Gabriel Casagrande and Alex Seid won the 2024 NASCAR Brasil Series title, Guilherme Backes took his first solo victory at Circuito dos Cristais.
NASCAR Brasil Series closes their 2024 season with a special race at Circuito dos Cristais on 16-17 November. The 0.776 mile track is the first oval purposely made for NASCAR racing in Brazil and the inaugural event is one to remember.
Much like the oval race at Goiânia in May, the overall race was won by a Challenge division driver. Guilherme Backes took advantage of a late-race mistake by Léo Torres to snatch victory away with just two laps to go.
The real spoils of war, however, were felt by the pairing of Gabriel Casagrande and Alex Seid. The pair kept their car away from incidents and easily found their way to Victory Lane as the new champions of NASCAR Brasil Series.
Qualifying Recap
Cristais was new to everyone, including EuroNASCAR veteran Arianna Casoli who was there to compete as a wildcard. However, the pressure is on from the start because Saturday Qualifying awards full championship points.
To prevent congestion, Qualifying is split into two groups. Each group had 20 minutes each to set their best lap time.
Random draw determines who gets into which group. Naturally, this meant that whoever gets drawn into Group 1 will face a disadvantage as they were the first to lay the rubber in Qualifying.
Group 1 saw Léo Torres take first place with a best lap time of 29.538. Torres narrowly beat Luís Trombini, who was the fastest in Challenge with a time just 0.052 seconds slower. Léonardo Reis was third, 0.126 seconds behind Torres.
Their session had one stoppage period for a spin by Alexandre Kauê, while Group 2 had two stoppage periods.
The first took place four minutes in when Nick Monteiro blew his right-front tire at Turns 3-4. Nick was uninjured, but he was out from the heat races due to the damage sustained to his No. 1 Mais 1 Café Ford.
Júlio Campos brought another red flag several minutes later after he crashed rear-first into the concrete wall at Turns 3-4. Despite the heavy impact, Campos’ car only suffered superficial damage and was able to be repaired.
In the end, the extra rubber proved to be advantageous for Group 2 competitors. Vitor Genz managed to beat Torres’ benchmark time and claimed pole position with a time of 29.240.
Crucially, Genz gained a lot of points to his nearest title rival Gabriel Casagrande and Alex Seid. With Seid only eighth, Genz halved his deficit – from 38 points to 19 – heading to the heat race.
Reis, who qualified fourth in class, also stayed in the title fight. Reis’ deficit went from 52 points to 46 points, just enough to keep the youngster in the contest.
For a note, Seid had to compete on Saturday alone because his teammate Gabriel Casagrande was racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Brasil event at Interlagos.
In the Challenge division, Trombini’s time was only narrowly beaten by Victor Andrade. Andrade set the Challenge pole with a time of 29.475 and took maximum points. More importantly, Jorge Martelli – Andrade’s sole championship challenger – was third.
With Andrade gaining nine points to Martelli, his lead went up to 50 points. This meant that Andrade only needed to finish his heat race to be crowned as the 2024 Challenge champion.
Heat Race Recap
The event at Cristais was scheduled to have three races, but it had an unique twist. The first two races are 20-minute long heat races, with drivers from the NASCAR Brasil and Challenge divisions separated.
The results from the heat race will not only give drivers championship points, but also set the starting grid for the main race in a style reminiscent of the Daytona Duels.
NASCAR Brasil contenders went out first with ten cars participating. The leaders were only separated by milliseconds, making the action very exciting for fans watching both on site and globally through the official livestream.
Torres, Reis’ teammate Thiago Lopes and Cayan Chianca made up the leading trio. They constantly traded positions for the majority of the race, even with two caution periods.
Ultimately, Chianca was the one to come out on top. The driver of the No. 4 Perfect Automotive Ford took the lead from Lopes with six laps to go and held on to victory, his fifth of 2024.
Lopes and Torres completed the podium with Witold Ramasauskas and Antonio Junqueira completing the top-5. Casoli, who was placed in the top class, was eighth – 10.069 seconds behind Chianca.
Seid was only seventh, but crucially for him, Genz’s teammate Arthur Scherer crashed out of the race. Scherer blew his front-right tire at Turns 3-4, showcasing how tough it is for the Pirelli tires to run at the oval.
With Seid scoring eight points and Genz scoring none, Casagrande/Seid’s advantage to Genz went back up to 27 points. Reis did gain 12 points thanks to Lopes’ runner-up finish, but this only slashed his deficit down to 34 points.
