Remember the name Brent Crews.
Crews, who is just 15 years old, added to his already impressive list of Trans Am Series accomplishments by holding off a pair of series champions to win the 3-Dimensional Services Group Muscle Car Challenge TA2 race in Detroit on Saturday.
The win came in the first race of a weekend doubleheader on the nine-turn, 1.7-mile street course downtown as part of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix weekend. Crews became the first two-time winner in the Trans Am Series this season.
Two-time Trans Am champion Rafa Matos finished second, and defending series champion Thomas Merrill completed the podium in third. Matos and Merrill have also won races in the TA2 class this season.
The drivers in the TA2 class will go at it again on Sunday in Detroit.
As for Saturday, was just another day at the office for series’ newest phenom, who just 11 months ago became the youngest pole sitter and race winner in Trans Am history when he won from the pole at Road America.
Meanwhile, the 41-year-old Matos, who raced in IndyCar from 2009 through 2011, spent the final laps of Saturday’s race looking at the backside of Crews’ No. 70 Ford Mustang.
“I can’t talk enough about Brent,” Matos said. “I think he’s obviously a very special talent. I think he has improved his skills and his ability to finish races within a year, and I think he will be a champion and I think you’ll see him in the big leagues.
“For me, to be fighting against a teenager that I’m almost triple his age, he definitely makes me feel old. At the end of the day, we’re not running a marathon—it’s about the race car. So, I feel very, very good to be competitive, to be racing against the young guns.”
Crews took over the points lead in the series from Merrill going into the second race of the weekend doubleheader on Sunday—a scheduled 75-minute race.
“These two guys (Matos, Merrill) are some of the best there is, honestly the toughest people I’ve ever raced against,” Crews said. “Just trying to keep the thing in one piece and trying to just keep building in great finishes, especially going for the championship this year.”
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Crews, who is a Toyota Racing Development driver, finished third in the championship last year behind Merrill and Matos.
“The mistake I made last year was taking a little bit too many risks and putting myself in situations that these guys didn’t put themselves in,” said Crews, who kept the car between the walls in Detroit.
“This track is so tricky that it’s hard to be right every time. There was one time I slipped up and thought I was done and Rafa closed right back up to me. Luckily we got a caution and got a reset. To be able to keep that pace and actually gain speed at the end of that race is incredible, especially with the tire wear and a track like this.”
A total of 30 cars took the green flag in Detroit.
Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing coverage and was named the 2000 Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club’s Michigan Motorsports Writer of the Year. A Michigan native, Mike spent three years after college working in southwest Florida before realizing that the land of Disney and endless summer was no match for the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and long, cold winters in the Motor City.
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