Love or loathe them, races in Monaco are always action packed. Here is our review of Formula Challenge’s fifth round.

Before the race in the principality, STAX Racing was second in the Teams’ Championship with 165 points, behind Red Arrow Racing (228 points) and in front of Royal Blue Racing (111). Adrian Campfield was sixth in the Drivers’ Championship while Chris Shepherd was in second place and looked forward to close the gap to Championship leader Chris Butcher.

Qualifying: After achieving STAX Racing’s first win in the Career Ladder on the streets of Monte Carlo one year ago, Chris Shepherd was determined to bounce back from a sub-optimal Spanish round. He had a very good qualifying, posting the second fastest lap and thus starting the race from the front row behind Cenobite Motorsports’ Matthew Williams.

Andrew Campfield started from P19. Even before the start of the season he told the team that he didn’t like the circuit. Additionally, he had technical problems during the races which held him back even more.

Race 1: After a very good start, Chris overtook Williams and entered the first corner in the lead. In the opening laps, Williams was able to stay right behind Chris, however there was already a gap to Angelone in third place. On Lap 14 out of 20, Williams made a small mistake in the Piscine section, loosing some ground to Chris, who went on to win the race.

Adrian had a more action-packed race. He also had a clean start, but lost two places in the opening lap. On Lap 2 he had a scary moment when he got loose going over the crest before the Nouvelle Chicane. By this point, his pedals were acting up, disconnecting and reconnecting at random times during the race. This of course meant that it was impossible for him to have a competitive race. On Lap 8, he touched the outside Kerb exiting the Portier Corner, which resulted in a 360 degree spin and a crash into the barrier. Adrian resumed the race in P20 and with heavy damage. After clipping the inside barrier in the final corner and crashing into the outside railguards, he decided it would be best to retire from the race and not to start the second race of the evening due to the previously mentioned hardware troubles.

Race 2: After winning the first race of the evening, Chris started the second race from P10. This time around, there was a bit of contact in Turn 1, which meant that Chris finished the first lap in P14 behind Leonov. In the following laps, he was able to gain some places. Then, on Lap 8, there was a huge pile-up in the Pool section. Chris managed to slow down for a crash infront of him, but the following car tagged him from behind, sending Chris in a 360 degree spin. When Chris got going again, he faced a blocked road with multiple cars on their non-existing roofs.

While avoiding the stranded cars cost Chris some time, he managed to gain a lot of positions after clearing the scene of the accident. In the following laps, he was able to close the gap to Leonov infront of him and attacked him on the last lap, but ultimatevly finished the race behind the Bulgarian driver in P10. Red Arrow’s David Jundt won the race.

Leaving Monaco, STAX Racing remains second in the Teams’ Championship with 196 points, behind Red Arrow Racing (263 points) and in front of Royal Blue Racing (130). Despite not scoring any points this time round, Adrian Campfield still is sixth in the Drivers’ Championship. Chris Shepherd (2nd) decreased the gap to Championship leader Chris Butcher to only 10 points.

The next round of the season will be held on May 8th, 2018 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. As always, you can find the broadcast and the results tables of the last round below.

Broadcast

Results