Brazilian V8 Stock Car 2005 Season News (Topic Renamed)

[JohnBM01]

Hope it all works out, Johnny. That's all I can say.

 

[Johnny]

Thanks.

But like i said, i don't think it will be difficult for us getting a new main sponsor.

Anyway, i'm free of work till January 3rd 👍 I'm gonna try to enjoy it. And i'll finally be able to play Gran Turismo 4 'Prologue' withouth being disturbed

 

[JohnBM01]

January 3rd? That's 12 days before I finally turn 22! Anyhow, if no one else is pulling for you and your team, then I'm pulling for you. OWN the competition GTP style, Johnny! You dig me, playa... oh wait, that means "beach" in Spanish ! Anyhow, you got me, man?

 

[Johnny]

Sorry to disturb your christmas, but here are some new info.

Chico Serra,1999,2000,2001 champion, and former driver of WB/Texaco, signed to drive next year for RC3/Bassani Racing. 50% of this team is owned by the brazilian soccer player, Roberto Carlos, that play for Real Madrid.


Cacá Bueno, that finished in 2nd on the 2004 championship, tested for the first time a Nascar earlier this week. On tuesday and wednesday, the driver completed 520 laps at the oval track Caraway Speedway, in Asheboro, North Carolina, with the Team Richard Childress Racing.

The best lap time that Bueno managed was considered good by the mechanics. With 17s00, the brazilian was faster than the North-American Ron Hornaday, 2003 Busch Series Champion and 4th this year, that also practised this week. This great testing helped to guarantee his presence in some races of the Nascar 2005 championship.

"At least five races are guaranteed for me to race in 2005. My plan is to race the full championship in 2006" said the driver that will try to win the Brazilian V8 Stock Car Championship in 2005, after battling for it in the last 3 years, but always finishing in 2nd or 3rd.

-----

Yes i only translated those news from brazilian websites.

Enjoy your holidays.

 

[livemusic]

Good luck for Cacá on that. Didn´t Christian Fittipaldi race on NASCAR a few years ago? Was he succesfull on that?

 

[Johnny]

Good luck for Cacá on that. Didn´t Christian Fittipaldi race on NASCAR a few years ago? Was he succesfull on that?

Yeah, i wish Cacá good luck too. But Nascar is way different.

Christian Fittipaldi? He had some problems with Kyle Petty Racing, if i'm not mistaken. He's trying a seat to drive at WB/Texaco but hasn't confirmed yet.

Roberto Pupo Moreno is another driver that will probably race here as well.

 

[Johnny]

I have lots of stuff to tell you, but unfortunately i can't (yet). This is because contract restrinctions.

Anyway, the stuff i can already tell is.

JF Racing already has a new sponsor. Actually we will have more money then we used to have when we were sponsored by Filipaper.

Another good news is that Raul Boesel will probably be one of our drivers. Nothing signed yet, but it's almost 100% confirmed. Raul Boesel drove for Repsol/Boetger Competições in the last 2 years.

3 teams already confirmed to race with Mitsubishi Lancer bodies. Can't say which (yet).

The start of the 2005 championship will be at the new Santa Cruz do Sul racetrack.

Can't say more till next month.

PS: Going to update the Interlagos 1000 miles endurace race topic tomorrow. Just for the record, the Audi TT-R DTM won, with the ZF V8 prototype finishing second and the Viper GTS-R in third.

The Lister Storm V12 crashed, the Saleen S7-R from Team Konrad had two time penalties and probably some problems as well as the finish way after the Top 10.

 

[JohnBM01]

Raul Boesel has some IRL experience if I'm not mistaken. I remember him qualifying for the Indy 500 or some other IRL race when I was just getting into racing. And it looks like problems with Team Konrad resulted in some monumental upsets. Why upset? Konrad is a distinctive name in sportscar/endurance racing. And I'd sure like to see how the Brazilian Stock Car series go, or as I called it once, BTM ("Brazilian Tourenwagen Masters," I can't say it en Portuguesa). Should be great down in the cradle of great South American racing talent. My favorite non-Brazilian South American? Milka Duno (Venezuela).

