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| Driver Diary: Matt Zeis - Granja Viana 500 |
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 | Matt Zeis
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
Considered by the Brazilians as their ‘Indianapolis 500’, the Granja Viana 500 karting endurance event has gained notoriety around the world. Competing at the very circuit that has groomed many of the top Brazilian motorsports drivers, the Kartodromo Granja Viana in Sao Paulo hosted a number of professional motorsport stars and karters for one of the toughest endurance karting events in the world. With support from MG Tires of North America and Superkarts! USA, Central States Challenge S3 champion Matt Zeis won the chance of a lifetime to compete at the prestigious event on December 5. Zeis was gracious enough to pen his journey from Missouri to Brazil and back to compete alongside the likes of Felipe Massa, Felipe Giaffone and many others.
Wednesday, November 25
The trip started a little bit earlier than it was supposed to for me. The Wednesday before I was scheduled to leave I had to make a trip from St. Louis to Chicago to pick up my Brazilian Visa at the Consulate General of Brazil in Chicago. As of the Monday one week before I was scheduled to leave, I had still not heard anything about the status of my Visa. I knew that if the consulate did not get the Visa in the mail by the Wednesday before my departure date then it would not be mailed in time, due to the consulate being closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. After checking the USPS tracking number of my Visa on Tuesday night, I confirmed that it had not yet been shipped. I left St. Louis around 7:30am Wednesday morning and headed for Chicago. It was about 5 hours worth of driving to get there. After arriving in the heart of downtown Chicago and paying $17.00 to park, I managed to make it to the consulate 5 minutes before they closed. I picked up my Visa and made the trek back home. I pulled into my driveway in St. Louis at around 7pm, extremely relieved to have my Visa in my possession.
Monday, November 30
I woke up at 9am to begin packing and preparing for the trip. I spent most of the day running around making sure I had everything I needed. My dad picked me up at around 3pm and drove me to the airport. I had another minor speed bump in the trip upon arrival at the check-in counter. When I handed the lady my passport, I was informed that she had no reservation for me. After searching for awhile she discovered that the reservation was accidentally made under my middle and last name instead of my first and last. Happy to have discovered this in St. Louis instead of Sao Paulo, a quick phone call to the airline company and everything was straightened out. After checking my luggage and working my way through security, I boarded a small regional jet bound for Dulles International in Washington D.C. My plane departed on time at 5:41pm.
I arrived in D.C. about an hour and a half later. The next plane I was to board was only about a minute walk down the same terminal. I grabbed a bottle of water from one of the small shops in the terminal and watched the Monday Night Football game while waiting to board. After boarding the Boeing 777, we backed away from the gate headed for Sao Paulo, Brazil at 9:57pm eastern time.
 | Matt getting a fit for the Kart Mini kart they will pilot in the Granja Viana 500
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
Tuesday, December 1
For some reason I cannot fall asleep on planes. I was only able to get about an hour of sleep during the nine hour flight to Brazil. With the three hour time difference from D.C. we arrived in Brazil a little after 10am local time. I was exhausted and still had a very long day ahead of me. I worked my way through customs and grabbed my baggage right before finding Luis Ruibal of WR Motorsports - the importer for MG Tires in North America - waiting for me outside of baggage claim. I also met Canadian Brendon Bain (one of my MG Tires/SKUSA teammates) and his dad who, I found out, had been on the same flight to Brazil as I was. Luis led us to the pick-up area where most of the other drivers were waiting for us. We met up with another of my teammates Tommy Thompson (ProKart Challenge North) and his parents, along with Mike Burrell of National Kart News. Richard Benitez and his dad as well as Alex Speed, who were part of the MG Tires/Florida Winter Tour team, as meet with us and we headed for the track. When there, the rest of the MG Tires/FWT team - Cody Hodgson and Cyndie Allemann - arrived later on that day. Apparently, when we left the airport, we forgot that we had to wait for teammate Jeff Smith (ProKart Challenge South) to arrive. They sent a van back for him later only to find out that he had hitched a ride to the track with the Trackmagic guys. Leaving certain locations throughout the week without Jeff became a common occurrence, which led us to renaming him, Jeff Smissing.
