mobil 1 Dodge Challenger) battled for position. Crews was able to complete the pass on Andretti on lap 16, but Andretti reclaimed the spot two laps later. That same lap, Menard began to face lapped traffic, and his 2.5s advantage over Dyson dwindled to just 0.3s, beginning a game of cat and mouse for the lead.

At the same time, fifth-place starter Tomy Drissi (No. 8 Trench Shoring Co./Motul Chevrolet Camaro) began to stalk Crews, and he completed the pass on the 2023 CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series champion on lap 23. Following the pass, Crews piloted his Dodge Challenger down pit road so that his team could address a flat tire. David Pintaric (No. 57 Kryderacing Ford Mustang) moved into the fifth position after starting at the rear of the field for missing the driver meeting, advancing from 18th overall. Unfortunately, Pintaric’s progress came to an abrupt stop when he and Andretti came together in Turn 10, resulting in a spectacular crash into the tire barrier. While both drivers walked away safely, their day was done and their cars were severely damaged.

The crash brought out a full-course yellow on lap 28, leading to a five-lap shootout when racing resumed on lap 35. Menard led the field to the green, but Dyson was all over his rear bumper. On lap 37, Dyson pulled side-by-side with Menard, but was unable to complete the pass. Over the remaining three laps, the two had an exciting battle to the finish, with Menard edging out Dyson by less than 0.3s. Menard and Dyson were followed across the finish line by Drissi, Crews and Amy Ruman (No. 23 McNichols Co./Valley Automotive Group Chevrolet Corvette).

“It was a battle,” said Menard in GYM WEED Winners Circle. “We set the pace early. The track wasn’t completely dry, so for the first couple of laps, we kind of tiptoed. After five laps in, we started pushing pretty hard and I felt like we had a good pace. However, we started getting loose throughout the run and Chris started closing up. I made a couple of mistakes with hitting the curbs. The curbs were still wet, so when I hit them, I blew a couple of corners. Chris closed up and then we played cat and mouse with traffic. That caution helped us. We were better on short runs, while Chris was better on long runs. We faced a lot of adversity this morning with 3GT Racing. The guys battled. They came in at seven o’clock and had troubles with the truck, and then we had some engine issues that Tony and the boys fixed up. We led every lap and won the race. It was a great points day, and now I’m looking forward to Laguna Seca. I’ve never been there, so we have 20 minutes of practice to figure it out.”

TA Cup’s first combination event with the National Championship was an exciting one, with multiple lead changes and hard racing action. Michelle Nagai (No. 72 Nagai Racing/Berkeley Jet Drive Chevrolet Camaro) started first in class, followed by Jim Guthrie (No. 62 Guthrie’s Garage/CEI Ford Mustang) and Ken Sutherland (No. 85 Kallberg Racing Dodge Challenger). Before the conclusion of the first lap, Guthrie went over the slick track curbing, losing control, bumping into Chris Evans in the No. 92 Central Welding Supply/Pinnacle Alloys Ford Mustang and dropping to the rear of the field.

Nagai had dominant speed, pulling several seconds ahead of now second-place Sutherland. She led the first 22 laps of the race, but she got into trouble in lapped traffic, making contact with an SGT car and heavily damaging her front end, which took her out of contention. Sutherland took over the lead on lap 23, by which point Guthrie had worked his way back through the field and into second. When the caution came out on lap 28, Sutherland led Guthrie, Evans, Ken Thwaits (No. 9 Franklin Road Chevrolet Camaro) and John Moore (No. 27 JM Environmental Ford Mustang) across the stripe.

There was a shuffle of cars when racing went back to green, and suddenly it was Guthrie who emerged with the lead. The TA Cup entrants battled hard as the final laps ticked down, with Guthrie taking the checkered flag, followed by Thwaits and Sutherland for the podium spots. Moore was scored fourth and Evans finished fifth.

“That was definitely a hard-fought battle out there, wasn’t it,” said Guthrie. “I had to start from the back twice, which is the hardest way to do it. My own fault. Man, that was fun though; a lot of fun. I got probably the luckiest-timed yellow ever, and then I thought I was really racing Ken , and it turns out he wasn’t racing me, so it’s kind of a shallow win, but Ken, we’ll do it again, I know we will. Thanks to all the team; you guys are great and fun to work with. All my competitors are awesome, it’s a great bunch of guys.”

As the only competitor in the XGT class, Xuanqian Wang would have no trouble taking the top step of the podium once racing began. However, Wang faced an immense challenge before the wave of the green flag, crashing his No. 22 AURALIC North America Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO in a rainy test session. Wang’s crew flew back to Portland, Ore., gathered up the parts needed for repairs and drove all the way back to Sonoma Raceway, working tirelessly to repair the car. While the car wasn’t perfect, it was enough to complete the entire race, earning Wang the win in his first race of 2025.

“Sonoma is really not a good place for me,” said Wang. “Last year, we qualified pretty good, but then crashed in Turn 1 at the start. This year, we crashed in testing because of the rain, and a lot of the electronics didn’t work. I really appreciate the crew, the Speed Club from Texas. We have a wonderful crew; they flew back, got the parts and put the car back together. We’ve still got some things that didn’t work, but still, we finished the race.”

As the only SGT competitor in the National Championship, Joshua Carlson easily piloted his No. 36 Enseva/Diercks Ltd./TC Fab Ford Mustang to the victory, keeping the car clean and battling it out with TA Cup cars for much of the event. When he crossed the finish line, he scored his third-straight win of the season.

“Today was fun,” said Carlson. “I was running with the TA Cup cars most of the race. We spent the whole weekend just testing new things on the car and getting it dialed in. We got our fourth win in a row. I’d like to thank Enseva, my dad, Deircks Ltd., TC Fab. Without them, I wouldn’t be racing. I’m looking forward to Laguna.”

In the Western Championship, Rudy Revak (No. 7 XYNGULAR Pontiac Grand Prix) battled JD Koos’ No. 12 Nicole Douglas Design Porsche GT3 Cup 991.1. Revak had the speed advantage, but his win was sealed when Koos tangled with a TA Cup competitor, sustaining heavy damage, which forced him to retire. Meanwhile, Revak completed the duration of the race, crossing the finish line to take the race victory.

When his teammate Colin Cohen was unable to start the race, Chris Coffey (No. 97 Norwood Auto Italia/Traffic Grafix Maserati MC GT4) could have cruised to the victory in the GT class. However, his race was anything but easy, as he struggled with rear suspension issues throughout the event. Fortunately, he was able to make it to the final lap, limping across the finish line for his third-straight win of 2025.

“Today was a little bit of a struggle,” said Coffey. “Our car broke pretty much right off the bat. We had some sort of rear-suspension issue and it just got worse throughout the race. And then, thankfully, it broke on the last lap, so I was able to finish. I just want to thank Colin Cohen, because without him, I couldn’t be here. Xavier, Alex, my crew; they did the best they could. I came into pit lane and they checked to see if there was anything they could fix and there wasn’t, so we just kept running. I want to thank my sponsors Chillout Motorsports and Traffic Grafix.”

An encore presentation of Sunday’s race will air Sunday night on SPEED SPORT 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The Trans Am Series will next hit the track at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, May 2-4 for the Mission Foods Laguna Seca SpeedTour in combination with the Western Championship.

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