WAMPUM, Pa. — Practice and qualifying have concluded for the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series race at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Ben Maier (No. 80 BOE Marine/Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang) earned the second pole of his career by laying down a lap time of 1:42.078 seconds. Maier’s first pole came at World Wide Technology (Ill.) Raceway last month, where he led every lap on his way to his first-career victory.
“This racetrack is really fun,” said Maier. “We actually came here a few months ago in my Miata to figure out the track, because no one’s really been here. We’ve worked so hard on the car the whole weekend. Brad, Hunter and all the crew at Nitro worked hard to get this car really good for qualifying and the race, and it turns out that the car was great.
“I also did some sim work before coming here. They don’t have it on iRacing, so you have to use other games to get the track, but I think that definitely helped, and I’m happy to come out first.”
In TA, Paul Menard qualified his No. 3 Menards/Master Force Tools Ford Mustang on the pole for the second time in 2024 with a best time of 1:36.262. Menard’s last pole came at NOLA Motorsports Park in April. Menard currently leads the TA point standings and is the winningest driver in the class this season with two victories: Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway and Lime Rock (Conn.) Park.
“It’s been a good weekend; great weather, awesome facility,” said Menard. “I didn’t even know this place existed a year ago, and then I saw it on the schedule and started researching it and watching videos. Actually being here now, it’s a beautiful facility. They do a really nice job with track maintenance. It’s a little bit on the twisty side for these big horsepower cars, but we do have a couple of really good passing zones that I think we can utilize.
“The 3GT Racing Ford Mustang has been fast since we unloaded and we’re just learning the track, learning what the tires are going to do as the fuel load burns off, as the tires wear. We’ve been seeing some tire wear here, which is more so than some other tracks we’ve been to, so what does that translate to at the end of 100 miles? What we’re thinking about now is how to make it live for 100 miles, because we have the speed, we’ve just got to have the longevity.”
