Notes:
The eighth round of the 2003 Brazilian Stock-Car V8 Championship was held at the Autódromo Internacional de Campo Grande on 07 September. Being that Brazil's Independence Day, the event was organized with special care by the series' promoters and drew an exceptionally large attendance to the country's most prestigious racing championship. Similarly, a high number of media outlets sent reporters to cover the race. One of them was Raphael Lima Pereira, a nineteen-year-old journalism student at Universidade Católica Dom Bosco working in his first assignment as a photographer for Raça, a local sports newspaper. Pereira had started to work at the newspaper just a few weeks before the accident.

Overtaking is notoriously difficult at Campo Grande; as such, many drivers try to gain positions at the start of the race, where the cars are bunched up. This often leads to accident at the first turn of the track, and that was shown once again at the departure of the race of Stock Car Light series - that preceded the main Stock Cars race - when a multi-car collision sent several cars spinning and put a few of them our of contention.

Warned by the events at the start of Light race and by their own previous experiences at Campo Grande, several Stock Car drivers - amongst them Ingo Hoffmann and Cacá Bueno - expressed concerned about the arrival of the pack at the first turn before the race. With David Muffato occupying the pole position, the cars formed the starting grid, occupying their slots as per the qualifying times. At that same moment the photographer Pereira jumped over the guard rail near the end of the start/finish straight to take shots of the cars as they fought for positions. Pereira was standing on a forbidden zone, with no seperation from the tarmac bar a wide grassy area. A group of marshals saw Pereira and shouted at him to leave and return to designated press area, but it was too late.

As the cars barrelled down the straight, the Chevrolet Astra of former Champ Car driver Gualter Salles was touched in the rear by the car driven by Nonô Figueiredo. Out of control, Salles' vehicle spun wildly to the left of the track, veering exactly to the place where Pereira was standing. Salles saw him and noticed that Pereira tried to run away at the sight of the approaching car, then developing estimated 150 km/h. Salles, however, was merely a passenger of the car, unable to control it or to slow it down. Pereira was hit from behind and was vaulted high up in the air, landing behind the guard-rail. Salles' Chevrolet then hit the safety barriers and flipped, landing on its wheels.

Pereira was quickly reached by the rescue team. According to Dino Altmann, Stock Car Medical Director, Pereira presented dilated pupils and was in cardiac and respiratory arrest. He was immediately taken to the Santa Casa de Campo Grande hospital, but having suffered extensive injuries, he passed away a few minutes after arrival. The race was restarted after a thirty-minute stop; Salles, emotionally distressed and with a destroyed car, did not participate. André Bragantini, his mate at team Vogel, withdrew from the event in solidarity. The race was won by David Muffato.

Pereira was the third fatality - the first non-driver - in the twenty-five-year history of the Brazilian Stock Car Championship after competitors Zeko Gregurincic at Interlagos in 1985 and Laércio Justino in Brasília six years later.

• Website Observatório da Imprensa, page http://observatorio.ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/artigos/asp0909200392.htm.
• Website Atlas F1, bulletin boards, Racing Comments, thread “Sad OT: Student die in Brazilian Stock Car”, posting by “dutra”, message http://forums.atlasf1.com/showthread.php?postid=1404990#post1404990.
• Website Globo Esporte, article “Morte de Rafael é a quarta na Stock Car”, page http://globoesporte.globo.com/ESP/Noticia/Motor/0,,MUL210737-3338,00.html.