The champions of Brazilian motorsport’s top class will race together in the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Italian-American team Risi Competizione in an iconic race

A Stock Car Pro Series there will be another champion in action in international motorsport. Holder of the 2021 season title and third in the last championship, won by Rubens Barrichello, Gabriel Casagrande will take part in the 71st edition of the 12 Hours of Sebringproof valid for the second stage of the IMSAas a partner of the three-time Stock champion daniel serra and Italian driver Davide Rigon.

With this announcement, the Italian-American team Risi Competizione places the current second (Serra) and third (Casagrande) of the last Stock Car season on the track. The 28-year-old from Paraná’s first race at IMSA 2023 will take place on March 18 in Florida, USA.

Besides Casagrande and Daniel Serra, another Stock Car champion who will be at Sebring is Philippe Fraga. Back on the grid in the main South American category for Blau Motorsport, the driver accelerated in the United States in the LMP3 prototype category, for the Riley Motorsports team.

For Casagrande, this is a special moment. The pilot returns to race abroad almost ten years after the last foray. In 2014, when he was only 18, Gabriel competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona in the Prototype Challenge division, with a car from the Performance Tech Motorsports team. At the time, he shared the wheel with Brazilians Raphael Matos and Julio Campos, as well as Canadian David Ostella and North American Tomy Drissi. Result: podium in the category and 13th overall.

Back to America

Casagrande greatly celebrated the opportunity to compete overseas again. Since the last time he was in action in the United States, the driver has evolved into one of the big names in Stock Car.

“I am very happy to be back on the international scene. I thank Risi for the opportunity to be in the car with two partners of the highest caliber – and businessman Geraldo Rodrigues for leading the deal,” said Gabriel.

“Daniel is already an old acquaintance of mine, we are still in competition, but now we will join forces. And, of course, Davide is accelerating too much too. I’m sure the team is very well aligned with the goal of win It will be the first engagement of the year and I hope to get off to a good start.”

While working to put in a great run at Sebring, Casagrande doesn’t lose sight of the challenge of trying to win the second Stock Car Championship. The Paraná man continues a very successful partnership with A.Mattheis Vogel, now with Lucas Foresti as his new teammate.

“The wait is the best possible. I continue with the same team and thank the sponsors for another year of extreme confidence in representing them. I am sure that the team will give me the conditions to fight for the title again and I will do everything to get to the end of the year and win the second championship,” he concluded. The 2023 Stock Car season begins on April 2 at the Autodrome International Ayrton Senna, in Goiânia (GO).

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