 

[Yuichi]

Boesel used to be an F1 racer, too. Raced for March in 1982, unsuccessfully.

 

[Biased turkey]

Thanks for all the info Johnny,
I was lucky enough to visit Brasil 2 years ago and watched ( on TV, not on site ) 1 race of the Brazilian touring car championship ( I think it was at the Curitiba track ).
The least I can say is that there is plenty of action and paint scraping.
It'll be even better with more manufacturers competing.
Obrigado para a informaçao.

 

[Johnny]

Hey Biased Turkey. Hope you liked your stay. The races are always full of action, since at least half of the "pack" is always having very close lap times.

A great news that i heard today is that Christian Fittipaldi (Former F1, CART, Nascar), last year's 24h daytona winner, signed to drive for Avallone Motorsport. One more international famous driver on the championship.

 

[livemusic]

Hey Johnny, I´m happy to see that things are looking good for your team this year. I hope you guys win the championship!

And Biased Turkey, not to be picky but you wrote "thanks to the information" (obrigado para a informação), the correct would be "obrigado pela informação" (thanks for the information).

 

[Johnny]

Here's some team and driver line-up i found on the Stock Car website:

Of 38 drivers/cars (maximum), 26 are already confirmed, 6 are almost signed and the rest are still negotiating.

Medley-A.Mattheis
Body: ???
Drivers: Giuliano Losacco (2004 Champion) / Guto Negrão

RC3-Bassani Racing
Body: ???
Drivers: Chico Serra / Mateus Greipel

Itupetro-RC Competições
Body: ???
Drivers: Antônio Jorge Neto/ Luciano Burti (Ex-F1. Not signed yet)

Philips Motorsport/Scuderia 111
Body: ???
Drivers: Luis Carreira Jr. / Tom Stefani

Hot Car
Body: ???
Driver: Wagner Ebrahim

Boettger
Body: Chevrolet Astra
Drivers: David Muffato / Alceu Feldmann.

AMG Motorsports-Filipaper
Body: Mitsubishi Lancer (not confirmed yet)
Drivers: Ingo Hoffmann / Sandro Tannuri.

Petrobras-Action Power
Body: ???
Drivers: Cacá Bueno / Thiago Marques

RS Competições
Body:
Drivers: Allan Khodair / ????

Vogel
Body:
Drivers: Thiago Camilo / Gualter Salles

WWB
Body:
Drivers: Popó Bueno / ???? (rumours say Rodrigo Sperafico)

NasrCastroneves Racing
Body: ???
Drivers: Juliano Moro / ???? (rumours say Hoover Orsi)

Katalogo Racing
Body: ???
Drivers: Fábio Carreira / Pedro Gomes (not confirmed yet)

Avallone Motorsport
Body: ???
Drivers: Felipe Maluhy / Nonô Figueiredo / Christian Fittipaldi

JF Racing
Body: ??? (can't tell you yet)
Drivers: Raul Boesel (not signed yet) / Carlos Alves (not signed yet)

Bennamed-Nascar
Body: Mitsubishi Lancer
Drivers: Valdeno Brito / Ricardo Etchenique

Power Tech Racing
Body: ???
Driver: Diogo Pachenki

VR Motorsports
Body: ???
Driver: Reck Júnior

The rest of the teams haven't announced nothing public yet. So we'll have to wait.

 

[JohnBM01]

For those not real educated about Brazilian Stock Car, I guess I can tell you that I jokingly called it BTM, or "Brazilian Tourenwagen Masters" once. But the machines seem to be pretty cool. I got a lot of respect for Johnny and his team. I actually support the world of motorsport, and if it weren't for Johnny, he probably wouldn't really put South America on the map for racing. And perhaps the biggest cradle of South American talent is Brazil. So if you've never heard of Brazilian Stock Car, you may be in for a treat.

