Difference between revisions of "STAX Racing"

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**STAX**

Full name	STAX Racing
Owner/s	Christian Zoerner
Base	Halifax, Canada
Key staff	Christian Zoerner
Year Joined	2016
Series Entered	2016 World GT, 2016 ITC, 2017 FC, 2017 World GT
Associated Teams	Epic Racing
Website	STAXRacing.com

STAX Racing is a Canadian sim-racing team owned by Christian Zoerner that was established in 2015. For the 2016 season, the team has entered the World GT Series, marking their début in the GPVWC sim-racing community. Later that year, the team also entered the 2016 International Touring Cup.
At the 2016 GPVWC day it was announced that STAX Racing was allocated a spot in the 2017 Formula Challenge season. They also started in the 2017 World GT Series.

2016

STAX Racing made applications to join both the 2016 World GT Series and 2016 World Sport Series with their priority resting on the endurance World GT series. They received confirmation of their place on the World GT grid on the 26th of February, being allocated a pair of Aston Martin Vantages and racing with numbers 24 and 25.
On August 13th, the league administration awarded the team a spot in the 2016 International Touring Cup. STAX Racing will start in a Honda Civic with numbers 26 and 27.

World GT

The team announced on their Facebook page that Diego Carranza and GPVWC veteran Andrew Waring are their first ever driver line-up, with Formula Challenge racer Geoffrey Fournier taking up reserve duties. Carlos Andres Ladines was signed after Race One to be the team's new reserve driver, while Fournier stayed with the team as an emergency driver with an advisoral role.

The opening round was the Japanese GT Cup at Fuji. Since there were only days between the announcement of the participating teams and the first round, the team's goal was to of bring both cars home and gain valuable experience with the car. Fournier substituted for Waring, who had problems with power outages. He went on to score points on the teams' first ever race with P8, while Carranza finished P19.

Race Two, the Brazilian GT Cup, was held in Interlagos. The two STAX Racing cars were in points scoring positions at all time, until Waring experienced technical problems that forced him to retire. In the end, he was classified in P22 as he completed over 75% of the race distance. Carranza finished in P8, equaling Fournier's result from Race One.

Waring's technical problems persisted during practice for the third race, the inaugural Turkish GT Cup at Istanbul Park. After consultation with the team, he decided not to start in the race, which meant that Ladines would take over his seat for the race. He qualified in the Top 10 and held P8 during most of the race. Carranza qualified further back on the grid, but was able to steadily gain positions during the race. Both drivers benefited from the fact that the Ferraris had to do one pitstop. In the end, Carranza finsihed P11, his second consecutive point scoring position. Ladines, who, in the build up to the race stated "that he was not comfortable with the track at all", finished P3 in his first race at GPVWC. This also meant he achieved STAX Racing's first podium finish.

In the build-up to fourth race, the Belgian GT Cup at Spa-Francorchamps, it became apparent that Waring's technical problems could not be solved easily. He thus agreed to let Carlos Andres Ladines drive alongside Diego Carranza for the rest of the season. Andres Ladines qualified 2nd for the race, the best qualification result for the team so far. Carranza encountered heavy traffic on his qualifying run, resulting in him starting further down the grid in P22. The race saw Carranza steadily gaining positions through consistent laptimes and some great overtaking maneuvers. In the end, he finished the race in P7, extending his run of finising in the points to three races in a row. Carlos Andres Ladines lost a place at the start, but ran in the Top 5 for all of the race. Once again, the Ferraris had to pit for fuel, which meant that Ladines finished in P3, the same position he finished the race before.

The fifth race, the Czech GT Cup, was held at the Brno Circuit. Diego Carranza qualified in 9th position, while Carlos Andres Ladines qualified in P4. Diego Carranza had an eventful race on a track he didn't particularly like. In the end, he finished in P11, further extending his run of finishing in the points. Carlos Andres Ladines found himself in second position after a great start but lost one place to James Johnson during the race. Ultimately, he finished in third place, achieving a hattrick of finishing in P3 in just three starts.

