Rodrigo Barbosa (born September 30, 1988) is a Brazilian racing driver from São Paulo.
After karting, Barbosa began racing in Brazilian Formula Renault 2.0 in 2005 and continued in the series in 2006, finishing nineteenth in points. In 2007, he competed in amateur SCCA Formula Atlantic in the United States and finished ninth at the SCCA Runoff National Championships at Heartland Park Topeka. In 2009, he competed in the Firestone Indy Lights Series for the ELFF Racing team, which returned to the series for the first time since 1993, using a car acquired from Guthrie Meyer Racing. Barbosa struggled to find speed throughout the 2009 season and was constantly in the back of the field, never qualifying ahead of the last row and only managing a best finish of 1tenth, at Chicagoland Speedway where he was still the last place car running at the finish.
At the season's end, Barbosa tested with PDM Racing at Barber Motorsports Park and was able to run four seconds per lap faster with the team than he had with ELFF during the open test at Barber earlier that season. He signed on with PDM to contest the 2010 season.PDM Racing Returns in 2010 with Barbosa, eFormulaCarNews, February 22, 2010, Retrieved 2010-02-22 Barbosa completed the season in twelfth place, again last amongst full-time competitors, but did score four top-ten finishes, and managed to not qualify last in a number of oval races.
In 2012, Barbosa scored two podiums in three races in the Brazilian Endurance Championship.
American open–wheel results (key)
Indy Lights Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Rank Points Ref 2009 ELFF Racing STP STP LBH KAN INDY MIL IOW WGL TOR EDM KTY MOH SNM CHI HMS 15th 190 2010 PDM Racing STP ALA LBH INDY IOW WGL TOR EDM MOH SNM CHI KTY HMS 12th 241
References
External links Rodrigo Barbosa driver bio on IndyCar.com