Maurizio Sandro Sala

Maurizio Sandro Sala (born August 27, 1958 in São Paulo ) is a former Brazilian racing car driver .

Career

Maurizio Sandro Sala began his career in the Brazilian Formula Ford Championship . He came to Europe in 1984 and that year won the overall standings of the British Formula Ford 2000 championship after six victories in 24 races. Success in Formula 3 followed . In 1986 he was second overall in the British Formula 3 Championship behind Andy Wallace .

In 1987 he moved his activities to Japan, where he was seventh in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship and a year later third overall. At the same time, he drove touring and sports car races there in the years that followed . The move to Japan was influenced by the failure of a seemingly possible Formula 1 career . Before the start of the 1986 season , the first test drives of the new Toleman emergency vehicle took place . Teo Fabi drove the first shakedown with the later Benetton B186 . In addition to Sandro Sala and Fabi, Paolo Barilla and Alessandro Nannini were also involved in the test work. Despite the pleasant test times, he did not receive a contract. Since Toleman had meanwhile been sold to the Italian Benetton Group , the team leadership of Benetton Formula decided on the drivers. In addition to the Italian Fabi, the Austrian Gerhard Berger was hired. After a contract with the Brabham team also failed, his manager at the time, Bernie Ecclestone , moved him to work in Japan.

At the end of the 1980s, Sandro Sala left the monoposto scene and almost only competed in sports car races. He became one of the most successful sports car drivers of the 1990s. During 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans he finished fourth. In 1995 he finished second in the BPR Global GT Series and again fourth in Le Mans .

After the end of his career in 2004, he worked for a few years as a racing engineer and since then has run a car dealership in his hometown of São Paulo .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1989	Brun Motorsport	Porsche 962C	Roland Ratzenberger	Walter Lechner senior		failure	Tire damage
1990	Team Le Mans	Nissan R89C	Not so Olofsson	Takao Wada		failure	ignition
1991	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 787	Dave Kennedy	Stefan Johansson		Rank 6
1992	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda MXR-01	Bertrand Gachot	Volker Weidler	Johnny Herbert	Rank 4
1995	GTC Gulf Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	Ray Bellm	Mark Blundell		Rank 4
1996	Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	Jean-Denis Delétraz	Fabien Giroix		failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1994	Konrad Motorsport	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Antonio de Azevedo Hermann	Eric van Vliet	Rank 14

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• Sandro Sala at Racing Sports Cars
• Sandro Sala at the Driver Database