Vítor Meira

Vítor Meira 2008

Vitor Meira during test drives for the 2008 season

Vítor Meira (born March 27, 1977 in Brasília , Brazil ) is a Brazilian racing car driver . In 2000 he became the South American Formula 3 champion. He drove in the IndyCar Series from 2002 to 2011 , where he was under contract with AJ Foyt Enterprises from 2009 . He achieved his best overall ranking in 2006 when he finished fifth. He started in Stock Car Brasil in 2012 .

Career

Meira began his motorsport career in 1990 in kart racing , in which he was active until 1995. In the further course of his career he took part in kart races again and again. In 1995 he made his debut in formula racing and immediately became champion of the British Formula Ford winter championship. He then finished fourth in 1996 and sixth in the regular British Formula Ford in 1997. In 1998 he switched to British Formula Renault and finished the season in fourth place.

Meira returned to South America in 1999 and finished sixth in the South American Formula 3 Championship with two wins . In 2000 he stayed in this championship and secured the championship title with 8 wins from 18 races ahead of João Paulo de Oliveira . After taking part in a race in the South American Formula 3 championship, in 2001 he concentrated on his involvement in the Euro Formula 3000 . While his compatriot Felipe Massa won the championship title, Meira was fifth overall with a second place as the best result. Meira also competed in a race in the South American Formula 3 championship in 2001 and was fifth in the Federal classification of the Italian Formula 3 . In 2002 he took part in the first three races of the Euro Formula 3000, but scored no points.

After Meira had completed tests for Panther Racing in Fort Worth in the Indy Racing League , he replaced Mark Dismore in the Menard team for the last four races of the 2002 season . At the end of the season in Fort Worth, Meira first took pole position and finished the race in third place. In the overall standings, he was 25th. 2003 Meira stayed with Team Menard in the championship, which has now been renamed the IndyCar Series . He started ten of the 16 races and achieved his best result, fourth place, again in Fort Worth. At the end of the season he finished 22nd overall.

After the Menard team merged with Panther Racing, Meira moved to Rahal Letterman Racing for the third race of the 2004 season . He finished a few races in the top ten and got his best results in the races in Richmond and Kansas City , which he finished in second place. At the end of the season he finished eighth overall. In 2005 Meira stayed with Rahal Letterman Racing. At the prestigious Indianapolis 500 , he finished second behind Dan Wheldon . With another second place in Sparta , he ended the season in seventh place in the drivers' standings.

In 2006 Meira switched to Panther Racing. He finished every race in which he finished among the top ten drivers and was on the podium six times. However, he was again denied a win and three second places were his best results. In the overall standings he improved to fifth overall and only had to admit defeat to the Penske and Ganassi pilots. He also took part in a race in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and achieved a podium finish in the LMP1 category. In 2007, Meira no longer built on the successes of the previous season and a fourth place at the season opener remained his best result. In the end, finished twelfth in the championship. He also completed two races in the A1GP series and one race in the ALMS. In 2008 he played his third season for Panther Racing. A runner-up at the Indianapolis 500 was his only podium finish of the season, which he finished in 13th overall. In the last race in Surfers Paradise , in which there were no points, Meira switched to AJ Foyt Enterprises prematurely , where he replaced Darren Manning . Meira also took part in a race in the Rolex Sports Car Series in 2008 .

In 2009 Meira was supposed to compete for the entire season for AJ Foyt Enterprises, but he was injured so badly in the fourth race in Indianapolis that he could not complete the rest of the season. After Meira initially survived a fire in the pit lane unharmed, he collided with his compatriot Raphael Matos and broke his L1 and L2 lumbar vertebrae . Meira did not need an operation. At the end of the season he finished 28th overall. In 2010 , Meira returned to the Foyt cockpit and achieved a podium finish in third place at the opening race in São Paulo . Without further podium placements, he finished twelfth overall at the end of the season. In 2011 Meira stayed with AJ Foyt Enterprises. He finished the season with a fifth place as the best result in 16th place in the drivers' standings. Foyt and Meira terminated their contract at the end of the 2011 season.

In 2012 Meira left the IndyCar Series and returned to Brazil. There he competes in the touring car series Stock Car Brasil in a Chevrolet for Officer ProGP .

