2018 Formula Challenge Round 6 Race Report

After a successful round in Monaco, we headed to Canada for our home race in Formula Challenge. Here is our Race Report.

Leaving the Principality of Monaco, STAX Racing remained 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 last time out, Adrian Campfield was sixth in the Drivers’ Championship while Chris Shepherd (2nd) decreased the gap to Championship leader Chris Butcher to only 10 points.

In Qualifying, Chris set the fourth fastest time ahead of his teammate Adrian. However, due to penalties, he started the race from P20, while Adrian was promoted to P3.

Race 1: Adrian started the race between the two Red Arrow cars, behind Butcher and Williams and ahead of Jundt. In the opening laps, Butcher and Williams were quickly able to build a gap to Adrian. But after the battle for P1 started to intensivy, Adrian caught up to his countrymen.  Jundt meanwhile followed Adrian closely the whole time, until he made a small mistake in the first chicane. After two DNFs and one DNS in the last races, Adrian finished the race on the podium in P3.

Chris’ spin in Race 1 turned out ot be a blessing in disguise

As previously mentioned, Chris started the race in P20. He had a very good start and a strong first lap, crossing the line in P15. In the following laps, he passed Balint Hammer and Davison and closed the gap to Andriamiharisoa ahead of him. He passed the Madagascarian driver on the outside braking for the hairpin. Three laps later, he gained another place when Leonov spun exiting Turn 9. Chris then tried to get into the Top 10, but outbreaked himself in the hairpin, resulting in a half-spin, loosing a place to Andriamiharisoa. Shortly after that, Chris crossed the finish ending the race in P12. Right after the race, Chris was upset that a driving error cost him one or two positions, however his spin turned out to be a blessing in disguise when P12 was the winning number for the reverse grid draw.

Chris made his intentions clear when he lined up to the start of Race 2 in an agressive angle.

Race 2: Adrian started the second race of the day from P10, again between the two Red Arrow cars, albeit it this time with Jundt ahead of him instead of Butcher. After drifting wide on T5 and touching the barriers, Adrian lost a position to Butcher in the following corner, but was able to overtake both Jundt and Chodha seconds later. On the third lap, Adrian successfully attacked Butcher from a long way out going into the hairpin, but was unable to defend against the Championship leader down the long backstraight, going into the final chicane.

Adrian’s spectacular end to his race.

While fighting with Butcher, Adrian went wide on the outside of the chicane, touching the barriers for a second time this race. In the following laps, he closed the gap to Butcher again, until, on Lap 7, he missed his breaking point and rear-ended the Red Arrow driver. Butcher was able to continue the race, but Adrian spun and resumed the race down in 16th place. On Lap 13, he attacked Davison going into the final chicane. Again, there was contact (both with Davison and the Wall of Champions), but this time Adrian flipped the car and retired soon after.

Chris meanwhile dominated the race: Starting the race from Pole Position, he quickly was able to build a gap to the two Shift Gear Racing cars behind him. After the race, he told the team that he would have been able to drive even quicker laps, but he decided not to push his luck and instead tried to bring the car home in one piece. However, even after “not pushing too much”, he finished the 18-laps-race almost 12 second ahead of second placed Bart De Vos!

Chris doing donuts after the race. He now has duPlicated his wins in Monaco and Montreal from last year.

After our home race, STAX Racing remains second in the Teams’ Championship with 242 points, behind Red Arrow Racing (333 points) and in front of Royal Blue Racing (168). With P3 in the first race, Adrian Campfield defended his sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship. Chris Shepherd (2nd) now is 11 points behind Championship leader Chris Butcher.

The next round of the season will be held on May 22nd, 2018 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France. As always, you can find the broadcast and the results tables of the last round below.

Broadcast

Results

QualifyingRace 1Race 2
Pos Driver Nat Team Time/Gap S1 S2 S3 Laps
1 Harry Graham Downforce 01:21.462 23.747 24.648 33.068 10
2 Matthew Williams Cenobite + 0.062 23.825 24.776 32.922 10
3 Chris Butcher Red Arrow + 0.100 23.784 24.711 33.067 11
4 Chris Shepherd STAX + 0.113 23.661 24.856 33.058 11
5 Adrian Campfield STAX + 0.179 23.759 24.780 33.103 12
6 Luke Maguire Shift Gear + 0.241 23.916 24.797 32.991 10
7 Luke Browning GPVWC Academy + 0.263 23.727 24.890 33.108 12
8 Ivan Leonov Cenobite + 0.422 24.064 24.885 32.935 10
9 Lorenzo De Ciutiis TR Motorsports + 0.430 23.949 24.859 33.083 10
10 David Jundt Red Arrow + 0.497 23.837 24.953 33.169 11
11 Sandeep Chodha CM-Tech + 0.715 23.928 24.869 33.379 11
12 Miguel de los Rios Shift Gear + 0.739 24.015 24.930 33.256 5
13 Adam Pinczes GPVWC Academy + 0.770 23.845 25.043 33.345 9
14 Bart De Vos Torrent + 0.774 23.961 25.064 33.211 10
15 Pawel Andrzejewski WSL + 0.926 24.136 24.958 33.294 7
16 Thomas Andriamiharisoa Royal Blue + 0.933 24.143 24.963 33.288 10
17 James Early Royal Blue + 1.071 23.978 25.074 33.481 9
18 Matthew Clipp MDR + 1.105 24.014 25.117 33.435 11
19 George Sutton TR Motorsports + 1.117 24.021 25.052 33.505 10
20 Mateusz Ziubinski WSL + 1.142 24.044 25.030 33.531 8
21 Wesley Stefano MDR + 1.179 24.029 25.180 33.432 10
22 Michal Galka Schubert + 1.206 24.358 24.865 33.444 10
23 Balint Hammer Torrent + 1.219 24.062 25.185 33.435 11
24 Rauno Muru TTF + 1.219 24.128 25.144 33.409 10
25 Tom Davison Downforce + 1.913 25.029 24.919 33.428 5
26 Ed Williams Schubert + 2.398 24.482 25.498 33.880 10
27 Bret Metcalf TTF + 2.689 24.699 25.482 33.969 9
28 Dominic Foster McKinlay + 3.056 24.860 25.799 33.858 6