Of course, good luck to JF.

 

[Johnny]

I think calling it BTM would be correct JohnBM01.

The quality of the drivers is amazing, the races are full of action and the public is always present. The average public in 2004 watching the races on the racetracks were 30.000 people. For you guys in USA, used to Oval tracks with 100.000+ stands that might seem low, but European people will agree is a great public.

Anyway, back on track. I spent almost all my saturday and sunday on the team garage. Some cool stuff i can't comment yet. But on sunday afternoon, after we were done, we went to meet some friends from another team that has a garage near us. Why i'm mentioning this? Well, i saw a 2005 car with the Mitsubishi Lancer body, and all i can say is WOW! I had an idea on how the car would look like but it surpassed my expectations.

There are rumours of another companies will enter the championship. They are Ford (Focus Sedan), Renault (Mégane Sedan II), Volkswagen (Polo Sedan) and Peugeot (307 Sedan). The word i have from the association is that, probably 3 manufacturers this year. So, Chevrolet (Astra Sedan) and Mitsubishi (Lancer) are confirmed, only leaving room for one more.

By the way, thanks for wishing us luck. Everybody is looking forward to the first race.

 

[livemusic]

Why does Avallone team have three drivers?

 

[Johnny]

Me and everybody else is asking the same thing. It's already difficult to have 2 cars, and they will have 3.

If i find a better answer i'll post it here

 

[JohnBM01]

Johnny, if your team was REAL big, it would be like the time I heard of a four-car AMG Mercedes team in the DTM. I think here in the States, one such team with a lot of cars has to be the Realtime team. I've seen the Acura RSX, Acura NSX, Acura TSX, and Acura Integra raced by this Speed World Challenge team.

Johnny, I got to ask you. If Brazilian Stock Car wanted to host a one-off race in the United States, where would it be held at? If you don't know about American racing venues, look up these websites to try to find some American tracks:
http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/NAmerica/usa.html
http://www.racingcircuits.net/UnitedStates/index.html

 

[Johnny]

Well, the majority of the team in the championship are what i call Normal. 2 cars / 2 drivers, aproximatelly 10 or 15 people working on the team (including the Team boss). JF has 2 cars on the Stock Car V8.

In USA? If it was up to me to choose, i would suggest:

- Infineon
- Laguna Seca
- Watkins Glen
- Elkhart Lake
- Mid-Ohio

You noticed i only mentioned non-ovals. I really don't know much about internal tracks in ovals. The only ones i know are Indianapolis (F1 course), and Daytona (24h track).

 

[Johnny]

All right. Now i'm allowed to say some stuff.

Mr. Jorge Freitas, JF Racing Team Boss, sold 60% of the Team to two managers: Carlos Eduardo Teixeira and Wilson da Costa Ritto Filho. Don't worry this is good stuff as Mr. JF will no longer worry about sponsors and management and will only focus on race stuff.

The "new" Team will be called Rio Racing Competições, and will (probably) have Raul Boesel and Carlos Alves as the Stock Car V8 drivers.

On the Stock Car Light, no longer just one car but two! One of the drivers will be Ariel Barranco. Yes, The Team will have 4 cars , 2 on each category!

Mr. JF just ordered a new Motorhome

 

[fpetters]

Congrats on the good news. I am a newbie to this forum and to non-American stock car racing. I can’t find any info about the BSC in English. Do you have any info on the series you can share? What type of budget do the teams run for one car? Any pictures of the new cars? Again congrats and thanks for any info you can give!

 

[Johnny]

Well, the info you can find on the board. I mentioned it a lot of times.

Basicly is a tubular chassis, with a fiberglass body (strenghtened with plastic) and a 5.7 V8 (same as the Nascar Busch Series), but with the power lowered to 450HP.

