NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race

NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race

Category	Stock cars
Country	Brazil
Region	South America
Inaugural season	2012
Constructors	Chevrolet, Ford
Engine suppliers	Action Power
Tire suppliers	Pirelli
Drivers' champion	Pro: Léo Torres Pro AM: Guilherme Backes AM: Brendon Zonta
Official website	NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race
Current season

The NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race (formerly known as GT Sprint Race), commonly referred to as NASCAR Brasil or Sprint Race, is a NASCAR stock car series based in Brazil.^[1] It is one of NASCAR's four international series alongside the NASCAR Canada Series, NASCAR Mexico Series, and the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series and is the only one to be based in South America.

History

Early history

NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race's roots can be traced to 2011, when rumors of a Super Cup championship first circulated in the Brazilian racing scene. Super Cup is a category that promised a low cost championship hosted in tracks outside of the traditional Brazilian venues.^[2] Super Cup ultimately failed to establish themselves, but on January 18, 2012 a spiritual successor series named Sprint Race was founded by Thiago Marques, a former competitor in the Stock Car Pro Series and the younger brother of ex-Formula One driver Tarso Marques.^[3][4] Sprint Race was formed as an entry-level competition series designed to facilitate a beginner driver's transition to the higher racing categories in Brazil.^[5]

The inaugural season was held on the same year and a total of 25 drivers entered the 2012 season. It featured a total of 18 races across 9 rounds, with double points being awarded in the final round. The driver pairing of Guilherme Sperafico and Fabio Brecailo were credited as Sprint Race's inaugural race winners on the series' first ever race at Autódromo José Carlos Pace, while Gustavo Martins was crowned as the series' inaugural champion after scoring four race wins.^[6]

The 2013 season featured 16 races across 8 rounds and saw the driver pairing of Gaetano di Mauro and Guilherme Salas took the title after winning five races.^[7][8] In 2014, the series was split into two classes: Pro and GP class, with titles being awarded separately towards the drivers that scored the most points in their respective classes. Despite this, both classes continued to ran their races together. Flávio Lisboa was crowned as the overall champion in the now-rebranded Pro class, while Adriano Amaral became the first driver to win the title in the GP class.^[9]

In the 2018 season, the series hosted their first races outside of Brazil when they hosted a race at Uruguay's Autódromo Eduardo Prudêncio Cabrera. The series returned to Uruguay in 2019 and on the same year, the series made its first races outside of South America as the series hosted the Sprint Race International Cup in tracks such as Homestead–Miami Speedway and Sebring International Raceway.^[10]

GT Sprint Race and NASCAR

In 2020, the series rebranded itself into the GT Sprint Race and numerous changes was made to the series. The GP class was discontinued and in its place, two new divisions were formed: The AM and Pro AM classes. A new car generation, inspired from the cars raced in NASCAR, was also introduced and the series switched their tire suppliers from Pirelli to Yokohama.^[11] Thiago Camilo was crowned as the overall champion in the Pro class that year, while Weldes Campos and Luiz Arruda were crowned as the inaugural champions of the Pro AM and AM classes respectively.^[12]

The series was later rebranded to the NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race on November 16, 2022 after the series signed an agreement with NASCAR to give the series an official NASCAR-sanctioning status starting from the 2023 season.^[13][14][15] In 2023, NASCAR intends on adding oval race tracks to the schedule.^[15]

Cars

The current generation of Chevrolet Camaro bodied NASCAR Brasil race cars racing at Autódromo Velo Città in 2020.

NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race's cars featured a peripheral tubular space frame chassis reinforced with aluminum plates. In its original guise, the car used an unbranded hatchback body model based on the Renault Clio. The driver is positioned in the middle of the car for better weight distribution. It uses a six-speed sequential gearbox, independent suspension, and engines supplied by Action Power. For the first two seasons, the cars used a 220 hp, inline-four turbo engines sourced from Renault before it was upgraded to a 270 hp, 3.6 liter V6 engine sourced from Chevrolet in 2014.^[5]