Personal

Vitor Meira is also active as a triathlete and started in Florida in November 2010 at the Triathlon World Championship on half the Ironman distance ( Ironman 70.3 : 1.9 km swimming, 90 km cycling and 21.1 km running) and finished the race after 4:47 hours. In 2011 he took part in the Ironman Hawaii and was 1486th of 1918 participants.

Meira has had a daughter since April 2011.

statistics

Career stations

1990-1995: karting
1995: British Formula Ford , winter series (champions)
1996: British Formula Ford (4th place)
1997: British Formula Ford (6th place)
1998: British Formula Renault (4th place)
1999: South American Formula 3 (6th place)
2000: South American Formula 3 (champions)
2001: Euro Formula 3000 (5th place)
2001: South American Formula 3 (18th place)

2001: Italian Formula 3 , Federal (5th place)
2002 : Indy Racing League (25th place)
2002: Euro Formula 3000
2003 : IndyCar Series (22nd place)
2004 : IndyCar Series (8th place)
2005 : IndyCar Series (7th place)
2006 : IndyCar Series (5th place)
2006: ALMS , LMP1 (16th place)
2007 : A1GP

2007 : IndyCar Series (12th place)
2007: AMLS, LMP2
2008 : IndyCar Series (13th place)
2008: Rolex Sports Car Series , DP (54th place)
2009 : IndyCar Series (28th place)
2010 : IndyCar Series (12th place)
2011 : IndyCar Series (16th place)
2012: Stock Car Brasil

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	19th	Points	rank
2002	Team Menard	HMS	PHX	HAIRDRYER	NZR	INDY	TXS	PPI	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY 15	STL 9	CHI 8	TX2 3					96	25th
2003	Team Menard	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY 12	TXS 12	PPI 16	RIR 22	KAN 20	NSH 19	MIS 21	STL 9	KTY DNS	NZR	CHI	FON 11	TX2 4				170	22nd
2004	Rahal Letterman Racing	HMS	PHX	MOT 17	INDY 6	TXS 6	RIR 2	KAN 2	NSH 12	MIL 5	MIS 5	KTY 7	PPI 7	NZR 10	CHI 5	FON 21	TX2 4				376	8th.
2005	Rahal Letterman Racing	HMS 4	PHX 11	STP 5	MOT 15	INDY 2	TXS 9	RIR 20	KAN 3	NSH 16	MIL 9	MIS 14	KTY 2	PPI 5	SNM 9	CHI 7	WGL 18	FON 3			422	7th
2006	Panther Racing	HMS 16	STP 5	MOT 10	INDY 10	WGL 2	TXS 6	RIR 2	KAN 3	NSH 3	MIL 15	MIS 2	KTY 6	SNM 3	CHI 6						411	5.
2007	Panther Racing	HMS 4	STP 16	MOT 17	KAN 8	INDY 10	MIL 5	TXS 5	IOW 9	RIR 9	WGL 17	NSH 10	MDO 17	MIS 18	KTY 10	SNM 9	DET 15	CHI 18			334	12.
2008	Panther Racing	HMS 10	STP 19	MOT ¹ 16	LBH ¹	KAN 22	INDY 2	MIL 22	TXS 7	IOW 15	RIR 20	WGL 22	NSH 6	MDO 6	EDM 19	KTY 4	SNM 7	DET 17	CHI 27		324	13.
2008	AJ Foyt Enterprises																			SRF ² 14	324	13.
2009	AJ Foyt Enterprises	STP 9	LBH 14	KAN 22	INDY 21	MIL INJ	TXS INJ	IOW INJ	RIR INJ	WGL INJ	TOR INJ	EDM INJ	KTY INJ	MDO INJ	SNM INJ	CHI INJ	MOT INJ	HMS INJ			62	28.
2010	AJ Foyt Enterprises	SAO 3	STP 15	ALA 18	LBH 11	KAN 10	INDY 27	TXS 10	IOW 7	WGL 19	GATE 11	EDM 16	MDO 15	SNM 15	CHI 9	KTY 23	MOT 17	HMS 6			310	12.
2011	AJ Foyt Enterprises	STP 8	ALA 12	LBH 9	SAO 17	INDY 15th	TXS1 8	TXS2 11	MIL 24	IOW 18	GATE 5	EDM 12	MDO 10	NHA 10	SNM 22	BAL 9	MOT 25	KTY 16	LSV C		287	16.