The ride from the airport to hotel took forever. I have never experienced traffic like that in my life. What would be about a half hour trip with minimal traffic took us about 2 hours. The only way to get somewhere, in a hurry, in Sao Paulo is by motorcycle. Let me tell you, the people that ride those things down there are absolutely crazy. They weave in and out of traffic and dart between cars and trucks and busses doing about 50mph even when traffic is stopped. I could not tell you how many times I saw someone on a motorcycle come within inches of getting smashed between two cars. Rumor has it that there are about 30 motorcycle deaths per day in the city.
We finally made it to the hotel to check in and drop off our stuff. I ended up rooming with Tommy Thompson. Tommy and I had never been abroad before and when we got to the room we spent 30 minutes trying to figure out why none of the lights were working before we learned that you had to place your room key in a little box just inside the door to make everything work.
After piling into the van, it was another hour and half in heavy traffic before we made it to the track. The track lies all the way on the southern edge of the city. It wasn’t until after the race on Saturday night that we realized it was only a twenty minute drive, without the nuisance traffic. When we got to the track there were already numerous karts on track preparing for Saturday’s race. Our only plan for the day was to get fitted for a seat and to scale the kart. We met Sabia, who owns the team that would be working with us for the week, and all of the mechanics. None of the mechanics spoke a lick of English, and Cyndie was the only driver that spoke any Portuguese. We used hand signals throughout the week to communicate with the mechanics. Brendon, Tommy, Jeff, and I all tried out the seat that Sabia Racing had mounted up for us. The seat was a little bit too big for Brendon, just right for Tommy, and a little bit tight in the hips for Jeff and me. I told the mechanics that I could handle the seat being a little bit too tight, which would come back to bite me in the race. We then headed over to the scales. Brendon and Tommy both needed a considerable amount of lead to make weight, while Jeff and I needed no weight weighing in 10kg (over 20lbs) too heavy. After scaling the kart, we headed back to the hotel, showered and went out for dinner at a really nice pizza place. As soon as we got back to the room, I was ready for bed. I set my alarm for 7:00am the next day, and couldn’t wait to finally get on track.
 | The MG Tires teams discuss their first stints on-track
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
Wednesday, December 2
Everyone met in the lobby at 7:30am and we headed to the track. I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast at the hotel, so I ordered the steak sandwich at the track. Everyone who had been there in previous years kept talking about so I had to try it. This place had some of the best track food of anywhere I have ever raced. I ate at least one steak sandwich every day.
Unfortunately, with four drivers on one team, we would not get a lot of track time. Wednesday and Thursday featured two, forty-five minute timed sessions, with an hour and twenty minute long open session at the end of each day. Two drivers would split the first timed session, two drivers would split the second session, and all four of us would split the final open session. This meant that each driver would get two sessions today and two tomorrow. Brendon and Tommy split the first session while Jeff and I split session number two. The kart was very weird to drive and took a lot of getting used to. It was a tank, weighing in at 200kg, or 440lbs. The kart had a very bad push. We made it a lot better throughout the week, but it never completely went away. Having only a 13hp four-stroke motor was another thing I spent some time getting used to. This was also my first time ever driving a four stroke. I raced Yamaha Can for three months when I first started karting six years ago and have not driven anything but a TaG or shifter since. I was not able to break the 1:00 minute mark my first time out on the track. After the two timed sessions, Brendon had laid down the fastest lap of our team with a 59.8. The teams of Massa and Barrichello were lapping at 58.0. We had a lot of work to do. During the open session I was able to get down to a 59.7 despite the fact that the tires were more worn out and the push had gotten much worse. Tommy turned the fastest lap of the day with a low 59. We were still over one second of off the lead pace.
