For the first time, a Formula Challenge race was held in Paul Ricard. Here is our race report.

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

Before the race, Adrian Campfield told the team that he would be unable to participate in the race. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a suitable replacement for the English driver, which is why he decided to try to compete at the French round of the championship in the last minute. In a wet qualifying session, Chris set the second fastest time while Adrian asked the Race Directors to delete his time due to a “Back of the Grid” penalty from last race.

Race 1: Adrian, starting the damp race from P25, decided to gamble and lined up with slick tyres. He had a very good start and was in P14 after the first sector already. However, conditions were still very tricky and he had to be very careful not to spin out of the race. After a small error in the last corner of Lap 2, he lost a couple of positions and was now running in 17th position. Two laps later, Matthew Williams crashed into Adrian in T1. The STAX Racing driver rejoined the race in P18. However, he went wide on the exit of the Virage de Brendor, which resulted in a snap-oversteer moment sending him towards the wall. Adrian retired from the race and decided not to start the second race.

Miguel de los Rios, who set the fastest lap in qualifying, was demoted five places due to an outstanding penalty, which meant that Chris Shepherd started the race from first place. He decided to play it save and started the race on Intermedia tyres. Chris Butcher, who is leading the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Shepherd, also started the race on Inters from P3 and gained a position right at the start. During most of the race, he was able to stay close behind Chris Shepherd, but was unable to attack his countryman. In the end, Shepherd won the race with a gap of less than two seconds.

Race 2: As mentioned above, Adrian did not participate in the second race. Chris started the race from P12. He had a very good start, gaining a lot of positions and passing his championship rival Chris Butcher. Unfortunately, he then was a victim of a big crash in Turn 2. He rejoined the race in 24th position, but immediately started to attack the drivers infront of him. He finished the first lap in P15 and one lap later he was in P12 already. On Lap 3, Thomas Andriamiharisoa spun directly infront of him. Chris then was able to overtake Browning, Stefano and Leonov. By Lap 10, Chris closed the gap to Muru in front of him. The two drivers made contact, but were able to continue the race. Chris eventually passed the Estonian driver, but the gap to Early infront of him proved to be too big to gain additionally positions until the end of the race. Chris finished the race in P7.

After the seventh round of the season, STAX Racing remains second in the Teams’ Championship with 277 points, behind Red Arrow Racing (390 points) and in front of Royal Blue Racing (184). Leaving France, Adrian Campfield is seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, while Chris Shepherd (2nd) now is 21 points behind Championship leader Chris Butcher.

The next round of the season will be held today at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. As always, you can find the broadcast and the results tables of the last round below.

Broadcast

Results