The Unexpected, Yet Welcome, Racing Return of Paulo Carcasci

Thirty years ago, Paulo Carcasci was living every professional racing driver’s dream.

At 23, he took his talents from Brazil to the United Kingdom, making the leap from karting up to Formula Ford, and eventually up to the national Formula 3 and F3000 series. But his career truly took off in 1991, when after years of struggling to find solid footing in Europe, he moved to Japan for a more competitive offer.

He landed a drive with the powerhouse TOM’s Racing team in the strong All-Japan Formula Three Championship, a series that regularly drew upwards of 40 entries per round fighting for just 32 grid spots, sometimes fewer. But Carcasci didn’t just make up the numbers: He won the championship in his debut season, against a field of supremely talented future stars of Japanese motorsport.

While fighting for the F3 title, Carcasci was also running in the All-Japan Formula 3000 Championship – the pinnacle of Japanese single-seater racing. His F3 title success and a shock podium at the end of his rookie F3000 campaign caught the attention of flashy newcomers Navi Connection Racing for the 1992 season.

In just his second race of his sophomore season at Fuji Speedway, Carcasci held off fellow “Gaijin Racers’ Club” members Thomas Danielsson and Mauro Martini (the eventual ’92 champion) in a photo finish for his first win in the top formula category.

It’s a period of time that Carcasci, now 58, remembers fondly. “You couldn’t get a better quality field than what we had both Formula 3 and F3000, that was great. I loved it,” Carcasci recalls of his time in Japan.

Even when Japan’s asset bubble economy exploded, Carcasci was being paid to race as a professional in a series with open chassis, engine, and tyre competition against extraordinarily talented drivers.

His rivals included not only Japanese legends like Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Masahiro Hasemi, Keiji Matsumoto, and Kunimitsu Takahashi; but future Formula One Grand Prix winners like Eddie Irvine, Johnny Herbert, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and even Michael Schumacher. And for a brief period in the summer of ’92, Carcasci shared the Navi Connection Racing garage with a young upstart from Denmark – future nine-time 24 Hours of Le Mans grand champion, Tom Kristensen.

“Being in Japan was really, really good for me, it was fantastic,” says Carcasci. “It was a good improvement on my lifestyle in England. I struggled so much, not having money for anything. But in Japan, you’re getting paid – and you’re winning races with TOM’s and then later on in F3000. Japan is a different world altogether.”

After three years in Japan, Carcasci was ready to take the next step in his career. He wanted a future in IndyCar racing, and the chance to emulate his countrymen Emerson Fittipaldi and Raul Boesel.

“I tried very hard, in ’94, ’95, to come here to almost all the IndyCar races,” Carcasci remembers of his time spent searching for an opportunity to race in America – an opportunity that never materialised. The entirety of Carcasci’s formula racing career after leaving Japan amounted to a one-off International F3000 appearance at Estoril in 1994, and then two years later, two entries in the Indy Lights series at Long Beach and Michigan.

“I couldn’t get a drive, so that was it,” Carcasci said, recalling the moment where his driving career came to an abrupt end. “I never planned to make a comeback to racing. I was quite happy with my racing career, and the results that I had.”

Fast forward over 25 years, to Sonoma Raceway in California, the site of Carcasci’s return to competitive motorsport in the Pirelli GT4 America championship. It’s not all that often that a Japanese Top Formula race winner shows up on the entry list of a pro-am sports car racing series after a quarter of a century away from competitive driving, of course.

That’s why, when I arrived in Sonoma in April, I wanted to speak with Carcasci about what brought him back to racing in a customer Mercedes-AMG GT4.

“Well, it was a special invitation,” as Carcasci recalls. The seeds were sewn when, after working for over two decades as a driving coach in Europe, Carcasci finally moved to the United States in 2019. “I always dreamt of coming to live here. And [until then], I didn’t have an opportunity. I came over here and started working as a coach for Ferrari Challenge, and then later on at The Concours Club in Miami.”