After practice we made the hour long battle through traffic to get back to the hotel. We showered up and met everyone back in the lobby to go out to dinner. We walked to a mall that was a few blocks away and ate at some buffet in the food court. After a little ice cream for dessert we walked around the mall before heading back to the hotel to hit the hay.
 | Zeis waits to hit the track for practice
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
Thursday, December 3
We met in the lobby again before loading up the van and heading off to the track. The practice format today would be exactly the same as yesterdays. Brendon and I split the morning session. The mechanics had Luis translate to me that they wanted me to pit halfway through my run so they could perform an engine change. We were given two race engines and they wanted to find out which one was faster. From the time I crossed the start-finish line and came into the pits for the engine change and got back onto the track to cross the line after pitting was an amazing seven minutes. These mechanics were awesome! You could definitely tell that they had done this before. Both of the engines seemed to be about the same. Leo, our van driver, translated to the mechanics that if anything, engine B was slightly faster. We were still fighting a very bad push in the kart. The mechanics had Tommy take the entire second timed session to himself to work on the chassis. They played with caster, camber, front end width and removed the fourth rail. After making these changes and sending Tommy out with new tires, he dropped a second from what he had been turning in the first half of the session. We were finally in the high 58’s. The fastest time put up at this point was by one of the F1 drivers at a 57.9.
Jeff took the track first in the open session. When he pitted he was able to confirm to me that the changes had made the kart a lot better. I was scheduled to go out second. The mechanics had the kart on the stand making some more changes. As soon as they were about to set it down and let me go, the skies opened. It was an absolute downpour. The track was shut down. The rain was so bad that no one was out there. We hung out in the pit box for what seemed like forever while we waited for the heavy rain to subside.
When the rain finally let up enough for us to venture out of the pit box, we were told to go get comfortable at the trackside restaurant. When it rains down here, the roads do not drain very well. Our van driver informed us that it would take three hours to make it through traffic to the hotel in this weather. With that in mind, we ordered food and ate dinner at the track. The sound of engines after our dinner drew us over to the fence to see the rental karts running around the track, in the rain, on slicks, under the lights. We decided that this looked like too much fun to pass up. All of the drivers from both the SKUSA and FWT MG Tires teams, all of the dads, Luis, and Leo the van driver signed up to go run for 30 minutes. It was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip. We were sliding all over the place, bouncing off of each other, bouncing off of tire barriers, out there having a blast! We couldn’t believe that the track workers didn’t black flag any of us. Our little fun kart race was all everyone could talk about for the rest of the night. After we were done having our fun for the night, we loaded up the van and headed for the hotel.
 | The MG Tires-Superkarts! USA team poises for pictures before the green flag - Tommy Thompson, Brendon Bain, Zeis and Jeff Smith
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
Friday, December 4
Friday was all about qualifying. Tommy was chosen to qualify the kart, so he would be the only one driving today. Unfortunately, the rain that had provided us with so much fun was still around the area. With the track drying in the morning practice session, we were the first team to go to slicks, which led to us being second overall for that practice session. Tommy was able to lay down one lap on the slicks before the rain came again, and he was forced to pull into the pits.
When it came time to qualify, the track conditions called for a full wet setup. The Florida Winter Tour team went out in group one. Cody Hodgson was chosen to qualify the kart for them. He managed to qualify 11th in that group. Our team went out in group two. The rain was coming down a bit harder for group two, which is always a problem when there are multiple groups qualifying in the rain. Tommy ended up qualifying 12th in group two. The celebrity group, which consisted of all of the pro drivers, went out last. Formula One’s Felipe Massa was able to find the speed in the wet to put it on pole.
