Thiago Camilo raced off into his first NASCAR Brasil win of 2025 during the Sunset Race at Londrina’s Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna.
Thiago Camilo shot off to a dominant victory in the third race of the 2025 NASCAR Brasil season. Camilo’s victory took place at the so-called Sunset Race, the day-to-night event held at its traditional venue: Londrina’s Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna.
The event started with a surprising Qualifying session. Adalberto Baptista decided to give the keys of his No. 10 Volt Camaro to his son Bruno, who made his series debut at Londrina.
Bruno is a far more adept driver than his father, having already scored five wins in the highly competitive Stock Car Pro Series. Even then, nobody expected Bruno to qualify on pole position, beating reigning champion Gabriel Casagrande by 0.181 seconds.
Camilo qualified in fourth, but he found his way to the lead in the extended first lap. Camilo got past Casagrande and Léo Torres before they reached the actual first corner – the field once again started at the back straight – before passing Bruno in the sweeping double left-hander at Turns 7 and 8.
The driver of the No. 21 Pixpay Ford retained his lead for the next few laps. A tense moment came on lap 5 when the Safety Car was called due to Cacá Bueno’s car stopping at the back straight.
Fortunately for Camilo, he timed his restart perfectly. This perfect restart sealed Camilo’s victory, who extended his lead to 3.521 second at the checkered flag.
While Casagrande did not have the speed to match Camilo, he had enough to fend off Rubens Barrichello in the latter stages of the race. The reigning champion went on to finish second, an important result for his double title defense plans in 2025.
Barrichello was initially credited with a third place finish in his No. 91 Fini Camaro, now decked in a bright green livery. Unfortunately for Barrichello, he ran into trouble for spinning out Torres at the halfway point.
The stewards took a dim view of Barrichello’s action and gave “Rubinho” a 20-second time penalty. Rubinho’s penalty promoted Galid Osman to third, securing his first podium in the series.
Alfredinho Ibiapina was the best Challenge driver in fourth, charging all the way from 14th on the grid. Witold Ramasaukas had an equally impressive charge, going up from 17th to fifth place.
Defending Challenge champion Victor Andrade finally got points on the board with a sixth place result. Behind him, Felipinho Tozzo narrowly beat Jorge Martelli for seventh and the final spot in the Challenge podium.
Martelli’s eighth place finish still gave him enough points to snatch the championship lead away from Vitor Genz. Genz retired just after half distance due to mechanical gremlins.
The season opener winner had also made an unscheduled stop in the opening lap due to issues with his rear-left tire.
Bueno recovered from his early scare to finish ninth ahead of Guilherme Backes. Barrichello’s penalty dropped him down to 11th, just ahead of Bruno who completed the final points paying position.
Last year’s Sunset Race winner Cayan Chianca again suffered from problems. Chianca was only 14th, ahead of the returning Beto Monteiro who got in trouble for aggressively forcing Andrade into the grass at the early stages of the race.
Another driver that made their NASCAR debut at Londrina is Ricardo Zonta. The driver that infamously got sandwiched by Mika Häkkinen and Michael Schumacher in Häkkinen’s famous Spa 2000 moment entered the race as a substitute for Gianluca Petecof in R.Mattheis.
Zonta’s weekend started well initially, qualifying fifth onboard his No. 01 Shell Camaro. Unfortunately, he got a massive kick of oversteer during the restart that dropped him all the way to the back.
Zonta never recovered from this, only finishing 16th due to persistent handling issues. Two positions behind him is Torres, who also never recovered from his moment with Barrichello.
Unlike Zonta, the 2023 champion’s problems were self-inflicted. He made an unsafe rejoin in front of Léonardo Yoshii. A second spin then ensued, followed by a five-second penalty that race control handed to him post-race for the shenanigans with Yoshii.
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