AUSTIN, TEXAS (8 November 2020)- Rafa Matos took the lead from Cameron Lawrence on the 10th lap of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli TA2® race and pulled away on a late restart to claim his first victory of 2020 in the No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro on Sunday. Matos, the 2018 TA2® powered by AEM champion, won under caution over Lawrence in the No. 8 3-Dimensional Services Group Ford Mustang, scoring his 10th career victory.

Matos got a great jump on the restart, while Skeen had a great battle with Lawrence for second before an incident brought out the fourth caution with only 5:30-seconds remaining, effectively ending the race.

“I’m really happy to be on the podium this weekend,” Lawrence said. “The start of the race went pretty well for us. We had a really good car early. We had some front-end damage that hurt us later with understeering. Thought we had something for Rafa (Matos). He’s been fast all weekend. Maybe if we had a long run would have helped Mike (Skeen) and I. It was a pretty crazy at the start, but we are happy to be on the podium with a car that’s pretty much in one piece for Road Atlanta.”

Championship-leader Skeen finished third in the pole-winning No. 77 LiquiMoly/Turn 14 Ford Mustang. Not content to “points race,” Skeen failed to lead a lap but made several aggressive moves to improve his position, finishing the race with damaged rear bodywork.

“We got hit right off the start a couple of times and we were just trying to keep it on the track and make sure we collected points today,” Skeen said. “We knew these guys had great pace today. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get enough green flag racing today. We had a great car at the end. If we had a few more green flag laps we could have fought for it a little bit. Big congrats to Rafa (Matos). He’s had a huge pace all weekend. He was definitely the guy to beat this week, and congrats to Cameron (Lawrence) we had a great battle at the end there as well.”

Trans Am will have a short break before returning to racing November 20-22 for the rescheduled rounds at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Race Replays from Sunday’s feature at CoTA are available on the Trans Am by Pirelli Racing App: https://nagrasports.app.link/lIQjdAuxq7 All results from the TA2 are still provisional.