Maybe a future F1 driver....

[K7Baixo2]

My wife's nephew is 18 and has been racing since he was old enough to walk. He started with karts in Brazil and won several major championships there.

Here's Victor -



Last year, he raced in the FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 - EUROCUP series as part of the Koiranen bros Motorsports team.



From their site:

Koiranen Motorsport (est 1997) is one of the leading Formula team in
European Formula Renault 2.0 series. Nearly 80% of F1 drivers been through it.

The team has a respectable history of educating young drivers on their way to the highest levels of car racing, as for example Eurocup Champion 2010 Kevin Korjus and current Williams F1 test driver Valtteri Bottas.

Koiranen Motorsport is FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 TEAM CHAMPION 2011.

Unfortunately, the economy killed his sponsorship so he lost his ride.

His father decided that racing in the US was a good next step so he contacted several teams that participate in the F2000 series.

http://www.f2000championshipseries.com/

Victor arrived in Florida two days ago for a test ride at Sebring. Unfortunately, the team he was supposed to drive for canceled at the last minute. His dad scrambled around and hooked him up with another team and I'll be damned if Victor didn't come close to setting a new lap record at Sebring. Keep in mind that this is a course he's never driven before and in a new car.

Unbelieveable.

Now he has some down time before flying to Birmingham for tests at Barber in a week or so. Hopefully, he's well on his way to finding a good team to drive for and a sponsor. The team he drove for today has produced good results in the past and the team owner was very impressed!

Keep him in your thoughts and keep your fingers crossed. Maybe the name Victor Franzoni will become well-known and you can say, "I remember when......"

[Pix]

Great read...keep us updated

[East Bay Rider]

Always nice to see natural talent. Good luck Victor.

[K7Baixo2]

Originally Posted by Pix

Great read...keep us updated

Will do.

Originally Posted by East Bay Rider

Always nice to see natural talent. Good luck Victor.

I'll pass that along to him. He's a good kid and has a great family. His mother is a trained mechanic and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. His dad does automation work for the auto industry in Brazil.

[68camaro]

Way cool......impressive young man....hopefully things work out. Do keep us updated.

Thanks

[GradyPhilpott]

[Floorguy]

Good looking young man, my family and I will keep him in our prayers, GOOD LUCK!

[vitalsignsrn]

Fantastic, and best of luck to him. ;-)

[OmegaJJH]

Wow. Thanks for posting.

Please please keep us updated on his progress.

It's a shame that sponsorship is as important as raw talent!

(Think that's shown in how Maldanado has got a drive with Lotus F1 ahead of Nico Hulkenberg)... Crazy!

[lavaman]

AWESOME!

best of luck to him, and of course I can say "Oh him, yea I heard of him from way back :-)"

[Foxy1]

Hi

Get him to Europe, thats where he needs to be, its what all the great Brazilian drivers did, Senna, Barichello, Fittipaldi, Piquet etc etc etc

[K7Baixo2]

Originally Posted by OmegaJJH

Wow. Thanks for posting.

Please please keep us updated on his progress.

It's a shame that sponsorship is as important as raw talent!

(Think that's shown in how Maldanado has got a drive with Lotus F1 ahead of Nico Hulkenberg)... Crazy!

Yep. A season of F2000 will cost about $200,000.

Originally Posted by Foxy1

Hi

Get him to Europe, thats where he needs to be, its what all the great Brazilian drivers did, Senna, Barichello, Fittipaldi, Piquet etc etc etc

No doubt - I'll leave decisions like that to his father. I'm not sure of his strategy so we'll see what happens.

Fabio, his father, has an old Mach III Mustang that a US consulate worker imported to Brazil in the early 70's. I seem to recall a YouTube of him cruising around the state of São Paulo at 100 plus. Driving fast runs in the family ....Fabio raced karts when he was young also.

[Brunotheboxer]

Awesome. Tell him good luck.

[Hairdude1]

Very cool! I wish him the best!

[Cc1966]

Wow...great to be associated with such a young man, if even from afar, Good Luck to him!!!

[K7Baixo2]

Here's the car he drove yesterday.....

[K7Baixo2]

Victor's testing today at Barber in B'ham. If you've never been to Barbar, think "Augusta National" meets the "Mille Miglia". It's a beautiful track.

Well, Mother Nature stepped in and it's raining today. There are 20 drivers there literally from all over the world vying for a spot with the various teams. This stuff isn't cheap - Victor's dad is paying eight grand for the tests. If he's successful, it's about $200,000 to fund the season. Victor and his dad will rustle up some sponsorship money and if anyone wants their business name on a F2000-series car, let me know.

