2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix

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**2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix**
Race details
Round 2 of the 2013 Formula Challenge season

Date	12th March, 2013
Event	2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix
Location	Sepang International Circuit, Sepang, Malaysia
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.440 mi / 5.543 km
Distance	14 laps, 48.16 mi / 77.602 km (each race)
Weather	Race 1: Monsoon; Race 2: Dry start, heavy rain
Pole position
Driver	Ghovand Keanie	SimInk Motorsport
Time	1:56.347
Race One Podium
First	Ari Nieminen	Karjala Racing
Second	Ryan Gilmore	SimInk Motorsport
Third	Emanuel Gaczella	Storm Racing Team
Race One Fastest Lap
Driver	Emanuel Gaczella	Storm Racing Team
Time	1:55.130 (on lap 2)
Race Two Podium
First	Emanuel Gaczella	Storm Racing Team
Second	Ari Nieminen	Karjala Racing
Third	Franz Schnyder	Racing Team Schroten
Race Two Fastest Lap
Driver	Emanuel Gaczella	Storm Racing Team
Time	1:48.459 (on lap 2)

The 2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix - the second round of the 2013 season - took place on the Sepang International Circuit near Kuala Lumpur on the 12th of March. The round consisted of 2 races of 14 laps each, with race 1 being initially won by SimInk's Ghovand Keanie, from pole, on his FC début. However, in light of several infringements of the series regulations, Keanie would later be stripped of his win, and demoted to 4th place, promoting Ari Nieminen to take the 25 points. Race two, and both race's fastest laps, went to Emanuel Gaczella of the Storm Racing Team. Nieminen finished second in race 2 and extended his lead in the championship, over Gaczella.

The round was characterised by difficult, changing conditions and unfortunately by further, spectacular accidents at the very beginning of each race. Besides Keanie's stand-out performance in race 1 (being accidentally shunted off the grid in race 2), other stand-out drives included Franz Schnyder in his first round of the season, threatening pole in Qualifying and driving a great race to finish 3rd in race two; also prominent were the all-American Fogel Motorsport drivers; Jeremy Allen and Patrick Fogel. Brawn-esque in appearance and Brawn-esque in performance, both Fogel cars came out of nowhere before the start of the round and both finished both races in the top 10, with Allen temporarily leading race 2. Unfortunately both drivers would later be penalised for infringements during the races, although the final result still saw both drivers remain in the points.

Report

Background

After the storming start to the season, in which over 40 drivers participated, the turn out for the Malaysian round was slightly less, but still with the number of drivers taking part far above 30.

While the number present was less than at Melbourne, several places on the grid were taken up by new drivers and even new teams. Of the drivers who had appeared at Melbourne, those missing at Sepang included podium-finisher Jarl Teien (Squire), Tim-Oliver Wagner and Juan Lopez (both Velocity), Brandon Warren (Rapid Raptor Racing), Jon MacLean (Measuric Racing) and Josh Gibson (Falcon GP).

Teams that did not make the trip to Sepang included JRT (represented at Melbourne by Jack Nicholls and Ric Scott), Midori Motorpsort (Rodney Van der Jeught and Ricardo Michalewski), Viking Racing (Lee Palmer and Fabio Fontana) and Antec Racing Team (Jan Schwitter and Sven Schubert).

In their absence came three new teams: the BackMarker Brigade (represented by Oscar Hardwick), Fogel Motorsport (Patrick Fogel and Jeremy Allen) and Edonis Engineering (Menno Klont and Dave van Gils).

Other new drivers making their first start, either of the season or of their GPVWC career, included Ghovand Keanie, replacing Nadir Khan at SimInk Motorsport, in what would prove to be his only race for the team; Franz Schnyder, who joined Chris Williamson at Racing Team Schroten; Ed Williams in as the second permanent driver at Tanskanen Racing, relieving reserve Doug Hilliard, as well as Lee Davidson, who raced in place of Andy Smith at Epic Racing. Other reserve drivers Ollie Woods and Bradley Vanian also took part; Woods as the only representative of Velocity Racing, with Vanian filling in for race winner Wopke Hoekstra at Optimum SimRacing.