In the build-up to the sixth race in Silverstone, Diego Carranza told the team that he would be unavailable to race. This meant that, at the upcoming British GT Cup, Geoffrey Fournier would race in Diego's place instead. This marked Geoffrey's second start for the team, after he started in the inaugural race of the season. With limited testing beforehand, Geoffrey did well to qualify in P13 while Carlos Andres Ladines started from sixth position.

After a frantic start, the two STAX drivers were running very close to each other in P6 and P7. As the field settled down, they gained another place and looked to continue the team's record of consistent finishes in the points. After forty minutes, Geoffrey let Carlos pass, since he was fighting for a good finish in the championship. With seven minutes to go, just as the first Ferraris in front of the STAX Racing cars were beginning to pit, the race was red flagged because of a mass disconnect. This meant that Carlos finished the cut-short race in P5, followed by Geoffrey in P6.

The final race of the 2016 season was held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Geoffrey Fournier substituted for Diego Carranza for the second race in a row, but had a back of the grid penalty from the previous race, which meant he had to start last in P16. During the race, he was slowly gaining places until he had an incident with Epic Racing's Christoph Lichtenstein. While Christoph showed good sportsmanship and allowed Geoffrey a re-pass, the gap to P11 was too big for Geoffrey to close down in the end and he finished the last race of the season in P12.
Carlos Andres Ladines was not expected to participate in the race. Prior to the race day he informed the team that he would be unable due to work commitments. However, in the last moment, some rescheduling meant that he was available to race, albeit with no practice beforehand. Nevertheless, he was able to qualify in P3 and after a stellar start, found himself in first place before the first corner. Thomas Jacobs however was following him very closely in the opening part of the race and Carlos was unable to gain a big lead over the TSA driver. Ultimately that lead to Carlos losing concentration and Jacobs was able to pass him on lap 7. In the following laps Carlos tried to follow Jacobs without consuming too much fuel, allowing him to lead by not more than 2 seconds. In the last third of the race, ST Racing's Borja Millan closed up to the leading pair, contributing to exciting last laps. Carlos tried one last attack on Jacobs, but to no avail. Shortly after the battle, the race was cut short by yet another server issue. In the end, Carlos was classified as having finished in P2, STAX Racing's best result so far in it’s short history. He also achieved STAX Racing's first ever fastest lap of the race.

STAX Racing finished their first season as third in the Constructor's Championship. Despite not starting in the first two races, Carlos Andres Ladines ended the season in fourth place. In five races, he was able to finish on the podium four times (three times in P3, once in P2). Diego Carranza started five races as well, finishing four of those in the points. In the end, he wrapped up the season in tenth place. Geoffrey Fournier, the team's substitute driver, was called to action three times. It should be noted that every time his services were required, he finished in a points scoring position. In the final driver's championship table he was a creditable fourteenth. Andrew Waring started one race for the team, but computer problems forced him to retire in that race. One DNF in his only start means that he was classified forty-ninth out of fifty starters in the end results table.

International Touring Cup

The team decided to keep the All-Peruvian lineup with Diego Carranza and Carlos Andres Ladines for their inagural season in the International Touring Cup. They also had talks with Nico Barclay to be their reserve driver and officially signed him after Round One.

The first three races took place at Donington Park. Qualifying saw the two STAX Racing cars near the back of the grid, as Diego Carranza was unable to set a time and Carlos Andres Ladines qualified 24th with a gap of almost five seconds to the Pole sitter. Unfortunately, things didn't improve much during the first race, and the STAX Racing cars crossed the line in P23 and P24. In Race Two, both drivers gambled and put on wet tyres, but a drying track meant that they struggled to challenge for points. In the end, Carlos Andres Ladines finished in P19 while Diego Carranza was classified in P22. In Race Three, both drivers were able to make up two places compared to their starting positions, but ultimately the team left Donington Park without points on the table.

