Jump to content

Raphael Matos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Rafa Matos)
Raphael Matos
Raphael Matos at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the first day of qualifying for the 2011 500
NationalityBrazil Brazilian
Born (1981-08-28) August 28, 1981 (age 43)
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
IndyCar Series career
Debut season2009
Current teamAFS Racing
Racing licence FIA Gold
Car number17
Former teamsde Ferran Dragon Racing
Starts34
Wins0
Poles0
Best finish13th in 2009
Previous series
2008
2006-2007

2004-2005
2002-2003
Firestone Indy Lights
Champ Car Atlantic Series
A1 Grand Prix
Star Mazda Series
Skip Barber Formula Dodge Series
Championship titles
2008
2007
2005
2003
Firestone Indy Lights Series
Champ Car Atlantic Series
Star Mazda Series
Skip Barber Formula Dodge
Awards
2009IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year

Raphael Matos (born August 28, 1981) is a Brazilian professional racing driver. He was the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights Series champion and the 2007 Champ Car Atlantic Series champion. He lives in Miami. He is sometimes also called Rafa Matos.

Career highlights

[edit]

Early career

[edit]

Born in Belo Horizonte, Matos came to the United States in 2002 after karting in Brazil and began competing in Skip Barber Formula Dodge, winning the championship in 2003. In 2004, he moved up to the Star Mazda Series and in 2005 he won the Star Mazda championship. In 2006 he moved up the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Series where he drove for the Sierra Sierra team and captured one victory on his way to 4th place in the points standings.

Matos celebrating an Atlantics victory in Houston in 2007

He also competed in 4 Indy Pro Series races for Guthrie Racing and swept the two races held in March at St. Petersburg, Florida. During the fall he was named a driver for A1 Team Brazil in the A1 Grand Prix series and made his debut at the series' race in Beijing in the 2006–2007 season. He raced a Lola B07/40-Mazda in the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring and the 2007 Petit Le Mans.[1]

Matos driving in the 2008 Firestone Freedom 100

Atlantics championship and Indy Lights

[edit]

Matos continued with the Sierra Sierra team in Atlantics in 2007 and clinched the championship with several races remaining in the season, securing for himself the $2 million "scholarship" for a ride in Champ Car for the 2008 season.

However, Matos decided to pass on the scholarship and sign with Andretti Green Racing to drive in the Indy Racing League's Firestone Indy Lights Series in 2008, where he won the series championship.[2]

Prior to the 2008 Indy Lights season, he drove a Mazda RX-8 for the SpeedSource team in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, taking first in the GT class and a 9th place overall finish, sharing the car with Nick Ham, David Haskell and Sylvain Tremblay. After the season, he drove for Michael Shank Racing on the winning team in the DP class (with Ian James and John Pew) at the SunRichGourmet.com 1000 at Miller Motorsports Park.

IndyCar Series

[edit]
Matos driving in the 2009 Indianapolis 500

Matos competed in the full 2009 IndyCar Series season for Luczo-Dragon Racing.[3] He qualified third in his second race, the Long Beach Grand Prix and finished eight. He was the fastest rookie qualifier in his first Indy 500 and ran in the lead pack, but had a crash with Vítor Meira in which Meira was injured. Matos finished 22nd. Matos captured seasonal Rookie of the Year honors by a wide margin over former F1 driver Robert Doornbos. Matos' best finish was 6th at the Milwaukee Mile. He was running at the finish of each of the last ten races of the season, consistency that led to 13th in the championship despite few top ten finishes. Raphael qualified 12th in both the 2009 and 2010 Indy 500 and he also crashed in both races in roughly the same location at the exit of turn 1. He failed to qualify the AFS entry for the 2011 Indianapolis 500. He was also the fastest Rookie during the 2009 Indy 500 qualifying.