Pos Driver Nat Team Laps Time/Gap Pits Grid Diff Points
1 Matthew Williams Cenobite 18 24:57.460 0 1 +0

25
2 Chris Butcher Red Arrow 18 + 0.049 0 2 +0

20
3 Adrian Campfield STAX 18 + 2.245 0 3 +0

16
4 David Jundt Red Arrow 18 + 3.678 0 4 +0

13
5 Sandeep Chodha CM-Tech 18 + 6.556 0 5 +0

11
6 Bart De Vos Torrent 18 + 6.646 0 8 +2

10
7 Adam Pinczes GPVWC Academy 18 + 7.115 0 7 +0

9
8 James Early Royal Blue 18 + 9.620 0 10 +2

8
9 Luke Maguire Shift Gear 18 + 10.825 0 16 +7

7
10 Miguel de los Rios Shift Gear 18 + 14.638 0 6 -4

6
11 Thomas Andriamiharisoa Royal Blue 18 + 15.068 0 9 -2

5
12 Chris Shepherd STAX 18 + 16.905 0 20 +8

4
13 Ivan Leonov Cenobite 18 + 22.921 0 12 -1

3
14 Lorenzo De Ciutiis TR Motorsports 18 + 24.508 0 22 +8

2
15 Pawel Andrzejewski WSL 18 + 24.719 0 23 +8

1
16 Daniele Brambilla CM-Tech 18 + 27.852 0 21 +5

0
17 Tom Davison Downforce 18 + 32.887 0 18 +1

0
18 Harry Graham Downforce 18 + 32.980 0 29 +11

0
19 Dan Kell Apex PFX 18 + 46.492 0 27 +8

0
20 Rauno Muru TTF 18 + 50.882 0 13 -7

0
21 Bret Metcalf TTF 18 + 52.120 0 15 -6

0
22 George Sutton TR Motorsports 18 + 76.788 1 28 +6

0
23 Mateusz Ziubinski WSL 15 +3 laps 0 24 +1

0
24 Luke Browning GPVWC Academy 15 +3 laps 4 31 +7

 
0
25 Ben Willis Apex PFX 12 DNF 1 30 +5

0
26 Dominic Foster McKinlay 12 DNF 0 19 -7

0
27 Balint Hammer Torrent 11 DNF 0 17 -10

0
28 Wesley Stefano MDR 10 DNF 0 25 -3

0
29 Matthew Clipp MDR 10 DNF 0 11 -18

0
30 Ed Williams Schubert 7 DNF 1 14 -16

0
31 Michal Galka Schubert 7 DNF 1 26 -5

0

Italics indicate Fastest Laps

Pos Driver Nat Team Laps Time/Gap Pits Grid Diff Points
1 Chris Shepherd STAX 18 24:54.169 0 1 +0

25
2 Bart De Vos Torrent 18 + 11.915 0 7 +5

20
3 David Jundt Red Arrow 18 + 13.970 0 9 +6

16
4 James Early Royal Blue 18 + 15.178 0 5 +1

13
5 Thomas Andriamiharisoa Royal Blue 18 + 15.258 0 2 -3

11
6 Chris Butcher Red Arrow 18 + 15.311 0 11 +5

10
7 Matthew Williams Cenobite 18 + 22.927 0 12 +5

 
9
8 Adam Pinczes GPVWC Academy 18 + 24.791 0 6 -2

8
9 Miguel de los Rios Shift Gear 18 + 25.841 0 3 -6

7
10 Mateusz Ziubinski WSL 18 + 26.325 0 23 +13

6
11 Pawel Andrzejewski WSL 18 + 27.186 0 15 +4

5
12 Luke Browning GPVWC Academy 18 + 27.470 0 24 +12

4
13 Tom Davison Downforce 18 + 31.251 0 17 +4

3
14 Wesley Stefano MDR 18 + 35.739 0 26 +12

2
15 Rauno Muru TTF 18 + 37.248 0 20 +5

1
16 Dan Kell Apex PFX 18 + 38.285 0 19 +3

0
17 Michal Galka Schubert 18 + 41.954 0 28 +11

0
18 Daniele Brambilla CM-Tech 18 + 54.328 0 16 -2

0
19 Bret Metcalf TTF 18 + 64.711 0 21 +2

0
20 Sandeep Chodha CM-Tech 18 + 78.187 0 8 -12

0
21 Ivan Leonov Cenobite 17 DNF‡ 0 13 -8

0
22 Luke Maguire Shift Gear 14 DNF 0 4 -18

0
23 George Sutton TR Motorsports 13 DNF 0 22 -1

0
24 Adrian Campfield STAX 12 DNF 0 10 -14

0
25 Lorenzo De Ciutiis TR Motorsports 9 DNF 0 14 -11

0
26 Ed Williams Schubert 9 DNF 0 27 +1

0
27 Ben Willis Apex PFX 5 DNF 0 25 -2

0
28 Harry Graham Downforce 1 DNF 1 18 -10

0

Italics indicate Fastest Laps

0 comments on “2018 Formula Challenge Round 6 Race ReportAdd yours →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.