For Round Two at the Autódromo do Estoril, Nico Barclay substituted for Carlos Andres Ladines with very short notice. He qualified P12, while Diego Carranza started from P17. The team had high hopes to bounce back from the "pointless" opening round, however in the frantic first race they finished in P17 (Barclay) and P21 (Carranza), unable to score any points. With both drivers starting near the back of the grid, points would be hard to come by in race two. However, Nico Barclay had a race to remember, gaining 17 positions in an eleven lap race, finishing P7 and scoring the team's first points in the International Touring Cup. Diego Carranza had to retire after he took a curb too agressively and flipped the car. Connection problems meant that he did not start Race Three, while Nico Barclay scored more points by finishing in eight position.

The next round at Tor Poznań saw the team struggeling again. In the days before the race it became apparent that neither Diego Carranza nor Carlos Andres Ladines would be able to make it to the race because of work commitments. Since the team management was on vacation with limited access to the internet, it was unable to secure another substitute driver alongside Nico Barclay. This meant that for the first time ever, STAX Racing was unable to field two cars for a race. Nico himself reported issues with his internet connection prior to the Polish Touring Cup and had limited time to work on a setup, so expectations of scoring much needed points were low. Nico qualified in P15, starting in the midfield. Unfortunately, he had connection issues and, just as the race was about to start, he timed out. Race Two was a bit better, but not by much, as he timed out after driving 200 meters and right before the first corner. Subsequently, he decided against starting the third race.

Before the next rount at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Carlos Andres Ladines asked the team to find a replacement driver for him because he couldn't guarantee that he would be able to start any races in the second half of the season. With Rob Mason, the team was able to acquire the service of a driver with a history of regulary scoring points in the 2016 Formula Challenge season for Epic Racing. Diego Carranza was working abroad, so Nico Barclay once again started for the team. Both drivers qualified in the midfield for Race One. After a good start, Nico made contact and fell back to P16 behind Rob, but finished the race in P11 because of some nice passes and some off-track moments of other drivers. Rob had some nice fights for positions, but later crashed with a competitor and had a major off. Nonetheless, he fought back and finished the race just outside the points in P16.
In Race Two, Nico was in ninth position for most of the time, but a overtake in the last lap meant he would finish eight. Rob had a more action packed race, as he crashed heavily into the track barrier after making contact going into a corner three-wide. After that he found himself in 21st position, but fought hard to finish P17 in the end.
The third and final race was action-packed for both drivers: Nico was able to take P6 in Lap 10, gaining P6 momentarely. However, after a sub-optimal corner-exit, Nico got a tap on his car's back, which sent him into the barriers hard. Nonetheless, Nico was able to finish in P10, which meant he finished all three races of this round in the points. Rob Mason lost control while trying to avoid a crash in the first corner, finding himself in P20. After some thrilling battles, he climbed as high as P14. With Rob finishing in P15, both STAX Racing drivers scored points in a race for the first time this season. After penalties were applied, Rob was classified in P13 for both Race 1 and 2, which meant he scored even more championship points on his debut for STAX Racing.

The penultimate round took place in Dubai at the Dubai Autodrome. Once again, the STAX Racing lineup consisted of Rob Mason and Nico Barclay. Nico Barclay started from P17 but gained a lot of places in the first lap. In Lap 5, he was in P10 already. In the end, he finished the race in 9th position. Rob Mason started from 19th position, but lost a lot of places in the first lap. After falling back to P22, he clawed himself back to P17.

In Race Two, Nico started from P9 and again gained some spots in the first few laps. He climbed as high as P5 until both Epic Racing cars were able to overtake him in Lap 9 and 11 respectively. In the end, he finished the race in P7. Rob started from P17 and also gained a few places in the first laps. He closed the gap to the driver in P15, but was unable to get into the points in this race.
The third and last race saw Nico start in P5. He was able to gain three spots in the first three laps. In the end, he finished the race in P2, the best result for STAX Racing in the 2016 International Touring Cup. However Rob Mason, starting in P16, had a race to forget. Lottermann, who was in front of him in the first lap, got carried out of a corner and rejoined the track without lifting, hitting Rob in the process. Rob crashed heavily into the barrier and found himself in last place. After flipping the car further into the lap, he drove into the pits to get his car repaired. However, he found the car nearly undrivable and, after flipping the car once more, decided to retire the car.