With the day being over a little bit after noon, the van took us to the hotel to clean up and then dropped us off at one of the biggest malls in Sao Paulo. We ate a late lunch at a place in the mall called America. It was a nice place to get burgers, fries, and milkshakes. We spent the rest of the day exploring the mall before taking taxis back to the hotel. I enjoyed dinner with Tommy and Trackmagic’s Mike Pickman before calling it a night.
Saturday, December 5
Race day was finally here! It was very exciting knowing that I was going to get a ton of track time today. As was the case yesterday for qualifying, we had to have our credentials to enter the track. This place was crazy as far as having credentials to get in. They were stricter than what you would find at a Formula One race. We had to swipe our cards to get into the track parking lot. We had to swipe them again to get in and out of the pits! There was a qualifying race first thing in the morning, which featured the celebrity drivers and the top five from each group, and would set the top-25 spots for the 500. Neither of the MG Tires teams made the qualifying race so we were able to watch from the sidelines.
There were so many more people at the event than the day before. The place was absolutely packed with spectators. There was a VIP section above all the pit boxes and another large viewing area set up on a platform in the middle of the track. You could feel the buzz in the air. You could feel how big of an event this is for Brazil. This is their Indianapolis 500. They even televise the entire race live, to all of Brazil. They had helicopters flying in VIPs! It was amazing just to take part in such a huge event.
 | Zeis jumps in to start the 500 with some assistance from his mechanic
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
I was chosen to start the race, which was scheduled to start at approximately 12:30 and go for 644 laps or 11 hours, whichever came first. There was no morning warm up session, so I would start the race not having driven since Thursday morning, since rain cancelled what was supposed to be my last session. I had also not driven the kart since changes were made to improve the handling of the chassis. However, I was excited to start the race, even though I had seen video of how hectic the starts are down here. I knew I had a chance to pick up a lot of ground from our 41st starting position and that it was my responsibility not to destroy the kart and end our chances right from the get go. With a race as long as this one, we knew that all we had to do for a top-10 finish was to stay clean. You can be two-seconds off the pace, but if you have no problems for the entire duration of the event, you will be top-10 at the end of it.
The track had dried and we would be starting the race on slicks. The mechanics took the kart out to the grid on the front straightaway. The team joined up with them for pictures. The grid was cleared and the Brazilian National Anthem was played by two Brazilian rock stars as they walked the length of the grid. After they finished everyone was cleared away. The intensity was building. It was go time! The race called for a LeMans style start. The drivers line up on one side with the kart and one mechanic on the other. I heard a story about the start of this race a few years ago, where a mechanic got his hand stuck in the body work as the driver hopped in and took off. The mechanic was pulled along the track as the kart started the race. Did the driver stop and help him get his hand out? No way! The driver reached backwards as he was running wide open and attempted to hit the mechanics hand out. Needless to say, I knew the start was going to nuts.
I wasn’t wrong. My heart was pounding as I lined up opposite of my kart. From where we were on the grid, I couldn’t even see that flag man. I couldn’t understand the announcer to know when the start was getting close either. All I could do was just start running when everyone else did. After what seemed like minutes of waiting for the flag, the leaders started springing for their karts. I took off. I placed one hand on the wheel as I hopped into the seat with both feet. My mechanic started pushing me before my butt was even down in the seat. Halfway across the track I had slid down into the seat and was on the gas. I was forced to the outside where I stuck half the kart off in the grass. I was nailed from the side and the kart jumped sideways. I thought for sure that I had just spun it in front of everyone. I had my hands crossed up as I was pushed sideways down the straightaway and miraculously the kart snapped back around and was heading straight again. From turns one to three I was at the mercy of the karts around me. I was being pushed from behind, I was pushing the guy in front of me, and I was being knocked into on both sides. I took until about turn five for the field to go somewhat single file.