A new generation of car was introduced by the series in 2020. The new car featured a brand new body model inspired from the American NASCAR series, with composite body styles based on the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang being available to be chosen for the teams participating; the NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race is one of two NASCAR series where Toyota does not participate, the other being the NASCAR Canada Series. The new generation of cars featured an improved aerodynamic package and was claimed to have a 20% increase in corner speed, despite the removal of the detached rear wing in favor of integrated rear spoiler.^[11]

The new generation car received several changes in the 2022 season. New racing seats, inspired from the seats used in NASCAR, was introduced to increase driver's protection from head and neck injuries due to lateral movement during crashes. A rear stabilizer bar was added, with drivers being able to choose between three settings: Soft, hard, and off. The engine also received an updated electronic injection unit to improve its acceleration.^[10]

NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race featured Pirelli as the exclusive tire supplier of the series. Pirelli is the exclusive tire supplier starting from the inaugural season in 2012, with the exception of the 2020 season where the series ran Yokohama tires instead.^[11]

Specifications

• Chassis: Tubular space frame with reinforced aluminum plates.
• Engine Discplacement: 2.2 L (2,200 cc) inline-four (2012-2013), 3.6 L (3,600 cc) V6 (2014-present).
• Aspiration: Turbocharged forced induction (2012-2013), naturally aspirated (2014-present).
• Transmission: 6-speed sequential.
• Power: 300 hp^[16]
• Weight: 1000 kg^[16]
• Height: 1,280 mm^[16]
• Length: 4,900 mm^[16]
• Wheelbase: 2,800 mm^[16]
• Width: 1,940 mm^[16]

Tracks

Goiânia

Interlagos

Londrina

Cascavel

Velo Città

Tarumã

Curitiba

Santa Cruz

Lima Duarte

Rivera

Campo Grande

Curvelo

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Locations of the tracks that have hosted a Sprint Race/GT Sprint Race/NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race race. Green dots represent current tracks, red dots represent former tracks, and purple dots represent future tracks.

Homestead

Sebring

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Locations of the tracks outside of South America that have hosted a Sprint Race/GT Sprint Race/NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race race. Green dots represent current tracks, purple dots represent future tracks, red dots represent former tracks.

The following are the tracks which have been used, currently are in use, and/or are scheduled to be used in the NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race. Tracks marked in bold are tracks used in the 2024 NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race season.^[17]

Years	Track	Location	Type
2018–2019	Autódromo Eduardo Prudêncio Cabrera	Rivera, Uruguay	Road course
2020–present	Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna (Goiânia)	Goiânia, Brazil	Road course
2012–present	Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna (Londrina)	Londrina, Brazil	Road course
2012–2018, 2020–2021	Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba	Curitiba, Brazil	Road course
2013–2021, 2023–present	Autódromo Internacional de Cascavel	Cascavel, Brazil	Road course
2014, 2022	Autódromo Internacional de Santa Cruz do Sul	Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil	Road course
2013, 2015, 2021–present	Autódromo Internacional de Tarumã	Tarumã, Brazil	Road course
2024	Autódromo Internacional Orlando Moura	Campo Grande, Brazil	Road course
2021, 2024	Autódromo Internacional Potenza	Lima Duarte, Brazil	Road course
2017–2023	Autódromo Velo Città	Mogi Guaçu, Brazil	Road course
2024	Circuito dos Cristais	Curvelo, Brazil	Oval track
2019	Homestead–Miami Speedway	Homestead, United States	Road course
2012–present	Interlagos Circuit	São Paulo, Brazil	Road course
2019	Sebring International Raceway	Sebring, United States	Road course

Champions

Brazilian Championship

Season	Pro	Pro AM	AM	GP
2012	Gustavo Martins	Not held
2013	Gaetano di Mauro Guilhermo Salas
2014	Flávio Lisboa	Not held		Adriano Amaral
2015	Pietro Rimbano			Fábio Brecailo
2016	Juninho Berlanda Eduardo Berlanda			Vinícius Margiota
2017	Juninho Berlanda			Kau Machado Jorge Martelli
2018	Gerson Campos			Cassio Cortes
2019	João Rosate Bruno Smielevski			Daniel Coutinho Josimar Jr
2020	Ricardo Sperafico	Alex Seid Marcelo Henriques	Luiz Arruda	Not held
2021	Júlio Campos Léo Torres	Pedro Aizza	Luis Debes
2022	Luciano Zangirolami Sérgio Ramalho	Arthur Gama	Giovani Girotto
2023	Júlio Campos Léo Torres	Leonardo Reis Rafael Reis	Henry Couto

