🇧🇷 Rafa Matos

Rafa Matos is a professional racing driver competing primarily in Trans-Am TA2, a national solo sprint series for production-based cars. He races for Stanton Barrett Motorsports and has accumulated 70 starts in TA2 across nine seasons since 2018, winning 17 races and taking 36 podiums. His career began in 2004 in Star Mazda Championship, where he won four races and took the title in 2005 with Ocean Tomo Racing. He has since raced in IndyCar, the Stock Car Pro Series in Brazil, IMSA WeatherTech endurance racing, and brief campaigns in kart racing and other series.[1]

Matos became a three-time TA2 champion, winning titles in 2021 and 2024 in addition to the 2018 season, establishing himself as the series' most successful driver over that span. He won the 2005 Star Mazda Championship early in his career and raced 38 IndyCar rounds from 2009 to 2011, competing on a mix of 24 oval tracks and road and street courses. His record across single-seaters and stock cars shows a driver built for circuit racing rather than oval specialisation. He currently sits 12th in the 2026 Trans-Am TA2 championship standings as the season progresses.[2]

In TA2, Matos regularly finishes ahead of semi-professional and competitive amateur opponents including the veteran Tom Sheehan, who has made 71 starts in the series, and Doug Peterson, a competitor across multiple championships who has raced Star Mazda and Trans-Am TA2 extensively. He has also beaten drivers who competed at far higher levels; he finished ahead of Christopher Bell twice and Ty Gibbs three times when those drivers entered Trans-Am TA2 rounds, though both have since become elite professionals in NASCAR Cup Series racing. His standing in TA2 is built on consistency against the regular field rather than isolated results against champions passing through the series.