Nicky Catsburg debuted alongside Felipe Fraga in the CIMED Racing Team Chevrolet Cruze at the opening round of the 2018 Brazilian Stock Car Championship last weekend.
It was Catsburg’s first visit to South America and his first taste of the Interlagos track in Sao Paolo, home of the Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix. This did little to deter the Dutch BMW factory driver from putting the V8 Stock car towards the top of the timesheets throughout the three days of pre-event practice with he and Fraga never finishing outside of the top three.
Much was expected from qualifying with the pole position within the pairing’s grasp. However, a small error in turn two for Catsburg ultimately saw the pair line up for Saturday’s 60-minute race in fourth position.
“I immediately felt at home with the car and Felipe was very fast, so we had a car and team to get a result. Qualifying was frustrating as we had the pace to get pole position, but from P4 we would be okay and we knew we had a great car for the race,” Nicky said following Friday’s qualifying session.
The race however proved to be short lived, with contact between Fraga and Lucas di Grassi at the start resulting in damage to the car’s cooling system and with temperatures rising, the Chevrolet was retired from the race disappointingly early.
“It’s just such a shame,” said Nicky. “I have had such a good time here working with the CIMED Racing Team and Felipe. We were pushing hard, so to never get a chance to turn some race laps was a disappointment. The team were great all week – Felipe and the engineers were great to work with – so I hope I get the chance to come back next year to finish the work we started.”
Nicky resumes his exciting BMW M8 campaign next week at Sebring International Raceway in Florida for the second round of the Tequila Patron Endurance Cup, part of the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, the MOBIL 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts.