Ken Sutherland Leads Flag to Flag to Win Fifth-Straight TA Cup Race, Cements Championship Lead
October 12, 2025
WILLOWS, Calif. (October 12, 2025) - The Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s Western Championship Race 2 at Thunderhill Raceway Park was a display of two dominant flag-to-flag victories by championship contenders. Ken Sutherland scored his fifth-consecutive TA Cup victory, solidifying his points lead in a title hunt that will go until the final race at Circuit of The Americas.
Notes of Interest
Ken Sutherland scored his fifth-straight victory in TA Cup, leading every lap of the race both yesterday and today.
Sutherland holds a 68-point lead in the standings over second-place John Moore.
The green flag for the TA Cup race looked much as it did yesterday, with points leader Ken Sutherland (No. 85 Kallberg Racing Dodge Challenger) leading Michelle Nagai (No. 72 Nagai Racing/Berkeley Jet Drive Chevrolet) and John Moore (No. 27 JM Environmental Ford Mustang) over the stripe. Today, Nagai and Moore battled right off the bat, with Moore taking over the second position on the very first lap. After five laps, Nagai made her way back around Moore, while Sutherland checked out. Lap after lap ticked by, with Sutherland opening up a more than 12-second lead over Nagai. While CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series leader Brody Goble ultimately passed Moore and Nagai, Sutherland had an insurmountable lead. The safety car was deployed with four laps remaining, closing up the field, but with only a handful of laps to go, green-flag racing was unable to resume. Sutherland took the checkered flag under yellow as the overall winner, followed in class by Nagai and Moore. While Sutherland did not mathematically clinch the championship, he holds a 68-point advantage over Moore going into Circuit of The Americas.
“This was a great race,” said Sutherland. “It's not as much fun to just go out and manage a gap, but it's a lot easier on the heart. I thank my team for giving me such a great car to be able to do that. Thanks to my team. Thanks to Patty and Kurt [Kallberg], my wife, Carrie, and all that friends that came out to watch.”
TA Cup:
1. Ken Sutherland, No. 85 Kallberg Racing Dodge Challenger
2. Michelle Nagai, No. 72 Nagai Racing/Berkeley Jet Drive Chevrolet Camaro
3. John Moore, No. 27 JM Environmental Ford Mustang
Final Details:
Full race results can be found here.
The Western Championship returns to action at the end of the month for the season finale Mission Foods COTA SpeedTour, October 30-November 2, at Circuit of The Americas. Tickets can be purchased here.
