Dyson Stays on Wet Tires to Win the Trans Am Finale at COTA as Brabham Clinches the Title

AUSTIN — Chris Dyson won the Trans Am Series by Pirelli season finale at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday by refusing to make the stop the rest of the front of the field made. When a full-course caution bunched the field with 12 laps to go, championship rivals Paul Menard and Matthew Brabham came down pit road for slick tires. Dyson, the 48-year-old in the No. 20 Chris Dyson Racing entry, stayed out on wet-weather tires — and the rain came to him, RACER reported.

On the damp 3.41-mile road course, the cars on wet tires were more than 10 seconds a lap faster than the cars on slicks, and Dyson — the only TA Class car still on wets — converted that advantage into his first Trans Am victory in 14 months. Menard recovered to finish second and Brabham third, with Tomy Drissi fourth and David Pintaric fifth.

Third place was more than enough for Brabham's season. By simply taking the green flag on Sunday, the No. 16 driver clinched the 2026 TA Class championship for himself and Chris Dyson Racing over Menard, capping a year in which he won the pole at every race — including Saturday's COTA pole by more than three and a half seconds, which completed the team's season sweep of qualifying, SPEED SPORT reported. He arrived at the finale holding a 57-point lead.

The finale crowned champions across the series' classes on the same afternoon, among them Brent Goforth, who took the GT1 Challenge title by starting the race before his afternoon ended with a stop on track at Turn 12 with 13 laps remaining, RACER reported. For Austin's circuit, it closed the Racing America championship weekend in the city's own November weather — a race decided less by outright speed than by reading the sky over the Hill Country correctly.