Menard ends Brabham’s Trans Am streak with CTMP win

Since its inception in 1961, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) has delivered many iconic races and finishes, and the Trans Am Series by Pirelli delivered another this weekend.

For the first, and only, time this season, both the TA and CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Classes were running their events at the same time, meaning four classes, all different speed variations, were competing around the 2.459-mile racetrack in Ontario Canada at the same time. Each of these four classes, though, featured their own unique twists and turns.

Paul Menard (No. 31 Pittsburgh Paints / Menards Ford Mustang) has been looking to take the fight to Matthew Brabham, his biggest championship threat, all season long, as the Chris Dyson Racing driver and team have seemingly been one step ahead of the two-time TA class champion. Menard does have a single victory in 2026, on Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock Park, but that fell into his lap after Brabham suffered a race-ending mechanical issue. This time, the two-time defending Trans Am winner at CTMP came out ahead in a straight fight with Brabham, after the championship leader got balked in traffic, and pulled away to put an end to the Dyson Racing drive’s four-race win streak.

“My guys never give up. We’ve got two championships and just made this car so much faster over the years, and Brabham has been pushing us so hard,” Menard said. “So, to beat him straight up in a dogfight, that’s what we needed, a good shot in the arm. We’ve got a lot of work to do, obviously, to close the championship, but if we can sweep the last two races, we’ll call that a success and keep working on it.”

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Menard started the event in second place, unable to foil Brabham’s perfect qualifying record this season, but as soon as the event got going, the No. 31 had more pace than the championship leader, making the pass for the lead pretty early in the event, and never looking back, despite a fierce fight to the end by Brabham.

“I knew traffic might be critical today. We just ran out of laps and luck,” Brabham said. “I congratulate Paul and his team. They’ve worked hard and now the clear performance advantage we had earlier in the season is basically evened out. He drove an excellent race today; no mistakes. The last two races should be really good.”

Chris Dyson rounded out the podium position in third place, driving a second entry for Chris Dyson Racing. Cole Moore, driving a second entry for Drissi Motorsports in his TA class debut, finished fourth. Tomy Drissi and David Pintaric both had issues early in the race and had to settle for fifth and sixth place in class.