Comunicati Stampa - Road Rage Mag: The Interview

Road Rage Mag: The Interview

Holly popsticle Batman Road Rage’s Back!!!

That’s right guys, Road Rage Mag is indeed back! After our first published article where we worked on a detailed analysis on the BIG3 series in MRC we now return with a diferent segment. This segment is called, Road Rage Mag: The Interview, and just like the name states it’s a segment where we will attempt to interview MRC drivers to try and find out more about them and what makes them tick!

To open up this new segment we invited professional MRC driver who’s been #1 in Portugal for many seasons now and currently #10 in the world, it’s Portugal’s very own Francisco Pires! We met for this interview in a well known portuguese restaurant next to the Algarve race circuit where he was running some tests. We had a nice chat while eating and drinking and Pires answered some questions for our magazine. We would like to say thank you to Francisco Pires for making time on his busy schedule to give this interview to Road Rage Mag. The content of that interview can be found bellow, but first let’s run some of his numbers and try to show Francisco Pires résumé.

Note: The résumé that is presented here is layed out by order of occurrence and rankings and not by order of importance.


Francisco Pires - Portugal
Number of Official Seasons: 7
Number of Qualifies: 677
Number of Pole Positions: 270
Number of Top5 In Qualifies: 563
Number of Top10 In Qualifies: 627
Number of Races: 836
Number of Victories: 228
Number of Podiums: 484
Number of Top5 In Races: 573
Number of Top10 In Races: 655

Qualifying Quick Analysis:
Pole Position Percentage = 39.9%
TOP5 Percentage = 83.2%
TOP10 Percentage = 92.6%

Race Quick Analysis:
Victory Percentage = 27.3%
Podium Percentage = 57.9%
TOP5 Percentage = 68.5%
TOP10 Percentage = 78.3%

Résumé:
Custom Series Overall Winner Tour de France XIII
Custom Series Overall Winner Far-Far-East Cup XIII
Custom Series Overall Winner Arskap Cup XIII
Custom Series Overall Winner Support World Peace Tour XVII
Custom Series Overall Winner Marathon Cup VI
Season Series Overall Winner Formula 2 Europe Series
Custom Series Overall Winner North EURO Cup XXI
Custom Series Overall Winner European Tour XVIII
Custom Series Overall Winner Flipers Cup XVI
Custom Series Overall Winner Happy Racing XX
Custom Series Overall Winner Herkules Trophy I
Custom Series Overall Winner Beach Cup XX
Custom Series Overall Winner Hungarian Trophy XLII
Custom Series Overall Winner Lucky Racing XXV
Season Series Overall Runner-Up Formula 3 Portuguese Series
Custom Series Overall Runner-Up US Trophy VIII
Season Series Overall Runner-Up Formula 3 Europe Series
Custom Series Overall Runner-Up Friendship Cup X
Custom Series Overall Runner-Up F3 Grand Prix X
Custom Series Overall Runner-Up World Oval Series XVII
Custom Series Overall 3rd Place Premiere Oval Series XIX
Custom Series Overall 3rd Place La Coppa Italia XXIV
Season Series Overall 3rd Place Formula 2 World Series


Track Records In Qualify To Date:
Phakisa GP - Formula 3
Vodochody - Private
Alastaro - Formula 3
Dijon-Prenois - Private
Croft - Private
Algarve - Formula 3

Track Records In Race To Date:
Vodochody - Private
Slovakiaring - Private
Londrina - Private

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Road Rage Mag Interviews Francisco Pires

Note: All traslation errors mine.

Road Rage: Francisco Pires where does your passion for the motor sports comes from?

Francisco Pires - Well that’s dificult to answer, I’m not really sure why or when but since I can remember I always liked motor sport competitions.