It was at the Concours Club that Carcasci first mentored Custodio Toledo, his GT4 America co-driver – who is also making his SRO-sanctioned racing debut in 2022. On the weekdays, Toledo is the CTO of a financial software developer based in Miami. On the weekends, Toledo is a hobbyist racing driver like so many of his peers.

But as Carcasci explains, Toledo is a man who trains himself like a serious, top-level professional driver.

“Custodio was my student that was the most determined of all these drivers that I ever had,” Carcasci says of his team mate Toledo. “He pushed himself so hard, and he’s starting so late in his career.”

“He’s really, really determined. You know, he’s a businessman of 52 years old – and he pushed harder than any of the professional drivers that I’ve been coaching in the past 30 years!”

That’s no small compliment either when considering that Carcasci has previously mentored the likes of Lucas di Grassi, Andre Negrão, Antonio Pizzonia, Luciano Burti, and even Narain Karthikeyan and Tomas Scheckter over the years – all drivers who were much younger and had genuine aspirations of racing in F1 or IndyCar, much like Carcasci himself harboured many years ago.

“I took him karting in Homestead-Miami Speedway in August last year,” Carcasci recalls. “It was like, over 100 degrees (fahrenheit) most of the time, And he was pushing hard, and I was like dead tired, while driving the go-kart,” says Carcasci, who then recalls pleading with his team mate, “Can we go a little bit slower? I’m running out of breath here, Custodio!”

Bubbling with the energy and enthusiasm of a man half his age or younger, Carcasci goes in to full hype man mode, raving about his friend and co-driver Toledo’s level of dedication that separates him from the pack. It manifests in different ways – from the extraordinary level of physical training that includes working with a jiu-jitsu coach named Rafael, to hours spent at the wheel of his virtual racing simulator supplemented by thousands and thousands of laps of full-metal driving in cars and in karts.

“And when he made the offer for me to race with him, sharing the car in GT4 America – I couldn’t refuse!” he exclaimed.

When the season began at Sonoma Raceway in April, Carcasci and Toledo were driving with RENNtech Motorsports – which allowed Carcasci to reunite with another of his old friends, Hartmut Feyhl, president of RENNtech.

But sometimes, things aren’t so concrete in the world of sports car racing. I began to worry a bit when Carcasci and Toledo didn’t return for the following two race meetings. Then, a new opportunity opened up with longtime former IndyCar Series campaigners Conquest Racing – with whom Toledo is driving for in Ferrari Challenge North America. With RENNtech’s blessings, Carcasci and Toledo resumed their 2022 campaign at Watkins Glen, driving Conquest’s silver and orange number 35 Mercedes-AMG GT4.

As a Bronze-rated driver himself, by way of his age and recent inactivity from driving, Carcasci finds joy in the small things in his new racing adventure. He considered it a great victory that he didn’t crash in the rain during a wet test day at Sonoma. He’s grateful that he can drive a car that, by his own admission, is better suited to his skill level and physical abilities in his advanced age.

“It’s a very, very high quality field here,” Carcasci says of the competition level in GT4 America. With grids of upwards of 30 and 40 cars on track every weekend, it’s a bit like re-living the heyday of racing in Japanese F3, only now with a roof over his head.

But even in the Am category, Carcasci and Toledo have a difficult task ahead of them just to fight for podiums within their own class.

“Not racing in 30 years, it’s not easy,” admits Carcasci. “I’m having to push my brains out to do you know to drive well, and still try to help [Custodio], and get going with this setup in the car, and so on. So if we can get to a podium in any of the races, I think we’ll be very happy to do that.” To that end, Carcasci and Toledo, in their first race meeting back with Conquest Racing, did well to bring their car home with top-ten finishes in both races at Watkins Glen.

But above all, when speaking with Carcasci, you can tell that his motivation to come back after 25 years away from racing isn’t a selfish endeavour. “I see this as a fantastic opportunity to be around people that I like,” he says.

Being able to race with friends and close colleagues, and to serve as a mentor to a gentleman racer with big ambitions of his own, is more than enough to rekindle Paulo Carcasci’s love of racing.

Images © RENNtech Motorsports, Regis Lefebure / SRO Motorsports Group America