Every title win is special, of course, but for Rafa Matos, the 2024 SCCA Pro Racing-sanctioned Pirelli CUBE 2 Architecture TA2 championship was especially sweet.

For one, it completed a TA2 title "hat trick" for the 2018 and 2021 champ who quickly rose to prominence stateside after emigrating from Brazil as a 21-year-old ex-karting champion.

For two, it came in his first year driving for TA2 mega-team – Nick Tucker’s Mooresville, NC-based Nitro Motorsports. There, the 43-year-old was charged with not only chasing a third TA2 title but also mentoring a half-dozen young drivers including 20-year-old Tyler Gonzalez and Thomas Annunziata, 19, who was a threat all season long to Matos’ points lead.

And finally, it was redemption for 2022: Matos looked set to defend his ’21 title driving for Doug Peterson’s topflight 3 Dimensional Services team heading into the season finale at Circuit of The Americas, only to lose the crown to Californian arch rival Thomas Merrill on a tiebreaker.

Moving On Up

One of the most popular drivers in Trans Am, Matos’ storied career in the U.S. began in single-seaters in 2002 – Skip Barber Race Series Formula Dodges (2003 champion) – and exploded on through Star Mazda (2005 champion), Champ Car Atlantic (2007 champion) Atlantic, Indy Lights (2008 champion), and eventually to IndyCars (2009 series Rookie of the Year). Internationally, he competed on Brazil’s A1 Grand Prix team 2006-’07.

Having made an IMSA debut in 2007, he eased into “fendered” race cars, but as his IndyCar dream faded due to a lack of sponsorship, “fenders” became full time. Back home, he became a regular in the 2013-’15 Stock Car Brasil series.

In 2018, Matos returned to the U.S. and settled in South Florida, invited to lead Trans Am stalwart Doug Peterson’s newly formed TA2 team. Peterson, like Matos a Skip Barber and Star Mazda series competitor in the early 2000s, remembered Matos’ promise, and the Brazilian immediately rewarded his support: Running under the Coleman Motorsports banner, Matos notched five wins and claimed the 2018 TA2 championship.

For 2019, the team was rebranded under Peterson’s 3 Dimensional Services banner, and despite his four wins, Matos finished only third in the championship. Rafa moved to the fledgling Silver Hare team for the 2019 Daytona finale and through the lockdowns-shortened 2020 season, finishing second with just one win; but for 2021, he was back with Peterson et all, and enjoyed spectacular success, winning six races in an especially hard fought year.

2022 was another successful season that culminated, though, in the devastating last-minute loss of the title. Matos, ever the class act, was gracious, congratulating Merrill and planning to “get him back” in 2023. But, despite adding two wins to his lifetime tally, Matos struggled. The 2023 Trans Am season was all about young talent as the TA2 class proved to be an especially productive stock car training ground for NASCAR, which continued to add road course events to its National series.

Although Matos finished third in the title race, once again leading the 3D squadron, the 2023 season was 15-year-old Brent Crews’ story.

Nitro Charge

Matos’ move to ambitious and successful kart racer and builder Nick Tucker’s TA2 team caused a stir over the winter of 2023-’24, especially when the team announced its plans to put no fewer than eight cars on the TA2 grid at the Sebring International Raceway season opener.

“We have eight drivers and eight drivers who can fight for race wins and podium results,” explained the team owner. “With season veterans, race winners, and champions highlighting our TA2 entries, we are pushing hard for success to kick off our 2024 season.”

Matos would have individual sponsorship from the Concord American Flagpole Association in a collaboration with TA competitor Chris Dyson. He was also a recipient, along with 19-year-old Nitro teammate Tyler Gonzalez, of one of the Parella Motorsport Holdings (PMH) Powering Diversity Scholarship awards.

Gonzalez, the 2023 Toyota GR champion and Mazda MX-5 Pro Series competitor, nipped Matos for second place near the end of the 2024 season opener (and was leading the TA2 points race after three rounds when he turned his full attention elsewhere).

Sebring was dominated by 17-year-old Conor Zilisch, who’d left his own mark on the TA2 class in 2023 as its winningest driver. The soon-to-be NASCAR star led every lap in a one-off appearance driving a new Howe Racing Camaro entered by Silver Hare Racing.

Matos, fastest in practice in his first Nitro appearance, qualified second and, though passed by Gonzalez late in the race, held on for third.

A flat tire cost Matos a chance at the Round 2 Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta victory, Thomas Merrill winning. But youngsters Annunziata and Gonzalez rounded out the podium for Nitro.

Matos dominated to win Round 3 at NOLA, and thereafter was all but untouchable, notching victories at Lime Rock, Pittsburgh International Race Complex, Road America, and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, bringing his career TA2 victory tally to 25.

Nitro’s Annunziata won at VIR and finished an impressive third in the championship, winning the 2024 Young Gun title, while yet another Nitro teen, Ben Maier, won at Worldwide Technology Raceway and finished fifth.

The 2023 champ Brent Crews returned to TA2 in a Nitro-entered Ford Mustang for four races and won two, at Mid-Ohio and COTA, as Nitro Motorsports claimed nine of the 12 TA2 victories – a truly spectacular season.

“I want to give a huge congratulations to the whole Nitro Motorsports crew, everybody on the No. 60 crew, and Rafa Matos for his championship,” said Crews after his win in the season finale. “That's super cool, and so is the fact that this team went back-to-back. Nick has made such a great race team these past couple years, and it's pretty cool to see it evolve from a one-car team to seven cars this weekend.”

For Matos, his third TA2 crown was sweet redemption for his 2022 disappointment.

For 2025, Matos will return to defend his title, albeit with a different team. The swap, however, is to seat Matos is familiar with.

"I’m going back there with three championships," said Matos when it was announced that he would return to Silver Hare Racing for the 2025 season. "I feel that I gained a ton of experience in the last four years since I last raced with Silver Hare, and I’m really looking forward to this season.”

At Silver Hare, Matos will continue to coach up-and-comers to the series.

"Silver Hare is very much focused on the driver development side of things, and I think I can contribute a lot to that part of it," Matos concluded. "Driver coaching is something I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember, even back to my karting days in Brazil. The opportunity to integrate this passion into Silver Hare is incredibly exciting. With the tools and resources we have available, such as advanced data analysis, we can provide young drivers with the guidance they need to excel in their careers."

 Photo courtesy Trans Am Series