I believe my oldest memory involving a motor sport competition dates back to 1999 when the Portuguese Rally passed by my city, I was just about 4 or 5 years old. It was in the beggining of the stage, so I could really see the cars drive by, the one that really caught my attention was the Subaru Impreza. Perhaps because it was the most extravagant, with it’s big rear wing and vibrant colors, or perhaps it was for the brand logo that was the most imaginative. Don’t really remember the sound that well, the view alone was worth the show.
I think that since then the racing bug started to grow on me. Later it was fueled by the BMW 318i with 150hp that my father bought and that he sometimes enjoyed accelerating, by the Gran Turism 4 and also by the karts (unfortunately less times than I would of liked too, just sometimes a year).

RR: Do you think that with 32 years of age you still have the necessary competitiveness to compete at the highest level in the more prestiged competitions MRC has to offer? If the answer is yes, for how long?

FP - I like to think that when my name shows as registered for a race that it still inspires some fear in my main adversaries, but the truth is that that is fading away quicker than I thought. Still, it was a long climb to the top, which also means that it is a long fall all the way down as well.
Unfortunately, I think that the 2nd half of my career has begun, and perhaps it has started a while longer than I thought…

RR: Do you believe you will remain active (and competitive) up until the arrival of the F1?

FP - That’s the question that tantalizes me the most nowadays. Active? Ofcourse. Competitive? That I am not so sure off. At least not for the 1st places.
With the young drivers evolving so quickly I simply can’t tell. Before I was certain that yes I would be competitive, but now after seeing the competitiveness of Nascar, I am not so sure of myself.
It’s something that we will have to wait and see.

RR: How do you envision the Portuguese representation after you retire? Do you foresee a big emptiness over the corse of many seasons or do you see any driver that can follow your footsteps?

FP - Let me start by saying that it has been an honor to have been able to place the Portuguese flag amongst the best of the world and maintain it there for so many seasons.
Portugal has many quality drivers, I’m certain that if they keep climbing they can also reach the top and perhaps even overtake my record. I hope they can, and I will do what I can to make it happen.
That beeing said, I’m not too concerned with Portugal’s “Rating” after I retire, I’m not the only one who represents this small country in a positive way. Just some seasons back there were only 2 drivers with a rating over 1000, now there are 7. In the future, there will be even more.

RR: To this date who were your biggest rivals in MRC? And if possible, why?

FP - In the beggining it was Jonnas Vitorino, we were battling for the rating, but he stubbornly stayed ahead of me until I reached the european Formula 2 series. After that I overtook him and since then I’ve always been ahead of him.
In that season I only had Lithuanian Edvinas Pavlovas stealing the 1st place finishes from me, but he retired in the middle of the season and left me racing almost alone and always in the front.
After that I went to Indy, where I didn’t had great rivals. Sometimes I would place in reasonable positions, other times I wouldn’t finish the race.
It was only in the F2 World series that I started to have rivaleries with diferent drivers. Once in a while, when the races went well it was with Paolo Grandi, but it was rare. Normaly my main rival was Riks Piks who ended up beating me, but I settled the score the next season. :)
If I had to choose my main rival of all time, I think I would have to choose Riks Piks.

RR: And what were your biggest triumphs in MRC? That is if you can still remember them!

FP - The age joke always present, people really enjoy calling me an old man hehe.

Well that’s a tough one. In official series I think my greatest accomplishment was to win the european F2 series with 381 points and with 18 podiums in 20 races. That was one of my best seasons inside a car, it will be very difficult to repeat again.
But the series that gave me more enjoyment to win was the Happy Racing XX. I had Grosjean, who at the time was considered the best driver in the world, and Novikov. I managed to keep myself between 3rd and 2nd which I considered great, and in the final race I was in 3rd in the series standings, which I thought to be adequate. Still, I raced to win and so I did. Coincidently, both Grosjean and Novikov had problems and finished that race in the back of the front pack, and that gave me just enough points to win the series despite only managing one win and also despite beeing in 2/3rd place most of the time.

RR: Not so long ago there was talks about the possibility of indroducing Motorbikes to MRC as part of the competition. What do you think about that possibility?

