Phillips Sweeps the Glen
Rounds eight and nine of the 2026 Trans Am Cube3 Architecture TA2 series headed north to the historic Watkins Glen International. The challenge of a double header race weekend, and a track Phillips has struggled to finish races at, was a challenge the driver and team were willing to take on.
Track time would be hard to come by, as a few of the practice sessions were cut short due to incidents. Phillips was able to get a decent feel for the car, and gain some helpful tips through data review. Qualifying would see Cale lay down a personal best by 1.5 seconds, and only six tenths off the pole. In a very tight Pro/Am field, the qualifying result was a 24th starting position overall, and 4th in the Pro/Am class.
Race one saw an early battle between Phillips and Sheehan for third place. After the front two competitors were involved in separate incidents, Cale found himself in the second position. On a late race restart, the Pro/Am leader was given a drive through penalty for jumping out of line, and #99 of Phillips took the lead, and would keep it for the remainder of the race. The win was Cale’s first in the Trans Am series, and provided great confidence and momentum going into Sunday’s second race.
The grid for race two would be set off the fastest lap times from race one, which meant a 25th overall starting spot and 4th in Pro/Am. Lap one would turn out to be quite chaotic, as incidents in turn one, the esses, and the bus stop allowed Cale to advance from his 25th starting spot all the way up to 14th overall when a full course yellow flew. The TA2 Pro/Am race and points leader Jared Odrick would then have an oil line issue, unfortunately ending his day and advancing Phillips to 2nd place in Pro/Am, where he ran the remainder of the race. After post-race technical inspections, the Pro/Am winner was disqualified for suspension infractions, and Cale was credited with win. This meant his second win in a row, and a weekend sweep of the double header event at the Glen.
“I am not going to lie, Watkins Glen has been a rough track for me the last three times I have been here. After this weekend, I think I can move it up my list of favorite tracks. It feels really good to finally get the first win, we have been so close a few times that you start to wonder if it will happen. Then to be able to get another win the next day, just a great weekend. Not to mention, we now have the championship points lead, I could not be any happier. There is a lot of hard work that goes into from the Nitro Motorsports guys. Dan, Gabe and Lucas deserve the success too, they have worked really hard all year and I am happy for them. Hopefully we are peaking at the right time as we push toward these last few races.”