The hard part was over and I knew that I could do some damage if I just stayed smooth until it was time to pit. It takes full concentration to run this race because you are always in a large pack of karts. You are always making passes and being passed. If you are running by yourself, it is only a matter of time before you end up in a pack. I ran a perfectly clean first stint and made a lot of passes. I could feel the changes we had made to the kart late Thursday and was able to run a 58.4 during my opening stint. This ended up being our team’s fast lap of the race. I found out later that this year there were actually two groups in the race. There was the pro group which consisted of the 15 teams of celebrity drivers and then there was the B group for everyone else. Fast lap in the B group was a 58.0, so I was happy to be pretty close to that.
 | The start of the race where you can see Zeis completely sideways near the red sign on the left
(Photo: kartodromogranjaviana.com.br) |
Sabia had decided to pit us early to avoid traffic in pit lane. After about an hour of driving, I saw the mechanics holding up the pit board for me to come in. I pitted in on the next lap. When you pit in here, you have to drive across the scale, weigh in, and shut the motor off. The mechanics push you to your pit stall. When the next driver gets in they have to push you to the end of pit lane where an official refuels the kart. You must then scale again before re-entering the race. Pit lane was very hectic. The one thing the mechanics told us from the get go was that if someone is in the way and they don’t move, you hit them. I ended up hitting a guy in the ankle on one of our pit stops.
So after I climbed out of the kart, Jeff hopped in and was pushed off. I wasn’t tired at all, but my hips were killing me. Remember when I mentioned the seat being a little bit tight on me? It was tight enough that after an hour of driving it was killing my hips to the point where it hurt to walk. After a little bit of stretching, however, I was able to make the soreness go away. I looked at the timing and scoring monitor after walking back into the pit box and after everything cycled through. We were up to 24th. Things were looking good until about five laps in to Jeff’s stint. We looked out to see him stopped on the far side of the track. The mechanics ran out and brought the kart in. Back in the pits, the mechanics discovered that the sprocket hub key had stripped out of the axle. Every team must take a mandatory 15 minute pit stop during the race, so it was decided that this would be ours. Unfortunately, when all was said and done, the stop took nineteen minutes. So we lost about four laps that we shouldn’t have.
Things were looking good though. Tommy was in the kart now and making up ground. We were slowly gaining back what we had lost all through his stint. We knew that all we had to do was stay clean and we could still end up with a really good finish. Tommy was called in to pit about 90 laps after taking the wheel and Brendon took over. Brendon continued what Tommy had started. We were slowing climbing back up the charts until trouble struck again. Brendon showed up in the pits unexpectedly, after being on track for about an hour with a bent axle. I threw my gear on and waited for the mechanics to change another axle.
When the axle was changed I took off determined not to give up. The mechanics set me up for my second stint with a new left front and a new right rear tire. After about five quick laps, the push came back full force. It was happening in the worst place possible, the turn leading on to the longest part of wide open throttle on the track. This was killing my lap times. I could not stay with anyone down the back straight, into the banked right hander, into the sweeping right hander, and then down the front straight. About an hour into my stint, a kart passed me into the banked right hander. As I went to fall in behind him, another kart behind me had other ideas. I don’t know if he was trying to push me along or push me out of the way, but he hit me directly in the right rear. This shot the kart left and head on into the tire wall at a pretty good speed. It was the hardest hit I have ever taken in a kart.
 | Zeis makes his way through the opening lap of the race
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
The wreck did prove one thing though. The body work on the kart is amazing when it comes to protecting the kart’s components. A hit like the one I took would normally tear a front end to pieces. With the full bodywork in place on my kart, not a single part was bent. A tire was cut, however, and I was forced to pit. Luckily we did not lose much time with the incident happening right at the pit entrance.