After IndyCar

[edit]

Matos raced full-time in Stock Car Brasil between 2013 and 2015, claiming a race win in 2014, and a best of 13th overall in 2015.[4] At the end of 2015, he failed a drug test, and was suspended for two years.[5] Matos claimed that he used the undisclosed substance in question in order to treat several tumors he had since he was 18.[6]

In 2018, Matos started racing in the Trans-Am Series, and won the TA2 class championship at his first attempt. He won the class championship again in 2021, after finishing in first place in six out of twelve races.[7]

On August 30, 2024, it was announced that Matos would attempt to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen International, driving the No. 87 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing in collaboration with Peterson Racing Group,[8] but several days later, it was revealed that Matos would not make his debut due to being unable to come to a mutual agreement with the team. He would be replaced by Mike Skeen.

Motorsports career results

[edit]

American Le Mans Series

[edit]
American Le Mans Series results
Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine Tyres 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
2006 B-K Motorsports LMP2 Courage C65 Mazda R20B 2.0L 3-rotor G SEB
ovr:Ret
cls:Ret
TEX MID LIM UTA POR AME MOS PET MON 23rd 14
2007 B-K Motorsports
Mazdaspeed
LMP2 Lola B07/46 Mazda MZR-R 2.0L Turbo I4 K SEB
ovr:NC
cls:NC
STP LNB TEX UTA LIM MID AME MOS DET PET
ovr:Ret
cls:Ret
MON 28th 10
2008 B-K Motorsports LMP2 Lola B07/46 Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4
(E85 ethanol)
Y SEB
ovr:DNS
cls:DNS
STP LNB UTA LIM 33rd 10
Lola B08/86 D MON
ovr:30
cls:10
Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX-01b Acura 3.4L V8 M MID
ovr:14
cls:7
AME MOS DET PET
2011 Risi Competizione GT Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Ferrari 4.5 L V8 M SEB LNB LIM MOS MID AME BAL MON PET
ovr:DNS
cls:DNS
NC -
2012 Performance Tech Motorsports PC Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 M SEB
ovr:49
cls:6
LNB MON LIM MOS MID AME BAL
ovr:Ret
cls:Ret
VIR PET 28th 10

A1 Grand Prix

[edit]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

A1 Grand Prix results
Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 DC Points
2006–07 Brazil NED
SPR
NED
FEA
CZE
SPR
CZE
FEA
BEI
SPR

6
BEI
FEA

7
MYS
SPR

19
MYS
FEA

18
IDN
SPR
IDN
FEA
NZL
SPR

16
NZL
FEA

14
AUS
SPR
AUS
FEA
RSA
SPR
RSA
FEA
MEX
SPR
MEX
FEA
SHA
SPR
SHA
FEA
GBR
SPR
GBR
SPR
18th 9

American open–wheel racing

[edit]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Atlantic Championship

[edit]
Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
2006 Sierra Sierra Enterprises LBH
2
HOU
11
MTY
23
POR
6
CLE1
5
CLE2
Ret
TOR
9
EDM
Ret
SJO
1
DEN
2
MTL
7
ROA
2
4th 205
2007 Sierra Sierra Enterprises LVG
1
LBH
1
HOU
1
POR1
4
POR2
6
CLE
1
MTT
2
TOR
3
EDM1
1
EDM2
1
SJO
4
ROA
2
1st 341

Indy Lights

[edit]
Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Rank Points
2006 Guthrie Racing
HMS
STP1
1
STP2
1
INDY WGL
13
IMS
4
NSH MIL KTY SNM1 SNM2 CHI 10th 154
2008 AGR-AFS Racing HMS
8
STP1
1
STP2
12
KAN
19
INDY
10
MIL
3
IOW
7
WGL1
1
WGL2
2
NSH
5
MDO1
1
MDO2
18
KTY
6
SNM1
2
SNM2
6
CHI
3
1st 510

