VÃ*tor Meira

[SFonseca]

Barzilian Euro F3000 former VÃ*tor Meira, could join to IRL next season. For Now, he will do Infiniti Pro Series.

[marcus]

I believe I saw Vitor a few years ago in the south american formula three series , he was one of the front runners from memory and looked like a likely prospect.

these southamerican guys just keep coming and coming dont they and with good corporate backing from that region they are bound to do well.

[O'Schumacher]

I saw him at the FFord festival at Brands Hatch in either 96 or 97. He started 4th. Took the lead, and threw it into the gravel a lap later all on his own. Let's hope he's matured since or he'll damage more cars than Scheckter.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by marcus
these southamerican guys just keep coming and coming dont they and with good corporate backing from that region they are bound to do well.

Being Brazilian and having worked with motorsport in Brazil, I can assess that the concept that most drivers from South America venturing abroad have some sort of significant sponsorship behind them is far from true. More accurately, this idea is hugely overstated by observers from other countries.

Yes, many Brazilian drivers arrive to the European scene with some sponsorship, but I can guarantee that the amount of money they bring with them is in almost all cases much lesser than what their European, Asian or North American fellows are able to raise.

Indeed there are exceptions, as Pedro Paulo Diniz and Christian Fittipaldi, but a case-by-case analysis would show a very different conclusion than what is commonly stated.

In order not to make this another long posting, I will just mentioned the cases of Nelson Piquet and of Ayrton Senna.

Piquet - son of a State Minister and born in a rich family - had his racing aspirations completelty rebuffed by his father. He raced under the nickname "Piket" for years to hide his outings from his family. He worked the most inimaginable jobs to raise money - together with Alex Dias Ribeiro and Roberto Moreno -, including car washing and car mechanic. He drove his second hand, beaten Formula V (with which he nevertheless went on to win championships and thrash lap records) in a miserable, rusty Volkswagen Kombi camper (this thing was literally falling apart) to the tracks. No mechanics, no support. He switched the engine of the F-Vee back to the Kombi to drive it on the highway, and then back to the F-Vee for the races. Being rich - at least for the Brazilian standards - did not help much, if any.

Senna was also born in a wealthy family - albeit more modest than Piquet's - and this helped him to get started on karts, but when he moved to Formula cars this game was over. His sponsorship by Banerj - a today-extinct state bank - was quite tough to be raised, and was not enough for full seasons in England, so other small companies come to play. Most of them joined on performace-related contracts - the better he fared, the more money they gave, and this helped to pushed him ahead (or just to keep on pushing...).
The deal with Nacional - another gone bank - only came when he was widely recognized as someone very special, a tremendously gifted driver.

Just two cases. Regards,

[marcus]

good stuff Muzza , and yes I should retract my statements , too , thanks for clearing that up for us , but I will add many of them definately bring alot more cash than our poor Aussies take overseas.

[Muzza]

Hello, Marcus,

Absolutely no need to retract your statements! Some Brazilian drivers do bring significant sponsorship with them - besides Diniz and Christian Fittipaldi, I forgot to mention Ricardo Rosset, whose rich family has very important DuPont connections - so you are partially correct. My point is that these cases are exceptions.

And yes - and this has been discussed in a number of threads in Ten Tenths -, I do not understand how is so difficult to Australian drivers to raise funds either... This also affects motorcycling, regardless of Australia huge racing tradition also in two-wheel disciplines.

Cheers,

[ghinzani]

didnt Vitor run out of money after FF in the UK , and then I beleive he had to go back to South American F3 to keep racing...

[Muzza]

And of course Rosset's family own the Rosset lingerie brand.

[Sea Green]

Meira just passed his IRL rookie test in a #2 Menards car. It seems he did really well.

[marcus]

yep I just read that , well done to him, no news on where he is going yet is there ???

or did I miss that completely and he is taking the menard drive ???

[Sea Green]

I wonder if Menards is going to make a second team for Meira...

Pure speculation of course, but I could see it happining

[Russfeld]

Dunno, but seeing as how Dismore and engineer are out, they dont have any drivers right now, so 2nd car is a bit far out

[Russfeld]

hmm, what if they use Ed Carpenter. Menards sponsored, has been running the IPS races, Tony's step-son(?)

Stranger things have happened

[Sea Green]

Carpenter is driving for Sinden Racing Service. Maybe Menards and Sinden are working together. If that's the case, Meira could get a 2nd SRS car for now in the IPS, and move up next year. Or Menards could use his IRL crew for Meira in the IPS races.

Who knows? I don't even know if Meira will be with Menards.

[Sea Green]

And Mernards had a second car a Indy for Robby Gordon...