Anyway, racing in the rain isn't uncommon for Victor and I suspect for the other drivers also. My wife just called from her office - she walked to Victor's dad in Brazil and Victor is in first place after the first morning session. If he does well and a team really wants him, the costs will be reduced. I'm not all that familiar with how the sponsorship process works but I suspect the team can help line up sponsors if they can "sell" the driver and the talent that he brings. Victor is proving to be a very, very good driver so it's looking good for the young man. Hopefully, he'll post pictures to facebook later today....I'll link them here if that occurs.

[Foxy1]

Hi

What you are saying about sponsorship is 100% correct, yes there is a price to drive the car for a season, depending how good the driver is a team may help finding some sponsorship if they think that it will be good for the team if he drives for them, but please and I am sure his dad knows it, if there is a good driver sometime a smaller team will entice him to drive for them but not be able to deliver a competitive car, if it costs more to get him in the right team do it.

[K7Baixo2]

Originally Posted by Foxy1

Hi

What you are saying about sponsorship is 100% correct, yes there is a price to drive the car for a season, depending how good the driver is a team may help finding some sponsorship if they think that it will be good for the team if he drives for them, but please and I am sure his dad knows it, if there is a good driver sometime a smaller team will entice him to drive for them but not be able to deliver a competitive car, if it costs more to get him in the right team do it.

Great Steve - thanks for confirming how the process works. I was trying to apply logic so I'm glad I'm on the right track!

I tested with a team at Sebring and they were happy enough to take him to another track and then to New Orleans. I think he'll be fine!

[East Bay Rider]

Very cool. I wish him good luck.

[Foxy1]

Great news

Dont forget if he does well he is also good advertising for the team which could mean in following years they can get full paying drivers.

Another thing to be wary of if he gets a drive cheaper is that he gets all the testing, tyres etc etc etc when he needs them, some teams will try to cut down a little to reduce costs.

[K7Baixo2]

Originally Posted by Foxy1

Great news

Dont forget if he does well he is also good advertising for the team which could mean in following years they can get full paying drivers.

Another thing to be wary of if he gets a drive cheaper is that he gets all the testing, tyres etc etc etc when he needs them, some teams will try to cut down a little to reduce costs.

Great. Like you mentioned, I suspect his father knows this but I'll pass this along. Here's the latest note from the team manager. I'm only in the loop because of money transfer issues and we helped in short term:

"Victor is doing really well. In the afternoon session, he was seventh but he did not run new tires like everyone else so he was giving up a little time to them.

Being his first time in this car and at this track he is showing good pace. I think he has more speed to come tomorrow.

Very encouraging."

Yep - very encouraging!

[Foxy1]

Please keep us informed

[K7Baixo2]

Originally Posted by Foxy1

Please keep us informed

Will do although it may be late today before I hear anything. The news seems to take the scenic route from B'ham to Sao Paulo to Phoenix.

[77T]

Good luck to him tomorrow. Skies will be clear but very cold in AM. Barber is a tricky track in the cold.

If he's staying in US over Holidays, there are 2 SCCA Majors races in FLA in first 2 weekends of January where he could rent and showcase his skills at Sebring and PBIR. Formula Enterprises cars would be very close to his past experience. Or if he wants to step up a bit, maybe a Formula Atlantic...

[K7Baixo2]

Today seems to have gone well and it appears they'll offer him a car. At this point, I'm the gringo in the middle and need to talk to the owner about the contract, next steps, costs, sponsors, etc. He's also waiting to hear from the team that he drove for at Sebring. His father already found a partial sponsor in Brazil so he's off to a good start for $$$$.

Tomorrow, Victor flys back to São Paulo....he's had a few good weeks here!

[East Bay Rider]

Big congratulations to Victor.

[K7Baixo2]

Victor just updated his FB page - hope no one minds if I share it here:

"Dois dias de treino foram muito legais, me adaptei bem com o carro e com a pista, agr voltar para casa e resolver as coisas pro ano que vem, obrigado a todos por esse ano!! Two days of test were really good, I could understand the car and the track, now back to home and work for next year, thanks everybody for this year!!"

[Foxy1]

Fantastic news and I really wish him the best, I miss the days I had in the business.

[tinger]

Hey Gerry,
Ask your nephew to send me a resume.

Bobby Rahal's brother is a customer of ours... also Fitipaldi does business with my parent company in Brazil.
Who knows... they might know of someone who knows someone, etc...


...
sorry, meant to PM