With only a max of 25 points on offer for the main race, Gabriel Casagrande and Alex Seid were officially crowned as the 2024 NASCAR Brasil Series champions.
The Challenge heat race started with 11 drivers. Andrade, Goiânia winner Martelli and Guilherme Backes quickly stormed to the front with the rest of the pack following behind them.
Martelli, who was in a must-win mode, had his victory hopes dashed after he spun on the second restart. Victor Andrade didn’t know it at the time, but he was already the 2024 NASCAR Brasil Series Challenge champion at this point.
In any case, Andrade chose to keep pushing. He put in a champion’s drive, leading all 35 laps and easily taking the victory from Backes. Gabryel Romano was in a distant third place.
With the title secured, Andrade should be able to take it easy in the main race. However, the driver of the No. 22 Racon Consorcios Ford had other ideas for Sunday.
Main Race Recap
With Andrade completing more laps than Chianca, it meant that he got the inside line for the start of the main event. Andrade kept his lead at the tricky Turns 1-2 and was soon followed by several drivers.
Chianca and Reis were among this group of drivers, but their race quickly unraveled. The two were racing very aggressively, making contact at Turn 1 on lap 9 and almost creating a Big One just a lap later.
Then on lap 11, Chianca hit the outside wall. The contact looked minor, but it destroyed Chianca’s right-rear suspension and he was forced out of the race.
Reis continued to race aggressively. He moved under braking to keep Torres at bay on lap 14 and three laps later made contact with Casoli, whom he barged through on the inside despite the Italian already giving the leaders space to lap her.
All of the contact had slowly damaged Reis’ front driveshaft and just moments later, it broke at the exit of Turn 4. Reis hit the concrete wall and as the No. 32 Sterling Ford slowly grinds to a halt, another incident took place behind him.
Romano was trying to lap both Edson Reis and Kauê when all three drivers made contact. Edson, who was on the inside, got hooked into the outside and slammed into Leo Reis’ car left-side first.
The cars of both Leo and Edson Reis were destroyed, but both made it out unscathed. For Kauê, he slowly drove his car to the pits to retire.
After a lengthy caution period, the race was restarted on lap 26. The restart turned into a battle between Andrade and Backes, but another caution period was called on lap 33. Dorivaldo Gondra Jr. spun his No. 8 Turim / So Motor Camaro and got himself wedged into the tire barrier.
The restart on lap 37 proved to be decisive. Andrade had a poor restart and was overtaken by Backes on the outside. Andrade then got stuck on the inside at the banking, costing him two more positions to Torres and Ramasauskas.
Torres then gained the lead at Turn 2 on lap 39, but with two laps to go he got himself unsettled at Turns 1-2. Torres’ late mistake handed the lead to Backes, who maintained his position to the checkered flag.
Backes had won two races in 2023, but this was on a shared drive with Casagrande. Therefore, the Cristais race is the first where the 19-year old driver won outright on his own.
In true NASCAR fashion, the driver of the No. 28 DAXX Camaro celebrated his victory by doing donuts at the infield. Also celebrating with donuts is Torres, who took the class win in the NASCAR Brasil division.
Ramasauskas and Andrade, third and fourth overall, were second in their respective divisions. They were followed by drivers who took third in their classes: Casagrande and Martelli.
Romano, Trombini, Lourenço Beirão and Monteiro closed out the top-10 positions. Casoli completed her maiden overseas race with a 12th place finish, a strong result for NASCAR Brasil’s first female driver.
Final Championship Standings
Gabriel Casagrande and Alex Seid were the most consistent pairing of the season and their championship triumph demonstrates their success well. With 320 points, the pair leads Vitor Genz by 25 points in the final standings.
Despite the heavy shunt to end his promising year, Léonardo Reis stays in third position with 278 points. Cayan Chianca and Léo Torres completed the top-5 positions with Lourenço Beirão, Rafael Dias, Witold Ramasauskas, Lucas Mendes and Sérgio Ramalho rounding out the top-10.
In the Challenge division, Victor Andrade comfortably became the champion with 352 points. Jorge Martelli put up a good fight, but mistakes ultimately left him with a deficit of 55 points.
Guilherme Backes’ maiden solo win clinched him third in the final standings. Felipinho Tozzo and Luís Trombini completed the top-5 with Gabryel Romano, Nick Monteiro, Léonardo Yoshii, Marcel Jorand and Giovani Girotto rounding out the top-10.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.