Raphael Matos

Raphael Matos (2011)

Raphael Matos (born August 28, 1981 in Belo Horizonte ) is a Brazilian racing driver . In 2007 he won the Atlantic Championship and in 2008 he won the Indy Lights championship . From 2009 to 2011 he was active in the IndyCar Series .

Career

Matos began his motorsport career in karting in 1996 , in which he was active until 2000. In 2001 he switched to the single-seater racing and participated in the Brazilian Formula Chevrolet in part. In 2002 he was runner-up in the Skip Barber Mid Western Regional Series . He also made his debut in the national Formula Dodge , whose championship he won a year later before Salvador Durán . In 2004 he moved to the Star Mazda Series and ended his first season with two podium finishes in seventh place overall. In 2005 he stayed in this championship and secured the championship title with four wins.

Matos celebrates a victory in the Atlantic Championship (2007).

In 2006 the Brazilian switched to Formula Atlantic at Sierra Sierra Enterprises . He took a win and finished fourth overall at the end of the season. He also took part in four races of the IRL Pro Series for Guthrie Racing and won two of them. At the end of the season, the racing driver, who had only participated in a third of the season, finished tenth in the overall classification. He also made his debut in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at a race .

In the winter of 2006/2007 , Matos was one of four drivers for the Brazilian team in the A1 Grand Prix series . With a sixth place he achieved the best placement of his team. His main focus in 2007 was again on the Atlantic Championship, in which he stayed with Sierra Sierra Enterprises. Matos won half of all races and finished all races among the top six drivers. With 341 to 310 points, he won the championship ahead of Franck Perera . In 2008 Matos decided not to switch to the Champ Car Series and switched to Indy Lights , the former IRL Pro Series. He received a contract with AFS Racing / Andretti Green Racing and secured another championship title with three wins.

Matos at the Indianapolis 500 2009

Thanks to these achievements, he received a cockpit in the IndyCar Series at Luczo Dragon Racing in 2009 , which after partial deployments in 2007 and 2008 contested a full season for the first time. For his second race, which he finished in eighth place, he was able to qualify in third place. At the Indianapolis 500 , he was in a collision with Vítor Meira , who was injured and had to sit out the rest of the season. With a sixth place as the best result, he finished 13th overall at the end of the season. He also received the award for the best newcomer. In 2010 , Matos stayed with his team, which had been renamed de Ferran Dragon Racing . With two fourth places, he finished 14th overall at the end of the season.

After de Ferran Dragon Racing had ceased racing for the 2011 season , Matos received an IndyCar cockpit for the first five races from AFS Racing, for which he had already driven in the Indy Lights. At the Indianapolis 500 he failed to qualify. At the end of the season he was 30th overall.

In 2015, Matos was tested positive in a doping control and banned for two years.

Career stations

1996-2000: Karting 2001: Brazilian Formula Chevrolet 2002: Skip Barber Mid Western Regional Series (2nd place) 2003: National Formula Dodge (Champion) 2004: Star Mazda Series (7th place)

2005: Star Mazda Series (champions) 2006: Atlantic Championship (4th place) 2006: IRL Pro Series (10th place) 2007 : A1 Grand Prix 2007: Atlantic Championship (champions)

2008: Indy Lights (Master) 2009 : IndyCar Series (13th place) 2010 : IndyCar Series (14th place) 2011 : IndyCar Series (30th place)

Individual results in the IndyCar Series

season	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	Points	rank
2009	Luczo Dragon Racing	STP 20	LBH 8	KAN 20	INDY 22	MIL 6	TXS 12	IOW 16	RIR 8	WGL 12	GATE 10	EDM 18	KTY 16	MDO 9	SNM 9	CHI 9	MOT 9	HMS 14		312	13.
2010	de Ferran Dragon Racing	SAO 4	STP 8	ALA 14	LBH 20	CAN 16	INDY 29	TXS 16	IOW 14	WGL 4	GATE 21	EDM 13	MDO 7	SNM 21	CHI 29	KTY 16	MOT 18	HMS 17		290	14th
2011	AFS Racing	STP 7	ALA 20	LBH 11	SAO 25	INDY DNQ	TXS1	TXS2	Mil	IOW	GOAL	EDM	MDO	NHA	SNM	BAL	MOT	KTY	LSV	67	30th

( Legend )

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2006	BK Motorsports	Courage C65	Guy Cosmo	James Bach	failure	Motor overheated
2007	BK Motorsports	Lola B07 / 40	Ben Devlin	James Bach	Rank 26
2012	Performance Tech Motorsports	Oreca FLM09	Anthony Nicolosi	Ricardo Vera	Rank 46
2014	Performance Tech Motorsports	Oreca FLM09	Charlie Shears	David Ostella	failure	malfunction

Web links

Commons : Raphael Matos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Raphael Matos

Individual evidence

1. ^ "De Ferran and Luczo Dragon Racing merge" (Motorsport-Total.com on February 16, 2010)
2. ↑ "Indycar - Raphael Matos starts at the season opener" (Motorsport-Magazin.com on March 18, 2011)
3. ↑ Ex-IndyCar driver Raphael Matos banned for doping motorsport.com December 18, 2015