Jaime Melo

Jaime Melo at the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans

Jaime Melo (born April 24, 1980 in Cascavel ) is a former Brazilian racing car driver .

Career

Jaime Melo began his career in the Brazilian Formula Ford Championship , where he finished tenth overall in the 1996 championship. In 1997 he switched to the South American Formula 3 championship . He finished this in 1998 as runner-up. Despite six season successes, he had to be satisfied with second place in this championship in 1999.

In 2000 he came to Europe to start for the Petrobras Junior Team in the Formula 3000 championship . Team colleague in the team, which is logistically managed by Super Nova Racing , was Bruno Junqueira . The season was disappointing. While Junqueira won the overall championship standings, Melo had to be content with 14th place. In 2001 he moved to Durango . Again he only reached 14th place overall.

With the change to the Auto GP came the greatest success of the single posto career . In 2002 he won the overall ranking of this championship ahead of Romain Dumas and Jaroslav Janiš . He drove his last racing season at the Monoposti in 2003 and finished fifth in the Formula Renault V6 and sixth in the Euroseries 3000 .

From the 2004 season onwards, Melo only competed in GT and sports car races . The first major championship success was overall victory in the GT2 class of the 2006 FIA GT championship . Team-mate in Ferrari F430 GTC of AF Corse was Matteo Bobbi . In the following year he secured the overall standings in this racing class at the American Le Mans Series . During his career, which lasted until 2012, he contested 119 races, celebrated one overall and no fewer than 28 class wins. In 2008 and 2009 he won his racing class at the Le Mans 24 Hours , and in 2007 , 2009 and 2010 at the Sebring 12 Hours . He celebrated his only victory together with Karl Wendlinger in the Ferrari 575 GTC at the Donington 500 km race in 2004 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2004	JMB Racing	Ferrari 360 Modena GTC	Stéphane Daoudi	Jean-René de Fournoux	failure	Power transmission
2007	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GT	Johnny Mowlem	Mika Salo	failure	water pump
2008	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Gianmaria Bruni	Mika Salo	19th place and class win
2009	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Pierre Kaffer	Mika Salo	18th place and class win
2010	AF Corse	Ferrari F430 GTC	Pierre Kaffer	Gianmaria Bruni	failure	Engine failure
2011	Luxury racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GTC	Stéphane Ortelli	Frédéric Makowiecki	failure	accident
2012	Luxury racing	Ferrari 458 Italia GTC	Dominik Farnbacher	Frédéric Makowiecki	Rank 18

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2006	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GT Berlinetta	Anthony Lazzaro	Ralf Kelleners	Rank 10
2007	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GT	Johnny Mowlem	Mika Salo	Rank 12 and class win
2008	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Gianmaria Bruni	Mika Salo	failure	accident
2009	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Pierre Kaffer	Mika Salo	Rank 7 and class win
2010	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Pierre Kaffer	Gianmaria Bruni	Rank 6 and class win
2011	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 458 Italia	Toni Vilander		failure	mechanics
2012	Luxury racing	Ferrari 458 Italia	Jean Karl Vernay	Frédéric Makowiecki	failure	malfunction

Web links

Commons : Jaime Melo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Jaime Melo at the Driver Database
• Jaime Melo at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brazilian Formula Ford Championship 1996
2. ↑ South American Fornel 3 Championship 1998
3. ↑ South American Formula 3 Championship 1999