After the mechanics replaced the tire, Jeff took over. He ran a great 90 lap stint and was able to gain back a lot of the ground we lost. Tommy hopped back in and ran a clean 90 lap stint and continued to pound out consistent lap times. Tommy took us to somewhere around 30th position wise, which was the highest we had been since I ran the opening leg. We had come from as low as 52nd. I took over after Tommy to run the final 60 laps of the race. New front tires had gone on before Tommy’s stint and the kart was handling better, yet it still had a bad push off of the last corner. A few laps in to my stint, I figured out a little trick to get the kart to rotate off of the last corner. I would enter way early, as there was a ton of grip down there, stay all the way against the curb, and then clip the inside curb at the exit. This would kick the back end around. While initially this felt slow, it pointed the kart straight down the back straightaway and I was able to get on the throttle without having the kart bind on me. Once I figured this trick out I was able to pass a lot of karts. I took the checkered flag an hour later for a 27th place finish.
After pulling off the track and driving the kart to impound, I climbed out and headed back to the pit box. I was flat worn out after about 3 hours of driving time. It took awhile for me to work my way through the crowd of people waiting to see the podium celebration which, by the way, put any over the top NASCAR victory lane celebration to shame. They had it all! A massive fireworks display, confetti, a smoke machine, and Brazil’s version of Rob Howden! The MG Tires/Florida Winter Tour team of Alex Speed, Cyndie Allemann, Cody Hodgson, and Richard Benitez ended up on the B group podium with a third place finish. After taking a lot of pictures of everyone in the group we loaded up the van and left the Kartodromo Granja Viana for the last time. I ate a late dinner at the hotel and went to bed.
 | Both MG Tires teams celebrate the end of the race with the Florida Winter Tour team enjoying their third place finish in Group B
(Photo: Luis Ruibal - WR Motorsports) |
Sunday, December 6
I was able to sleep in until 1pm before waking up for check out at 2pm. We checked out bags at the hotel and went to eat lunch at a pasta buffet a few blocks away. After that we walked up to the mall and killed time there until it was time to head to the airport. The trip to the airport was about an hour long, and upon arrival, we all parted ways to head to our different ticket counters and terminals. Cody Hodgson’s parents were on my flight to Chicago. Cody had left earlier that day for Egypt for the Rotax Grand Finals. I had a drink with Neil Hodgson and then we boarded a plane bound for Chicago, Illinois. The plane departed at 11pm local time.
Monday, December 7
Like I stated earlier, I can’t sleep on planes. I managed maybe two hours of sleep during the eleven hour flight. We landed in Chicago at 6am U.S. Central time. I parted ways with the Hodgson’s after passing through customs and was on my way to my connection flight to St. Louis. It was so nice only having a forty-five minute flight the rest of the way home. I know a few of the guys had to fly from Brazil to the east coast, and then make the four hour connection to the west coast. My dad picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at home. I napped for a few hours before making the two hour drive back to Columbia, MO where I attend school at the University of Missouri.
The trip was absolutely awesome. I had a blast both on track and off track. If I ever get the chance to do something like that again, I will take it in a heart-beat. I wish we had a race like that here in the United States. It was great getting to meet all of the drivers and their parents. And I can’t thank the people who made this happen, enough. Special thanks to Luis Ruibal, the MG Tire importer for organizing the entire trip and for making sure I acquired my Visa on time. Special thanks to Sabia Racing for providing us with the equipment to run along with the Sabia Racing mechanics who worked their butts off all weekend long. Special thanks to Leo the driver for shuttling us through hours and hours of traffic to and from the track. And special thanks to Tom Kutscher of SKUSA and Wagner Rossi of MG Tires for making this trip possible.
MG Tires motto is “For the Driver,” and they prove that they mean that when they provide something like this. This trip was something so much cooler than a big trophy or even a check for a few thousand dollars. This trip was a once in a lifetime experience. It was something that I will remember for the rest of my life. I got to race against current F1 drivers! I was bumped out of the way by Rubens Barrichello and given the thumbs up by Felipe Massa when I let him by late in the race! I was also lucky enough to make a bunch of great new friends. It was the experience of a lifetime and there is no other prize package in racing that even comes close. I want to thank everyone that made this trip happen. Two words some up the past week of my life, ‘$%&*-ing awesome!’ |
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