IndyCar Series

[edit]
IndyCar Series results
Year Team Chassis No. Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Rank Points Ref
2009 Luczo Dragon Racing Dallara IR-05 2 Honda HI7R V8 STP
20
LBH
8
KAN
20
INDY
22
MIL
6
TXS
12
IOW
16
RIR
8
WGL
12
TOR
10
EDM
18
KTY
16
MDO
9
SNM
9
CHI
9
MOT
9
HMS
14
13th 312 [9]
2010 de Ferran Dragon Racing SAO
4
STP
8
ALA
14
LBH
20
KAN
16
INDY
29
TXS
16
IOW
14
WGL
4
TOR
21
EDM
13
MDO
7
SNM
21
CHI
29
KTY
16
MOT
18
HMS
17
14th 290 [10]
2011 AFS Racing 17 STP
7
ALA
20
LBH
11
SAO
25
INDY
DNQ
TXS1 TXS2 MIL IOW TOR EDM MDO NHM SNM BAL MOT KTY LSV 30th 67 [11]
Years Teams Races Poles Wins Podiums
(Non-win)
Top 10s
(Non-podium)
Indianapolis 500
Wins
Championships
3 2 38 0 0 0 13 0 0

Indianapolis 500

[edit]
Year Chassis Engine Start Finish Team
2009 Dallara Honda 12 22 Luczo Dragon Racing
2010 Dallara Honda 12 29 de Ferran Dragon Racing
2011 Dallara Honda DNQ AFS Racing

Stock Car Brasil

[edit]
Stock Car Brasil results
Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Rank Points
2012 RC3 Bassani Peugeot 408 INT CTB VEL RBP LON RIO SAL CAS TAR CTB BSB
23
INT
9
NC† 0†
2013 Bardahl Hot Car Chevrolet Sonic INT
10
CUR
26
TAR
16
SAL
26
BRA
10
CAS
19
RBP
6
CAS
8
VEL
16
CUR
18
BRA
10
INT
18
13th 84
2014 Bardahl Hot Car Chevrolet Sonic INT
1

17
SCZ
1

7
SCZ
2

23
BRA
1

2
BRA
2

26
GOI
1

17
GOI
2

Ret
GOI
1

DSQ
CAS
1

Ret
CAS
2

27
CUR
1

22
CUR
2

12
VEL
1

Ret
VEL
2

Ret
SCZ
1

10
SCZ
2

1
TAR
1

15
TAR
2

8
SAL
1

10
SAL
2

2
BRA
1

Ret
16th 104

† Ineligible for championship points.

  • Season still in progress

References

[edit]
  1. ^ NEW LOLA, MAZDA-DERIVED ENGINE FOR B-K IN 2007[permanent dead link], American Le Mans Series, retrieved December 20, 2008
  2. ^ Andretti Green, AFS To Field Two-Car Indy Pro Team - Matos Added to Driver Lineup Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine, PaddockTalk, January 18, 2008
  3. ^ DiZinno, Tony. Matos, Luczo Dragon latest to confirm 2009 plans Archived 2008-10-09 at the Wayback Machine, Motorsport.com, October 7, 2008
  4. ^ "Driver: Rafa Matos | Driver Database". www.driverdb.com. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  5. ^ "Former IndyCar driver Raphael Matos suspended in Brazil for doping". Autoblog. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  6. ^ "Matos defends substance use, saying it was to fight against tumors". Motorsport. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  7. ^ "Trans Am champions in review: Rafa Matos, TA2". RACER. 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  8. ^ Srigley, Joseph (August 30, 2024). "Rafa Matos to Attempt Xfinity Debut at Watkins Glen with Peterson Racing Group". TobyChristie.com. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  9. ^ "Raphael Matos – 2009 IndyCar Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  10. ^ "Raphael Matos – 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  11. ^ "Raphael Matos – 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
[edit]
Sporting positions
Preceded by Firestone Indy Lights Champion
2008
Succeeded by
Preceded by Champ Car Atlantic Champion
2007
Succeeded by
Preceded by Star Mazda Championship Champion
2005
Succeeded by
Achievements
Preceded by IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year
2009
Succeeded by