The races are in Brazilian tracks like Interlagos, Jacarepaguá, Curitiba and Brasília.

Pics? Some from 2004 here:

http://www.speedonline.com.br/wallpaper/87-1024.jpg

# 50 - Juliano Moro - Nasr-CastroNeves Racing
http://www.speedonline.com.br/wallpaper/90-1024.jpg

# 20 - André Bragantini Jr. - Vogel Motorsport
http://www.speedonline.com.br/wallpaper/89-1024.jpg

# 35 - David Muffato - Boettger Competições (his number is 35, but since he was champion in 2003, he had to use the number 1. In 2005 he is going to race again as 35, as Giuliano Losacco, the 2004 champion will use the number 1 this year)
http://www.speedonline.com.br/wallpaper/88-1024.jpg

I can't post pictures of the Lancer yet, as it will be officially announced this month.

 

[JohnBM01]

If you follow MotoGP, Jacarepaguá is also a MotoGP stop on the world calendar. It's pretty scenic for a road course. It's actually an infield road course among an oval. And I remember the oval race as I seen Juan Pablo Montoya win his fourth straight race for Target Chip Ganassi and eventually become 1999 (then) CART champion.

By the way, if you've seen the photos Johnny provided, do you see why I jokingly called Brazilian Stock Car "BTM?" The cars look a lot like the DTM rides in Germany with the wide bodies and aggressive looks. Only difference... I don't think the headlights are real. Keep us informed, Johnny! From one John to a Johnny. Good luck.

 

[Johnny]

If you follow MotoGP, Jacarepaguá is also a MotoGP stop on the world calendar. It's pretty scenic for a road course. It's actually an infield road course among an oval. And I remember the oval race as I seen Juan Pablo Montoya win his fourth straight race for Target Chip Ganassi and eventually become 1999 (then) CART champion.

By the way, if you've seen the photos Johnny provided, do you see why I jokingly called Brazilian Stock Car "BTM?" The cars look a lot like the DTM rides in Germany with the wide bodies and aggressive looks. Only difference... I don't think the headlights are real. Keep us informed, Johnny! From one John to a Johnny. Good luck.

Yep, the headlights are just stickers, like Nascar. Though the Tail lights are real.

And don't worry. Any new stuff will be posted here. 👍

By the way, the idea of changing the team name is on hold now. So we are still JF racing.

The good stuff is that the drivers are almost confirmed. Raul Boesel and Carlos Alves.

 

[Johnny]

Some news:

Last friday we went to ZF Racing (the Engine and Chassi supplier of the championship). We went there to get a brand new chassis (for the Stock Car Light).

Anyway, here are some pics taken on the ZF Racing facilites (sorry if the pics aren't better. The guys from ZF Racing were taking pics of their facilites and i kindly asked if they could get some pictures for me). Hope you guys enjoy:

By the way, the engine and all other stuff were already installed, but the suspension and some other minor stuff will be replaced. Of course those tyres will be gone soon too

While we was there we meet with the guys from Katalogo Racing, doing a dynamometer test on one of their engines.

 

[JohnBM01]

So, what's the most popular motorsport in Brazil? Is it Brazilian Stock Car, or something else? I know I called it South America's "cradle of motorsports talent."

By the way, that's pretty nice around your shop. An American series of race cars that are like Brazilian Stock Car is the SCCA Trans-Am series. They are mostly bigtime sports cars with real taillights and no headlights, and the NASCAR style of climbing into cars. Personally, I call it America's version of GT1 racing, and in fact, SCCA GT-1 features mostly cars designed like modern Trans-Am race cars.

 

[Johnny]

So, what's the most popular motorsport in Brazil? Is it Brazilian Stock Car, or something else? I know I called it South America's "cradle of motorsports talent."

