Mighty Matos

I couldn’t help but stare in amazement Saturday evening as Raphael Matos took the checkered flag to claim his maiden Daytona Prototype race win in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series season-ending race at Miller Motorsports Park. The young Brazilian, along with season-long co-drivers Ian James and John Pew, scored Michael Shank Racing’s second consecutive win, and first for the Ford-powered No. 6 machine.

Matos took control of the 1000km race in the closing stages when his crew got him out ahead of the competition after pit stops during a late caution. Once the field got the green, Matos took off and pulled away from everyone. Nobody was able to catch him in the end.

The fact that just two weeks earlier, Matos was standing in victory lane at Chicagoland Speedway, holding the Indy Lights title in his hands. It was his third professional championship, adding to his Star Mazda and Atlantic titles earned in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He also won the Skip Barber National Championship in 2003.

Matos has been a poster child for Mazda, as most of his success has come with the Japanese brand. He claimed his first sports car victory earlier this year in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, piloting a SpeedSource Mazda RX-8.

With a win in the opening and closing Rolex Series events of 2008, and in two different classes, Matos becomes one of the only, if not the first, multi-class winner in the Rolex Series (since the DP’s introduction in 2003).

Now, Matos is onto his next challenge, teaming with Ben Devlin and Gerardo Bonilla in B-K Motorsports’ brand-new Lola B08/86 Mazda in next weekend’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. The LMP2 Coupe will be a new challenge for all three, as they go up against the mights of Porsche and Acura. But given Matos’ track record this year, don’t count anything out.