[Russfeld]

Yeah but they also had a guy in the first car, and a full sponsor for the second one. At the moment they have one car and no drivers. They need to fill that before they expand the team

[Fiorentina 1]

Menard were testing a few drivers to replace Mark Dismore. Dissy, as they call him, is well past his prime!

[racer69]

Meira has been confirmed for the Menard car. Also looks like Jacques could be back for the final two rounds.

[macdaddy]

http://www.indystar.com/article.php?localbrfs06.html

"Brazilian road racer Vitor Meira, 25, has been named Team Menard's Indy Racing League driver for this weekend's race at Kentucky Speedway, a team official said Monday. Meira replaces Mark Dismore, who was released after five races."

[Trebor]

Meira in at Menard

Dismore out as Menard swaps drivers once again

The game of musical chairs that has been played out at Team Menard since Jaques Lazier injured his back at Nazareth in April continues, with the music stopping for Mark Dismore after five races in the hot seat.

Dismore, who has not finished higher than 11th in his five outings, follows PJ Jones and Raul Boesel out the Menard door and will be replaced by Brazilian Vitor Meira.

Meira is a former Brazilian F3 champion and has already passed his IRL rookie test. He will make his debut at the Kentucky Speedway this weekend.

"I completed my rookie test on the Wednesday, did a full day of running the next day and signed the contract two days later," he said. "It was that quick and a big surprise for me. The IRL is exactly where I want to be."

Meanwhile, Lazier is making a better than expected recovery from his spinal injuries and could be fit enough to race in the final two rounds of the championship at Chicagoland and Texas.

from autosport.com

[Fiorentina 1]

The rumor was that Meira brought mucho dinero to Team Menard. One article states 3 mil. http://www.racingpress.com/publish/article_66.shtml

From what I heard, Memo & Meira had virtually the same test times. Well, since the track is completely flat, I guess that isn't that hard to do.....

[Muzza]

Originally posted by Fiorentina 1
The rumor was that Meira brought mucho dinero to Team Menard

Hello, Fiorentina 1,

Please take my remark lightly, but as a Brazilian I feel obliged to correct you. The proper Portuguese expression - as Portuguese is Brazil official language - is muito dinheiro.

Brazilians are usually quite sensitive (not me, though) if one says that they speak Spanish. Mucho dinero is the Spanish equivalent.

Cheers from a Sampdoria supporter,

[Muzza]

I am quite surprised with the news in the RacingPress.com website that VÃ*tor Meira brought three millions to the Menard squad - and that these millions, and not his skills, was the factor that made him took the seat.

1.) Meira, throughout his career, was never a well-funded driver.

2.) As per my first thread in this message (see above), the belief that South Americans (Brazilians, Argentinians, Uruguayans) bring "buckets of cash" with them to "buy seats" is absurdely exaggerated by the press of countries that, for other reasons (including the lack of a karting culture) are unable to produce a continuous stream of good drivers.

3.) Assuming for a minute that suddenly Meira would be able to raise "millions" in sponsorship, why would he go to the IRL, which is almost unknown in Brazil? What return would these sponsors obtain?

4.) Meira is a young driver. As such, Formula 1 - and maybe Formula 3000 and CART (quite popular in Brazil) - would have been his most likely aspirations. Why would he target IRL?

5.) Nothing needs to be said about the financial health of the Menards team. It is pretty solid, thank you very much. By far, they are not in a desperate search for money, that would make them "look for cash and not for talent" when selecting a driver.

5.) Why all this whining about he fact that Memo Gidley - a good driver, who I respect very much - has not gotten the seat? The article itself concurs that he was not even listed as a strong possibility to get it.

6.) The article writer, Mr. Tony Johns, does not seem to be the most well informed person in the IRL community.

This article seems to be yet another jingoistic rubbish that we are exposed in the press to from time to time.

If American drivers are failing to grab the IRL trophy and the best team seats - and I have great hopes that Sam Hornish, a true talent, will put a great fight - don't blame it on the drivers coming from other countries.

And, by the way, the Brazilian motorsport press is also quite jingoistic too.

[Sea Green]

3 million? John Menards is getting more than 3 million weekly, possibly daily? But still, Menards Racing is one of the best funded IRl teams there are, and they don't need 3 million Brazilian dollars.

[Fiorentina 1]

Sampdoria fan? Oh god, almost as bad as Fiorentina...Well, what was Fiorentina....

I know it was Spanish. my Brazilian girl friend would freak if I ever made that mistake....

Who knows why they picked Meira, but they sure didn't talk to other drivers about the ride. Either they fell in love with him right away, or he brough money.