By the way, that's pretty nice around your shop. An American series of race cars that are like Brazilian Stock Car is the SCCA Trans-Am series. They are mostly bigtime sports cars with real taillights and no headlights, and the NASCAR style of climbing into cars. Personally, I call it America's version of GT1 racing, and in fact, SCCA GT-1 features mostly cars designed like modern Trans-Am race cars.

The Stock Car is the most popular national motorsport, just like the Formula Truck (i already posted pictures of it some time ago).

Of course all other national championships are popular: Clio Cup, Formula Renault, South American F3, Pick-up Racing. Then on a lesser extent, the Endurance Championship, Maserati Trofeo and regional touring championships.

International championships? F1, IRL, Champcars and MotoGP are popular and air on open TV channels, and WRC, FIA GT, DTM, ETCC (WTCC) are avaiable to Cable / Satellite.

Talking about Trans-Am, i was watching Discovery Channel last sunday and "PowerZone" (one of their shows) aired the test to put the new Mustang on the championship. Ford Racing and a racing team were testing suspensions and it actually showed some testing at Mosport racetrack if i'm not mistaken.

Back to the topic, Katalogo Racing just signed Fábio Carreira and Pedro Gomes to be their drivers.

PS: The pics i posted were taken at ZF Racing complex, not JF Racing garage

 

[livemusic]

I think that Formula Truck is more popular than Stock Car actually Johnny. Well, maybe not anymore now that Globo is broadcasting a lot of Stock Car races through the season. You know, Globo always get what they want. But I guess it´s good for the motorsport.

BTW, can you tell us what car body is your team going to use this season already?

 

[JohnBM01]

That truck series in Brazil has some pretty sporty big rigs. Wonder how Debora Rodrigues (is that her name?) is doing in Brazil. I don't know much about South American tracks except for some of the MotoGP races, the F1 venues, and maybe even Rally Argentina.

Johnny, if you know about here in America, how are the Brazilian Stock Cars designed compared to the American stock cars? Any similarities?

 

[Johnny]

I think that Formula Truck is more popular than Stock Car actually Johnny. Well, maybe not anymore now that Globo is broadcasting a lot of Stock Car races through the season. You know, Globo always get what they want. But I guess it´s good for the motorsport.

BTW, can you tell us what car body is your team going to use this season already?

Com certeza a Formula Truck é a mais popular, mas em 2004 a Stock se aproximou a ponto de estar no mesmo nível. A média de público na Stock foi de mais de 30 mil pessoas por corrida.

Não tenho como dizer pois ainda não foi confirmado. Basicamente os 2 carros da V8 para o ano que vem estão prontos, mas sem carenagem (body). Semana que vem começaremos a montar os carros da Stock Light, que usa carenagem do Astra Hatch. Mas assim que souber / puder falar, eu aviso 👍

That truck series in Brazil has some pretty sporty big rigs. Wonder how Debora Rodrigues (is that her name?) is doing in Brazil. I don't know much about South American tracks except for some of the MotoGP races, the F1 venues, and maybe even Rally Argentina.

Johnny, if you know about here in America, how are the Brazilian Stock Cars designed compared to the American stock cars? Any similarities?

I don't follow the F-Truck a lot, but i know it's great. That's her name, yes. Last time i checked she was doing fine on the championship.

Well the similarites are not that big. Basicly:

-Similarities
1. The fuel tank is the same used on Nascar.
2. The 5.7 V8 engine is made by the same company that makes the Busch Series Engines.
3. The tubular chassis. Although very different on the design, the cars are tubular chassis + body ressembling the car. Plus the chassis on the Nascar is way more heavy to add more safety on Oval racing / crashs.

- Differences
1. No oval racing. This means no weird setups.
2. Body. On Nascar they are made with alluminium if i'm not mistaken. On ours, they are fiberglass strenghtened with plastic. (although i heard some teams may use carbon fiber this year. This will make their cost go high)
3. Style of race. I would compare the championship with something like the DTM or the old V8 Stars (This one was VERY close to what we have here).