Sonoma Raceway, CA (April 26, 2021) - Two-time SGT West Coast Champion Carl Rydquist threw down the gauntlet already in his first TA2 qualifying appearance. Piloting the No. 47 Racecars4Rent/Optimal Stunt TA2 Ford Mustang fielded by Nelson Motorsports, Rydquist set a laptime of 1.38,476 which placed him 3rd among all present TA2 drivers and 0.802 seconds clear of the nearest West Coast TA2 driver.

One minute before the start of the race, rain fell. Rydquist managed to avoid cars spinning off track and attempted a pass on TA2 National driver Connor Mosack for second place. The attempt didn’t stick and TA2 West Coast driver Brad McAllister slipped by. Rydquist recovered to 3rd in a few laps and set out for Mosack again.

A late race restart resulted in several lapped cars being mixed in amidst the front runners behind the Pace Car. On green, Rydquist caught a backmarker into the Turn 6 sweeper and got trapped on the exit, falling back to 4th for a few laps.

“It was a guessing game what the lapped driver would do,” Carl explains. “Typically backmarkers who get crowded by many faster cars tend to tuck tight on the exits or sort of stay in the middle. So I went outside and unfortunately so did the backmarker. Holding the raceline is actually the general instruction for lapped traffic but hundreds of drivers I’ve seen actually don’t do that. It got me trapped for a second, McAllister got alongside and then got the line out of 7.”

It took another few laps for Rydquist to reclaim 3rd, by then there was a 13 second gap to P2. Rydquist set the TA2 pace in the closing stages of the race and got the gap down to 4 seconds to Mosack with four laps to go, and TA2 ProAm driver Sam Mayer in first another 3 seconds ahead. Unfortunately a battle for second didn’t materialize when Rydquist’s No. 47 Mustang started to run low on fuel.

“I had enough buffer to cruise and fuel save to the checkered at that point” Carl says. “It was an action packed race, I learned a lot about racing a TA2 car this weekend. I am really impressed with Nelson Motorsports. They have worked really diligently in the shop and every minute this weekend and have definitely earned this result.”

Only West Coast Championship drivers are awarded West Coast Championship points, meaning Rydquist and Nelson Motorsports go to iconic Laguna Seca at the top of the standings.

Round 2 begins with qualifying on Friday April 30, followed by a 100-mile TA2 only race on May 1.

Livestreaming will be aired on the Trans Am by Pirelli Series app and will be available encore on the series’ social media channels