Special Edition

Season	Pro	ProAM	AM	GP
2019[a]	João Rosate Bruno Smielevski	Not held		Daniel Coutinho Dudu Trindade
2020	Pedro Lopes Gabriel Silva	Weldes Campos Ricardo Sperafico	Raphael Teixeira	Not held
2021	Thiago Camilo	Pedro Aizza	Giovani Girotto
2022	Thiago Camilo Raphael Teixeira	Diogo Moscato	Giovanni Girotto
2023	Vitor Genz Rafael Dias	Guilherme Backes Gabriel Casagrande	MC Gui

Overall

Season	Pro	ProAM	AM	GP
2019	João Rosate Bruno Smielevski	Not held		Daniel Coutinho
2020	Thiago Camilo	Weldes Campos	Luiz Arruda	Not held
2021	Thiago Camilo	Pedro Aizza	Walter Lester
2022	Raphael Teixeira	Arthur Gama	Giovani Girotto
2023	Léo Torres	Guilherme Backes	Brendon Zonta

Cups

Season	Rookie of the year	Winter Cup	Final Cup
2014	Yago Cesário Yuri Cesário	Flavio Lisboa	Flavio Lisboa
2015	Enzo Bortoleto	Caito Vianna Flávio Lisboa	Caito Vianna Flávio Lisboa
2016	Eduardo Berlanda	Juninho Berlanda Eduardo Berlanda	Luca Milani
2017	João Rossate	Juninho Berlanda	João Rossate
2018	Diego Ramos	Gerson Campos	Vinicius Kwong
2019	Dante Fibra	Daniel Coutinho	Not held
2020	Weldes Campos	Not held
2021	Nathan Brito
2022	Arthur Gama
2023	Diogo Moscato

Notes

1. The 2019 Sprint Race Special Edition had International Cup as official name. The series hosted the championship in Autódromo Eduardo Prudêncio Cabrera, Homestead–Miami Speedway and Sebring International Raceway.

References

1. Marson, Leonardo (2019-10-24). "Sprint Race anuncia mudanças para a temporada 2020". Racing Online (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-02-23.
2. "Sprint Race: Agora vai!" [Sprint Race: Now it's on!]. curitibaracing.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Curitiba Racing. January 18, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
3. Justin Nguyen (November 17, 2022). "NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race to debut in 2023". The Checkered Flag. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
4. Redação (2021-05-13). "GT Sprint Race completa dez anos de história nesta quinta-feira". Racing Online (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-02-23.
5. "SPRINT RACE". lexicarbrasil.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). LEXICAR Brasil. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
6. "TABELA DE CLASSIFICAÇÃO 2012". sprintrace.com.br. NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
7. "TABELA DE CLASSIFICAÇÃO 2013". sprintrace.com.br. NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
8. "Sprint Race Brasil 2013 standings". driverdb.com. DriverDB. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
9. "TABELA DE CLASSIFICAÇÃO 2014". sprintrace.com.br. NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
10. "GT Sprint Race: conheça todas as inovações da categoria para 2022" [GT Sprint Race: Get to know all the innovations of the category for 2022]. motorsport.uol.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Motorsport.com. March 11, 2022. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
11. "GT Sprint Race e suas novas máquinas em 2020" [GT Sprint Race and its new machines in 2020]. automania.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). AutomaniaNet. April 2, 2020. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
12. "TABELA DE CLASSIFICAÇÃO 2020". sprintrace.com.br. NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
13. grandepremio. "Nascar firma parceria com GT Sprint Race e anuncia criação de categoria no Brasil em 2023". Terra (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-02-23.
14. Poindexter, Owen (2022-11-17). "NASCAR Heading to South America". Front Office Sports. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
15. "NASCAR announces launch of NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. November 16, 2022. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
16. "DADOS TÉCNICOS – Sprint Race" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-02-23.
17. "CALENDÁRIO 2024 – NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 3 April 2024.