FP - I think it’s a fantastic addition that will bring even more variety. The way I see it two distinct groups can be created, one group formed of motorbike drivers and the other of car drivers. There will always be drivers that will want to be the best in both, but I think that will be difficult to achieve, it is two diferent sports and each one requires a diferent set of capacities from the driver, and a driver cannot have the best capacities in everything.
I should try it if I still have time, but I won’t focus on it. I prefer the 4 wheels. :)

RR: Is there any other sport that you follow when you’re not at the wheel of a competition car?

FP - You’re not really a portuguese if you don’t follow soccer, right? Hehe, I don’t follow it nearly as much as most of my friends do, but I still know more or less where the clubs are in the standings and some results of the more important international leagues, when they’re playing that is.
I don’t really follow any other sport, aldo I would like to watch more basketball. Unfortunately I don’t have NBA TV on my current tv package, and it’s alot of trouble to keep tabs on it over the internet.

RR: Pires, what are you’re hobbies when you’re not on the track driving?

FP - When I’m not at home I usualy go out and drink some beers with Johnny and with Fabrício, hehe.
Don’t know if it’s because Johnny prefers Sagres over Super Bock beer that most of the times he ends up getting waisted, even when he has a race the following day. Then he leaves at the middle of the race to go to the bathroom and tells everyone it was the oil preassure, or that the floor was too splippery hehehe.
But lately he has been more controled with it, aldo once in a while he still over does it, but it’s rare.
Myself, I rather leave the alcohol for after the race victory, it tastes better, there are no big consequences to it and we have the paddock girls giving us a hand hehe.

RR: Do you idolize anyone in motorsports (or in life)? If yes, then who and why?

FP - In the motorsport world it’s definitely Schumacker. Perhaps because he was my first idol in F1, not sure, he always was my favourite driver. To have beaten all the records except 3 or something along those lines, certainly helped.
Another driver I admire alot is Pedro Lamy. Even though he is yet to win the 24 hours of Le Mans, he (almost) always manages to make the podium with the Peugeot and stay ahead of his teammates. To me, he is currently the best portuguese driver.

RR: To end our interview, have you ever had a “Road Rage” moment in your everyday life where you could not control yourself? If the answer is yes please descrive it for us.

FP - Normally I control myself very well, but when I’m driving without anyone in the car I relax more and say words that should not be said in a public television channel.

The one that got me most upset happened on an entry to a tricky 3 lane roundabout on a clear summer day. That thing works by set of cars, one set of cars comes and nobody can enter the roundabout, then it stops for moments where it’s all clear and people can then advance. Just like every other roundabout.
It just so happens that I Was in a hurry and had a creature ahead of me that made sunday drivers look like F1 drivers. After having an opening for more than 5 seconds, after seeing all rows around me clearing did that creature decide to move ahead. And it did...1 or 2 meters, immediately breacking because more cars were approaching the roundabout…
Very well, another set of cars goes by and this time the creature did not waited for so long, only around 4.9 seconds. And still managed to let the car engine shut down… I won’t even coment on that…
But it was what happened next that really made me lose it. First he started to look for the 4 blinkers button, only then did he felt neccessary to restart the car engine, turned on all the lights available (to see if everything was ok, I think) and remove the hand break (yes, this creature had the hand break on the whole time)!
Some ugly words and expressions were exchanged, some of which I wasn’t aware I even knew! At the same time I was trying to get the car out of that spot behind this horrible driver but both rows on both my sides were moving slowly and there were no openings. Hence, I went on reverse as far as I could, I tried to put the car on the left row and when I saw a car hesitate I placed my car very near the car ahead of me to go through.
Very well I arrive to the roundabout exit I wanted, guess who’s there to stop me from passing? The creature. Right, here we go one more turn, one more travel.
Finally after that I managed to get out of there, but I got out of there with an humour that would make Snow White’s Grumpy look like a happy camper.

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We hope the interview was to your liking, keep on the lookout because Road Rage will continue to interview drivers and to publish other segments to keep you all entertained. Much abliged for the time taken to read this. Be well.