Ron Squire, who had a pair of infamous races at Melbourne, had been "indefinitely parked" following Australia and was excluded from competing until he can clean up his act and improve, although Squire had been forced to withdraw anyway due to technical difficulties.

Other steward penalties rolling over from Australia included 5 place grid penalties for Fabio Fontana, Tim-Oliver Wagner, Alex Rolls, Andy Smith and Simon Melhuish, though Fontana, Wagner and Smith did not participate at Malaysia anyway.

Qualifying

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Race One

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Race Two

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Post-race

The post-race atmosphere was clouded by controversy as race one winner and pole sitter Ghovand Keanie was ultimately stripped of his victory, having been found to be in contradiction of several official regulations. These included: Escaping & Rejoining during Qualifying; Formation Lap Recovery during Race 1; cutting the pit lane exit line, again during Race 1, and Chatting during Race 2. These penalties, explicitly the pit lane infraction, resulted in Keanie being demoted to 4th. The rulings coincided with an acrimonious split between Keanie and SimInk which saw Keanie out of the team before the day was done. Keanie later signed with Sisu Grand Prix in time for the following Grand Prix.

Keanie was not the only driver to be penalised, or be demoted following the race.

During qualifying, Benjamin Zerche, Patrick Fogel and Mike Schroten were also deemed to have Escaped and Rejoined, and were all penalised 5 grid positions and given points on their licences. Matt Webb was penalised for Wrecking after the end of Race 1. Bradley Vanian was penalised for cutting the pit lane exit in race 2 while Fogel was further penalised for cutting the exit twice, once in each race. In both instances, Fogel was penalised 20 seconds, seeing him demoted from 7th to 10th in Race 1 and from 6th to 10th in Race 2. William Neron was penalised for punting Keanie at the beginning of Race 2, while Jeremy Allen was penalised for also Chatting during Race 2, which saw him demoted from 10th to 14th, taking some of the shine off what had been an excellent first outing for the Fogel team.

Finally, Dan Rusu and Juha Tanskanen, both affiliated with Tanskanen Racing, were served warning for Spectating during the race; spectating having been banned during FC events due to server strains at the previous round.

Cumulative penalty table

Driver	Team	Penalties	Violations	Notes
Ghovand Keanie	SimInk	+15 grid places, +20 seconds (Race 1), 4 Penalty Points	Escape & Rejoin; Formation Lap Recovery (Race 1); Cutting Pit Lane Exit (Race 1), Chatting (Race2)*	Demoted from 1st to 4th (Race 1); *Did not complete race
Patrick Fogel	Fogel	+5 grid places, +20 seconds (Race 1), +20 seconds (Race 2), 3 Penalty Points	Escape & Rejoin, Cutting Pit Lane Exit (Race 1 and Race 2)	Demoted from 7th to 10th (Race 1); Demoted from 6th to 10th (Race 2)
Benjamin Zerche	logiX	+5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point	Escape & Rejoin
Mike Schroten	Wauters	+5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point	Escape & Rejoin
Matt Webb	Epic Racing	+5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point	Post-Race Wrecking (Race 1)
William Neron	Sisu	+5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point	Punt (Race 2)**	**Did not complete race
Jeremy Allen	Fogel	+20 seconds (Race 2), 1 Penalty Point	Chatting (Race 2)	Demoted from 10th to 14th (Race 2)
Bradley Vanian	Optimum	+5 grid places, 1 Penalty Point	Cutting Pit Lane Exit (Race 2)***	***Did not complete race
Dan Rusu	team member, Tanskanen	Final Warning	Spectating
Juha Tanskanen	team member, Tanskanen	Final Warning	Spectating