Raphael Matos

Raphael Matos
Raphael Matos at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the first day of qualifying for the 2011 500
Nationality	Brazilian
Born	(1981-08-28) August 28, 1981 (age 43) Belo Horizonte, Brazil
IndyCar Series career
Debut season	2009
Current team	AFS Racing
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Car number	17
Former teams	de Ferran Dragon Racing
Starts	34
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	13th in 2009
Previous series
2008 2006-2007 2004-2005 2002-2003	Firestone Indy Lights Champ Car Atlantic Series A1 Grand Prix Star Mazda Series Skip Barber Formula Dodge Series
Championship titles
2008 2007 2005 2003	Firestone Indy Lights Series Champ Car Atlantic Series Star Mazda Series Skip Barber Formula Dodge
Awards
2009	IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year

Raphael Matos (born August 28, 1981) is a Brazilian professional racing driver. He was the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights Series champion and the 2007 Champ Car Atlantic Series champion. He lives in Miami. He is sometimes also called Rafa Matos.

Born in Belo Horizonte, Matos came to the United States in 2002 after karting in Brazil and began competing in Skip Barber Formula Dodge, winning the championship in 2003. In 2004, he moved up to the Star Mazda Series and in 2005 he won the Star Mazda championship. In 2006 he moved up the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Series where he drove for the Sierra Sierra team and captured one victory on his way to 4th place in the points standings.

He also competed in 4 Indy Pro Series races for Guthrie Racing and swept the two races held in March at St. Petersburg, Florida. During the fall he was named a driver for A1 Team Brazil in the A1 Grand Prix series and made his debut at the series' race in Beijing in the 2006–2007 season. He raced a Lola B07/40-Mazda in the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring and the 2007 Petit Le Mans.^[1]

Matos continued with the Sierra Sierra team in Atlantics in 2007 and clinched the championship with several races remaining in the season, securing for himself the $2 million "scholarship" for a ride in Champ Car for the 2008 season.

However, Matos decided to pass on the scholarship and sign with Andretti Green Racing to drive in the Indy Racing League's Firestone Indy Lights Series in 2008, where he won the series championship.^[2]

Prior to the 2008 Indy Lights season, he drove a Mazda RX-8 for the SpeedSource team in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, taking first in the GT class and a 9th place overall finish, sharing the car with Nick Ham, David Haskell and Sylvain Tremblay. After the season, he drove for Michael Shank Racing on the winning team in the DP class (with Ian James and John Pew) at the SunRichGourmet.com 1000 at Miller Motorsports Park.

Matos competed in the full 2009 IndyCar Series season for Luczo-Dragon Racing.^[3] He qualified third in his second race, the Long Beach Grand Prix and finished eight. He was the fastest rookie qualifier in his first Indy 500 and ran in the lead pack, but had a crash with Vítor Meira in which Meira was injured. Matos finished 22nd. Matos captured seasonal Rookie of the Year honors by a wide margin over former F1 driver Robert Doornbos. Matos' best finish was 6th at the Milwaukee Mile. He was running at the finish of each of the last ten races of the season, consistency that led to 13th in the championship despite few top ten finishes. Raphael qualified 12th in both the 2009 and 2010 Indy 500 and he also crashed in both races in roughly the same location at the exit of turn 1. He failed to qualify the AFS entry for the 2011 Indianapolis 500. He was also the fastest Rookie during the 2009 Indy 500 qualifying.

Matos raced full-time in Stock Car Brasil between 2013 and 2015, claiming a race win in 2014, and a best of 13th overall in 2015.^[4] At the end of 2015, he failed a drug test, and was suspended for two years.^[5] Matos claimed that he used the undisclosed substance in question in order to treat several tumors he had since he was 18.^[6]

In 2018, Matos started racing in the Trans-Am Series, and won the TA2 class championship at his first attempt. He won the class championship again in 2021, after finishing in first place in six out of twelve races.^[7]

On August 30, 2024, it was announced that Matos would attempt to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen International, driving the No. 87 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing in collaboration with Peterson Racing Group,^[8] but several days later, it was revealed that Matos would not make his debut due to being unable to come to a mutual agreement with the team. He would be replaced by Mike Skeen.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† Ineligible for championship points.

• Season still in progress

• Official website
• Raphael Matos driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• IndyCar Driver Page
• Champ Car Atlantic Series bio