Brasilian Off Road Nationals 2009

The race started on Friday morning, September 4, with two free practice sections of ten minutes each, and more two controlled practices in the afternoon to reseed the drivers and qualifying heats for Saturday.

My teammates and AE drivers were: Marcel Fachini, Matheus Tavares, Carlos Coltro, Heitor Nogueira, Jose Augusto, and Joao Montini.

The track is so different! Traction was so high that it became an on road track with jumps. We started with a new set of tires and after ten minutes of qualifying the tires were slick - without any pins. I used new prototype tires made here in Brasil that last longer but do not have same grip like Pro-Line tires.

On qualifying day I could go direct to semifinals. On Sunday, the final day, we had the lower finals. Fabian K, Marcel Fachini, and Carlos Coltro bumped up to grand final.

Before the Buggy final race we had a strong rain, so the track got wet and my tires did not work for me; nevertheless, the team had three cars in the final and Marcel Fachini got 3rd place.

The Truggy race was dominated by Marcel Fachini thhroughout the event. Fachini is the Brasilian National Champion 2009 Truggy Winner with his Factory Team RC8T. Carlos Coltro placed a respectable third with his RC8T FT.

Special thanks to Fabian Kaloustian for this report.