NASCAR Brazil announced rule changes for the 2024 season, featuring elements such as revamped driver classes, Superpole implementation and an updated championship format.
A series of regulation changes has been announced by NASCAR Brasil Series in the build-up to their 2024 season opening round, which is scheduled to be held this weekend at the Autódromo Internacional Orlando Moura in Campo Grande.
“NASCAR Brazil is full of changes for the 2024 season,” announced the series on 13 March. “The first of the eight rounds will kick off this weekend, March 17, with the series’ debut at the Autódromo Internacional Orlando Moura in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul.”
“Without repeating any tracks, the championship will pass through eight Brazilian circuits and will end with a major novelty that will be announced in the coming days. Among the main attractions are the new driver divisions and the scoring and discard system, as well as the grouping of drivers into teams.”
As mentioned above, one of the biggest changes that will be implemented came in the form of its new driver classes. Instead of PRO, PROAM and AM, NASCAR Brazil will feature just two divisions for 2024: PRO and Challenge.
NASCAR Brazil’s Challenge class is intended for drivers and/or pairs that have yet to score success in the PRO class in past seasons or debutants from karting that have yet to win a national title in the Brazilian karting championships.
Drivers from PRO and Challenge will continue to race at the same time, with points being awarded for each class at each race. The overall champion(s) from both divisions will be recognized by NASCAR as the true 2024 champions at the post-season NASCAR Awards ceremony.
A Superpole system will be implemented to all rounds after it was used only in specific rounds.
The best six drivers/pairs in Qualifying, irrespective of their division, will advance to Superpole to determine the top six starting positions for Race 2 of the weekend. The session continues to award championship points, but the system has been made more fair.
Instead of full race points – that is, 25-20-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 for the top-12 finishers of each division, the new system now awards points in a 5-4-3-2-1 distribution for the top-5 Superpole contenders.
If a driver pairing advanced to Superpole, then they are free to choose whichever driver to take part in the session.
NASCAR Brazil’s championship format keeps its dropped points system, with drivers being allowed to drop their worst result from the Brazilian Championship and Special Edition sections of the calendar.
There is, however, one small change: Results from the last round of the Brazilian Championship can not be dropped from their final points tally.
A team system will also be implemented fully in 2024, having only been previously used on a partial basis.
For on-track performance, two changes have been made. Drivers can now adjust the suspension spring load in addition to the already legally allowed changes for stabilizing bars, brake distribution, brake calibrations and rear wing angle.
Rookie drivers will also have the ability to use “Boost” twice in the race. “Boost” is a push-to-pass system that allows the driver to increase the engine power for a few seconds, mimicking the FanBoost concept previously used in Formula E.
NASCAR Brazil also revealed the unique stipulations for their 2024 rounds. With the exception of the yet-to-be announced season finale, the stipulations implemented were as follows:
Round 1 at Campo Grande has no added stipulations. It is the only round of the 2024 season to be free of gimmicks.
Round 2 at Goiânia is the #OvalTrack round. Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna’s external layout will be used to create a high speed 1.6-mile oval track.
Round 3 at Londrina is the #NightChallenge round. Race 2 will be held at night and lights will be installed in the cars to facilitate night time racing.
Round 4 at Santa Cruz do Sul is the #InverseRace round. One of the races will have an inverted starting grid for the top-8 qualifiers, using a system similar to the inverted grids used in Formula 2 and British Touring Car Championship.
Round 5 at Interlagos had no extra gimmicks, but is one of the two rounds designated as a Special Edition round. In the Special Edition, there’s three races to be held instead of two and the first two races are held in an 18 minute + 1 lap format.
In addition, the results from the first two races award points for everyone irrespective of their division. Points are given to the top-18 drivers with 18 points awarded for first, 17 for second and so on.
Round 6 at Cascavel is the #100Miles round. For the first time ever, NASCAR Brazil will host a race longer than 25 minutes + 1 lap. One of the races here will be held for 100 miles, which amounts to a predicted race distance of 84 laps.
Round 7 at Tarumã is the #MatchPoint round. As the last race of the Brazilian Championship section, results from this round cannot be discarded – similar to EuroNASCAR’s Playoff races.
Round 8 is only confirmed to be part of the Special Edition. This round was tentatively scheduled to host Goiânia’s oval round, but it is now moved to Round 2 of the 2024 season to replace the spot originally taken by Goiânia’s road course.
All races from the 2024 NASCAR Brasil Series will be livestreamed on NASCAR Brazil’s official YouTube channel.
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