Rafa Matos Earns TA2’s First Motul Pole Award of 2022 While Setting New Sebring Track Record

February 26, 2022

Today marked the first official practice and qualifying session of 2022 for the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s TA2 class, with previous track records broken in both. Peterson Racing’s 3Dimensional Services Group Ford Mustangs owned the day, with teammates Mike Skeen (No. 89) and defending champion Rafa Matos (No. 88) setting the pace in practice with times of 2:06.239 and 2:06.438, respectively, and Matos with teammate Adam Andretti (No. 86) topping the speed charts in qualifying with times of 2:05.717 and 2:06.699, respectively. The top practice and top qualifying times both broke the track’s previous track record, set by Skeen in 2020 (2:06:513).

SLR-M1 Racecars’ Connor Mosack laid down the third-quickest lap in both practice (2:06.653) and qualifying (2:06.904) in his No. 28 Chevrolet Camaro. 

Rounding out the top five in practice was Misha Goikhberg’s No. 10 BC Race Cars Ford Mustang (2:07.555) and Dillon Machavern’s No. 17 SLR/M1 Racecars Camaro (2:07.905). 

In qualifying, positions four and five went to Goikhberg (2:06.986) and Cameron Lawrence in the No. 6 Franklin Road Apparel Camaro (2:07.295).

Matos, the 2018 and 2021 TA2 champion, was the second defending champion to earn the pole this weekend, with Chris Dyson taking the top spot in yesterday’s TA time trials. Given that Dyson drove away from the field to earn the victory in today’s TA race, Matos is hoping to repeat the feat in tomorrow’s feature. 

Rafa Matos, Driver of the No. 88 3Dimensional Services Group Ford Mustang

“Qualifying was difficult at this time of the day. Going into Turn 17 and the hairpin was very difficult to see, so it was hard to judge the braking zone. I’m obviously pushing really hard, and I had a couple bad moments going into 17, but I was able to put everything together on my third and fourth lap, and it was good enough for a track record. My 3Dimensional Services Group guys did an amazing job, as always. I’m very fortunate to be on this team and to have Adam Andretti, Mike Skeen and Doug Peterson as teammates. It’s literally a dream come true for us to qualify 1-2, hopefully tomorrow we will finish like that.”

Watch the live stream of tomorrow's TA2 feature at YouTube.com/TheTransAmSeries.

For full qualifying results, click here.