Nearly two years after suffering serious head trauma from striking a deer during a practice run at Road America, Cristiano da Matta is racing again. And rather competitively at that.
Cristiano da Matta's plan was to finish strong and challenge if he could.
Consider that mission accomplished on Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca as the 34-year-old Brazilian led 10 laps one-hour from the finish before used up tires and a sour stomach saw him fade to 15th in Daytona Prototype class and 32nd overall in the Grand Am Rolex Series RumBum250.com.
"Man, it felt like I had a cat in my stomach," said da Matta, who was wearing a cool suit for the first time in his career and didn't have a heat-related illness. "It started feeling bad right when I got in the car on that very first yellow, but just a little bit, a very little bit. Under green, it was fine, but with all of the yellows, my stomach just started feeling worse. It was very strange."
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Maybe some residual vertigo?
it was great to hear that he is back in a car and i certainly wish him all the best of luck
I'm glad that he is racing again. But...he is in the wrong sports car series.
the American Le Mans Series is WAY BETTER than Grand-Am.
I was at the race and wondering why Shorty seemed to be falling off the pace. It was crazy hot out there so I could see that getting to him if he was feeling ill, even with a cool suit.