Teixeira featured in HMA Forza Motorsport.net

Rui Teixeira is currently tied for second place in the battle for the B-Spec point’s lead in the Canadian Touring Car Championship. As the youngest driver in the CTCC and this being his first season taking on B-Spec touring cars, this young Canadian is showing he has got the mettle to compete.

After eleven years racing karts – he got his first kart at the tender age of seven – Teixeira has taken on the CTCC B-Spec class as the next stepping stone to reaching his dreams of being a professional race driver. Though Teixeira plays a lot of Forza these days – his Gamertag isXPR Rooster – when he was a little boy, his parents used to ask him if he wanted to race in video games or in real-life. “Undoubtedly l chose real life go-karting every time,” Teixeira said. After getting his bearings, Teixeira began his racing career as the youngest driver in the Toronto Kart Club in 2002, he was eight years old.

It hasn’t be an easy ride getting to this level of racing. Along the way, Teixeira has slept on the floors of team race trailers or crashed on team member’s and friend’s couches when his parents couldn’t make it to the track. At his first Canadian Nationals – when he was 13 – Teixeira slept in between two coolers on the kart stand inside his family’s Chevy Astro Van. All of his racing has been accomplished on a shoestring budget. “Up until my final season of karting l was picking tires out of the garbage…to race on the next day,” Teixeira said.

Now at 19, Teixeira is thankful to be able to say he spent his teens driving across Canada to karting events with his family. These days Teixeira his own bunk in the Lombardi Honda Racing 60-foot race trailer. Whether Teixeira is on the track or if he is playing Forza, when it comes to racing, this guy is all business. “I am a strict racer and that goes for virtual and reality. For myself, everything is proven on a racetrack and everything is proven in a race.” Teixeira said. He’s not in to drifting or car shows, “I prefer to have no judges, just pure facts and pure clock, door to door racing.”

Having a support system has been key for Teixeira, in addition to his family, he has got the support of the folks in organized racing within the Forza community at Xbox Pro League Racing (XPLR), Xtreme Performance Racing (XPR), and Formula Forza. Groups we have been covering in our weekly racing highlights series Rear View Mirror for a long time now. In fact, the Lombardi Honda Racing B-Spec crew chief/racing engineer is one of Teixeira’s cohorts from XPR, Stephen Hudec. Hudec – Gamertag XPR Roadrunner – helps get the car ready for the track and is on the radio with Teixeira during the races to provide situational awareness and assist in making strategic calls.

This in-car video showcases some of the exciting moments of the season thus far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLNxLLCvzIM or click here.

The 2014 CTCC B-Spec season is at the halfway point, with four races down and four more to go. So far the team have been doing it right. Race one at Mosport, Teixeira was literally thrown right into the fire when the team missed practice due to weather and inspections. During the second lap of qualifying, another competitor’s motor expired and oiled up the track which red-flagged qualifying. Teixeira only had a couple laps at Mosport under his belt before lining up for the green flag. In their first real race session the #31 and Teixeira battled hard with a pair of Mazda 2s and landed third, setting fastest lap in class along the way.

Race two went a bit more according to plan, where Teixeira took pole in qualifying. History was made in doing so, making Teixeira the youngest pole-winner ever in the CTCC. Again battling the Lucky Seven racing team in their Mazda 2s, Teixeira nearly passed a Touring Class car while challenging for first. Teixeira would again come away with second place and again set fastest lap in class.

Going in to race three at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve during the Canadian Formula One weekend, Teixeira was sitting in between the father and son racing duo of Lucky Seven Racing just 10 points out of the lead, and tied for second. Qualifying would see Teixeira seeded second. Throughout the race, the lead was swapped back and forth between the #31 and the leading Mazda 2. At the finish, Teixeira would land another second and based on lap times during the race session, would qualify second.

The next day on lap one, the leading Mazda and a Mini made contact, resulting in the Mini hitting the concrete barrier and red-flagging the race while the driver was extricated from his car. By the time the race was restarted, there were only 10 minutes remaining in the race that would have otherwise been a full 30 minute sprint. Restarting from second, Teixeira would defend his place and earn his third-straight second place.

The next race in the CTCC B-Spec season is in August, but it must feel pretty good sitting in second at the half-way point.

The #31 2012 Lombardi Honda Racing Fit is a B-Spec-racing car. In the CTCC all three classes, Super Touring, Touring and B-Spec all run together making for awesome multi-class racing. Even though the B-Spec cars are the least powerful of the classes they are have outstanding handling and are highly competitive. Race winners are decided by the driver’s skills and the set-up of the car.

B-Spec cars are mostly unmodified, but they are “tubbed” meaning they are stripped of almost all their interior weight. They have a regulation roll cage and they can run exhaust and suspension kits available from the manufacturer for the general public. The Fit runs HPD parts. They run Continental tires, but aside from the tires, the cars match those run in the Pirelli World Challenge B-Spec class.

To experience an HPD Fit in the world of Forza you can give it a try in Forza Horizon if you have the free Honda Challenge Car Pack.

If you want to follow the Canadian Touring Car Championship, check out the news and driver profiles on the series website. You can also catch all the action via the CTCC Android or iPhone apps.

You can also follow Teixeira on his personal website to keep up with his latest racing achievements.

http://www.forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/hma_6_12_14

http://www.forzamotorsport.net/en-US/news

http://www.forzamotorsport.net/en-us/

https://www.facebook.com/johniwanna

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