Reviewing 2018 - Endurance Brasil

The 2018 Endurance Brasil season saw some changes into its class structure, new teams and cars coming, sparks flying on track and a new overall champion being crowned, along with other nice details that are a reflex of the growth of the championship.

With the season being over long time ago, it’s time to review some topics that were part of it.

-Prototypes and GTs, separated only by class names

This year the GP1 class was split into P1 and GT3, meaning that now prototypes and GTs had their own affairs to deal with, but despite this, on track they were still really close, as the crop of MetalMoro AJRs had some advantage over the new GT3s, with the other P1s coming behind.

-MetalMoro AJR comes in a pack

After the single example that raced in 2018 with two different engines, JLM Racing stepped up their game with the MetalMoro AJR prototype, bringing four cars under its wing while a fifth car became the new No. 65 from NC Racing.

The car continues a monster in a single lap and can outpace the GT3s easily, though reliability issues still hamper the young machine, which kept it away from more wins other than Tarumã and Santa Cruz do Sul, with the main heartbreaks being at Velopark and at the second race at Tarumã, where the issues appeared with only some minutes to go. Despite this, the P1 class title stayed with JLM Racing, which is a good achievement to end the season.

-New GTs in the house

The GT3 class made people dream about the GT Brasil times, when current-spec machinery raced in our lands on a regular basis, like the Lamborghini Huracán from TMG/Via Italia, the pair of Mercedes AMG GT3s from Scuderia 111 and even the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that was parked last year and found a way to the track thanks to MC Tubarão and Sergio Ribas, all of them racing along the 2017 champion Porsche 911 GT3R from Stuttgart Motorsport and the SulRacing Ferrari 458 GT3.

Their reliability was a handy advantage, because when the AJRs suffered problems, the GT3s were there most of the time to claim overall wins, which in fact gave the title to the TMG/Via Italia Lamborghini of Chico Longo and Daniel Serra. The Porsche suffered with the power deficit to the Lamborghini and the Mercedes, reflex of this being a class with balance of performance, and stayed far from the tile expectations.

-Those mid-season changes that appear out of nowhere

Some entries had changes over the season, which included from car changes to formation of new teams and class changes. The biggest moves were the inclusion of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the MC Tubarão garage, which made Sergio and Guilherme Ribas switch from the GT4 to the GT3 class, as well the No. 71 MCR that saw drivers Ian Jepsen Ely and Daniel Claudino take control of the team in the new Ely Claudino Motorsports entry as SATTI Racing would focus in the No. 75 MRX in the P2 class and eventually fight for the class title.

-P2 class had sparks flying over the year

MC Tubarão and SATTI Racing had a fantastic fight for P2 honors, down to the last race at Tarumã, where perseverance gave it to Paulo Sousa and Mauro Kern in the No. 32 MRX after a crash at the start of the race. In fact, consistency is the name of the game for both contenders, and only the No. 3 GTA Tornado at Curitiba was able to break the winning cycle shared between the No. 32 and the No. 75.

-P3 and GT4 had early outcomes

Motorcar Racing and MC Tubarão had the pleasure of celebrating early in Endurance Brasil this year, as both teams claimed the P3 and GT4 classes at the Velopark with a race to go in the season, with noticeable dominance over the somewhat irregular opponents of both classes.

-TCR debut in Brazil ends with a trophy

This year marked the debut of a TCR class car in Brazil as an Audi RS3 LMS TCR was fielded by MC Tubarão and had Henry Visconde being partnered by Marcio Basso, Carlinhos Andrade and Arthur Caleffi over the season.

The expected reliability of the car helped in the title bid, considering the GT4 class allowed more powerful machinery, and although the cars were in fact more powerful, only twice in the season the TCR Audi was outpaced.

- What comes in for the future?

Still at the end of 2018 some teams already confirmed at least their intentions of being in the Endurance Brasil grid in 2019, as the cases of Absoluta Racing and KIA Power Imports Racing, and despite having a solid field in 2018, none of the regulars confirmed their return, which come with time during the first quarter of 2019.