Kaia Teo takes Pro class victory on McLaren Trophy America debut
- RACERS
- 1 hour ago
- 5 min read
Kaia Teo enjoyed a sensational start to her McLaren Trophy America campaign, securing a Pro class victory in Race 2 at Sonoma Raceway after narrowly missing out on the win with a runner-up finish in Saturday’s season opener alongside teammate Paul Holton for Forte Racing.
Kaia Teo enjoyed a sensational start to her McLaren Trophy America campaign, securing a Pro class victory in Race 2 at Sonoma Raceway after narrowly missing out on the win with a runner-up finish in Saturday’s season opener alongside teammate Paul Holton for Forte Racing.
The second season of McLaren Trophy America began at Sonoma Raceway with a standout performance from newcomer Kaia Teo, who immediately emerged as a contender in the McLaren single-make championship. Sharing the #8 McLaren Artura Trophy Evo with experienced teammate Paul Holton, Teo delivered an impressive debut weekend that produced two podium finishes and a breakthrough Pro class victory.
Following an inaugural season that crowned Alexandra Hainer as champion, another female driver has in fact emerged as a leading force in the McLaren Trophy America, with Teo stepping up after select prior appearances in SRO GT4 America.
The 19 year old American started competing in Spec Miatas at 14, gaining valuable experience before driving the Porsche Cayman GT4 for the first time. She would make her professional debut in SRO in 2023, with select outings also in 2024. After a year of testing and balancing her studies, Teo is now tackling the full 2026 campaign.
Despite arriving at Sonoma with only a recent test at the circuit two weeks earlier, Teo and her teammate quickly demonstrated front-running pace from the very first session.
Holton and Teo in fact set the tone early by topping every practice session of the weekend. In the opening practice, the #8 McLaren led the overall timesheets with a 1:38.019 lap; the pace improved further in FP2, where Holton lowered the benchmark to a 1:37.170 - just 0.009 seconds clear of Patrick Liddy - while Teo also made significant progress, recording a solid 1:40.640 as she continued adapting to both the circuit and the Artura Trophy Evo platform.
Qualifying reinforced their status as one of the teams to beat: Holton handled Q1 duties and delivered a commanding pole position with a 1:37.734 lap, securing the top starting spot for Race 1 by an outstanding 1.4-second margin.
Teo then took over for Q2, the session primarily featuring Pro drivers. Posting a 1:40.568 lap, she placed 14th overall and third among Pro entries in a highly competitive session, completing a solid qualifying debut and setting up a strong foundation for the races.
Holton started Saturday’s race from pole position and executed a flawless opening stint. Launching cleanly at the green flag, he immediately began building an advantage, consistently running in the 1:37 range, the only driver capable of maintaining that pace early on.
James Li however emerged as his closest Pro-class challenger after clearing traffic, but Holton controlled the race with a stable three-second margin while the rest of the field struggled to match their leading pace. Several spins occurred deeper in the pack, though the race remained green throughout the opening phase.
As the pit window opened with 30 minutes remaining, Li began slightly reducing the gap, but Holton extended his stint strategically before pitting from the overall lead on lap 16. The Forte Racing driver handed the car to Kaia Teo with a commanding advantage of more than a minute and a half over class rivals who had already completed their stops.
Following the pit cycle, Teo rejoined second overall behind Sam Neser, maintaining a comfortable margin of roughly 20 seconds over Pintos and the next Pro-class contenders.
Settling into a consistent rhythm, Teo progressively improved her pace, running steady 1:41 laps before lowering her benchmark to a strong 1:40.8. However, Patrick Liddy began charging through the field, setting 1:38 laps and emerging as the primary threat after overtaking Broll.
Late drama reshaped the race when the overall leader suffered rear suspension damage with five minutes remaining, triggering a caution period. Suddenly promoted to the overall lead, Teo faced a tense restart with the field tightly packed behind her.
With just two minutes left, Teo executed an excellent restart and initially created a small gap, but intense pressure followed immediately. Pintos forced his way through, followed by Liddy and Oliver Webb in succession. On the final lap, Broll also found a way past, though Teo defended strongly against Jeff Cook to secure fifth overall and second in the Pro class.
Despite narrowly missing victory due to the late caution timing, the result marked an impressive start to the season for the Forte Racing pairing.
Sunday’s second race presented a different challenge. Starting 14th overall and third in Pro class, Teo took the opening stint against a field largely composed of Pro drivers ahead.
What followed was a brilliant opening stint for the young driver.
Teo immediately surged through the field, overtaking all AM-class competitors and passing Sorbaro, Harrison, Grecco, and Pollard within the opening laps. By lap three, she had already climbed into the overall top ten, demonstrating confidence and racecraft.
Maintaining consistent 1:41 pace before improving to 1:40.2, she remained in contention for class honors while managing pressure from Fabio Grecco behind. Delivering a clean and mistake-free stint, Teo brought the car into the pits running third in Pro class and inside the top ten overall.
Holton rejoined for the final stint and quickly began a relentless charge through the field: running consistently in the 1:38 range, he climbed from tenth overall into eighth as pit cycles concluded.
Closing rapidly on Broll and Pro-class leader Tanner Harvey, Holton gained approximately half a second per lap. After passing Broll, further opportunities arose when Highland spun during a ProAm battle, allowing Holton to advance again before overtaking Langberg to reach fifth overall.
On lap 21, he cleared Teoman’s AM entry to move into fourth overall, then erased a four-second gap to Ryan James in a single lap to secure third place shortly afterward.
With Harvey now directly ahead, Holton mounted an attack for the Pro class lead. After several laps of pressure, he completed the decisive overtake, taking control of the class victory before pulling clear with superior pace.
Although overall leader Spencer Schmidt maintained a comfortable margin to the finish, Holton and Teo secured their first McLaren Trophy America victory in only their second race start, following an extraordinary recovery drive from deep in the field.
The Forte Racing duo left Sonoma with a near-perfect points haul, combining a second-place and a class win to move into a tie for the Pro class championship lead on 27 points alongside teammates Liddy and Harvey in the #24 Forte Racing entry. For Teo, the weekend marked a very encouraging debut in the championship.
The McLaren Trophy America season continues on May 1–3 at the Miami International Autodrome, where the championship will race in support of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
