He goes racing of course. The Granja 500, the biggest race of the year in Brazil barring the Formula One Grand Prix, paying nothing but trophies and bragging rights, is less than a month away and all the major players are preparing for the eighth running of the 500 Milhas da Granja Viana, a charity kart 500-mile endurance, which begins at midnight on November 13th that brings out top and aspiring Brazilian and international drivers.

The 500 Milhas da Granja Viana feature takes place at the 20-turn, nearly 7/8-mile Kartodromo da Granja Viana circuit designed, built, owned and maintained by the Giaffone family on the outskirts of their Sao Paulo hometown. The Giaffone's son, Felipe, is a race winner in the IRL IndyCar Series.

This competition brings out heavy hitters in the sport from Formula One, IndyCar Series, Champ Car World Series, Formula 3000 and even NASCAR. All the major Brazilian drivers vie for the chance to be on one of 74 FIA-mandated teams in the field.

Honda GX engines, making all of 15 horsepower, power the karts but that doesn't matter. It's the severity of competition that results in lap times under the one-minute mark that brings superstars to Sao Paulo for this race.

Last year Christian Fittipaldi won the 500 Milhas da Granja Viana with teammates Mario Haberfeld and Costa Rican Karting standout Charles Fonseca. They'll be back to defend this year.

Other entrants include 2004 FIA Formula 1 points runner-up Rubens Barrichello and his F1 colleagues Antonio Pizzonia, Juan Pablo Montoya, Felipe Massa, Ferrari F1 tester Luciano Burti and McLaren pilot David Coulthard. Barrichello and Massa have both shared in no less than four Granja 500 victories.

The IRL will be represented by the 2004 champion Tony Kanaan and runner-up Dan Wheldon as well as Vitor Meira and Felipe Giaffone. Champ Car will show with Mario Haberfeld and possibly Oriol Servia. Roberto Moreno, brothers Rodrigo and Ricardo Sperafico and virtually all Brazilian Series' Champions from karts to Formula Renault, F3 and Stock Cars will contest the Cup.

Adding to it, this year young American Formula BMW USA standouts Matt Jaskol and Graham Rahal are rumoured to be taking part for the first time, the former with IRL's Victor Meira and the latter with Roberto Moreno and two other Brazilian drivers.

This 500-mile charity kart race gains monumental air space on all the major Brazilian networks and over ten hours of live coverage is on local cable sports channels. The race takes over the sporting print media.

In a country were motor sports is extremely important as part of a national pastime, the 500 Milhas da Granja Viana has become one of the most anticipated race weeks of the year.

Cross posted @ Full Throttle