Buying second bike - tri or road bike with budget under $2,500

With that kind of budget you can get a pretty nice bike, Tri or road.  If you use the search function, upper right of this site, you will find many discussions about Tri/TT bikes vs. road bikes.  Either one will get you more speed.  Most importantly if you're going to invest that much money you should go to some local bike shops and look around.  If there's a highly recommended Tri friendly shop or a highly recommended fitter I would take that path.  You can get a great $2,500 bike setup but it may not be the best fit for you.  I can see some geometry differences between the various bikes out there so your body type will play a factor.

Wish I had that type of dough for a bike, happy hunting and good luck with your training/racing.

My two cents is get tri bike.  I say that because you already have a hybrid and seem to riding it.  If not for your hybrid I would  say get a road bike.  You could come down in price a little and get some tri bars and you have a tri bike and road bike.  A road bike is much more common on group rides but that doesn't mean you can't ride a tri bike at group rides but some will complain. 

If you want to get serious about the triathlons and outside of the season you still see yourself riding the tri bike or hybrid get the tri bike.  If not riding it outside the season get a road bike and clip on tri bars.  You need to make that decision for yourself.

I would strongly advise buying a road bike 1st rather than going straight from hybrid to tri bike.  The change in riding position from hybrid to tri bike is significantly more than hybrid to road bike (assuming proper fits).  I've been endurance cycling for years & bought my 1st tri bike last fall.  Still struggling to get comfortable on it for long (>2hr) rides.  If you enjoy (or think you might) group rides remember that many are NOT friendly to tri bikes, esp for riders new to the group. Keep your hybrid for riding multi-use trails or just riding around and buy a good aluminum frame road bike to enjoy the faster ride.  No need to spend $2500+ on a carbon bike to reach your riding potential.  True tri bikes (not just road bike with tri bars) will run more $$ than solid "entry level" (HATE that term) road bike.    For around half your budget you could get a very solid new roadie that is basically a copy of pro bikes used on Euro pro circuit just a few years ago (e.g. Cannondale CAAD 8).  Other competitive bikes in that range include Trek 1.2, Specialized Allez, Felt Z85, Giant Avail, etc.  I've rented some of these "entry-level" road bikes & they are generally fast as my all-carbon Tarmac (although a bit heavier).  I would ride seriously for a year or so (~2+k miles) before investing more serious $$$ in a bike.  By then your riding will have improved (power, flexibility, etc.) & you will have a better idea what you REALLY want in a bike.

Good luck & welcome aboard BT!!!