The last round of the season was held at Interlagos. Nico Barclay had a five-slots grid penalty and started 10th. In an exciting race, he was able to overtake drivers such as Sven de Vries and Niki Đaković to finish eigth. Rob Mason started in P8. He lost some places at the start, but was then able to follow Nico Barclay closely for much of the race. In the final laps of the race, David Jundt was able to close the gap to Rob and put him under pressure, however a half-spin in the last corner meant that Rob finished Race One ahead of him in P12.
Race Two saw a close fight between Nico and the two Vod:Bul drivers. Nico was able to overtake Adam Taylor on the start-finish straight, almost scraping the pit wall. Then followed a thrilling three-way battle between him, Niki Đaković and Lewis McGlade. In the last lap, Nico was able to overtake Lewis, finishing in P6. Rob Mason had a déjà vu, as Jundt was again on his tail at the end of the race. After many defensive maneuvers, this time the Swiss driver was able to overtake him on the last lap. Rob finished the race in 12th position.
Nico Barclay started the third race from 5th position on the grid. Unfortunately, David Francic suffered from a technical problem which meant he lost all steering input. As his car drifted onto the racing line, Nico Barclay made contact, sending him crashing into the wall. Nico was forced to retire the car in the pits on Lap Two. Rob once again was close to Jundt and after some close fights he finished the last race of the season in P8.

All in all, it was a season of two halfs for STAX Racing. After stuggeling in the first three races, where the team only finished in the ponts twice from 15 starts, the second half was a huge improvement. In 18 starts, the drivers pairing Barclay / Mason only finished three times outside the points. In the end, STAX Racing was 10th in the Constructors' championship table, just one point behind Origin Front Row Racing.

2017

After starting in two championships organized by the GPVWC in 2016, the team planned to expand their scope in 2017. They participated in RaceDepartment's MINI Challenge Season 10 which ran from December 2016 until February 2017. They also entered two cars in WCSLeague's Formula 3 Season 1. However, the team's focus still lay on series organized by the GPVWC. After securing a spot in the 2017 Formula Challenge season, they also applied for a spot in the 2017 World GT Series season in March 2017, which they entered a Bentley Continental GT3 in.

Formula Challenge

At the 2016 GPVWC day it was announced that STAX Racing was allocated a spot in the 2017 Formula Challenge season. On January 15th 2017, the team revealed that Menno Klont (#36) and Chris Shepherd (#37) would drive for the team in its début GPVWC Career Ladder season [1]. In the first and only preseason test in Bahrain, both drivers reported that they were very pleased with the preparations before the first race. Each driver was able to do 70+ laps. Chris Shepherd was classified 2nd, followed by his teammate Menno Klont in 3rd position. The gap between the two drivers was just 0.008 seconds in the end.

The first round of the championship was held in Melbourne, Australia. In qualifying, the STAX Racing drivers locked out the second row with a respectable 3rd (Shepherd, +0.034 seconds) and 4th (Klont, +0.362 seconds). Both drivers were able to match the pace of the front runners, but driver errors in the first race meant that they would finish in P7 (Klont) and P24 (Shepherd). The latter was able to post the fastest lap of the race. Unfortunately, the second race wasn't free of incidents, either. Both drivers were involved in crashes. In Shepherd's case this meant the end of the race while Menno Klont fought his way back to finisih 14th.

Menno qualified 5th for the second round in Russia. Chris started one row behind his STAX Racing teammate in seventh. On lap four, second placed Patryk Gerber spun directly in front of Menno who was able to just avoid contact with the Polish driver. Later that race, Menno had a long battle with Davidt Jundt for fifth place. In the end, he finished the race in sixth place behind the Downforce Racing driver. Chris had an equally action packed race. On the second lap, he got a tap from behind which spun him around. Miraculously, Chris was able to do a perfect 360 and continued the race without any damage. In the end, he finished the first race behind Menno in seventh place, scoring points for the first time this season.
The second race was very similar to the second race in Australia for both drivers. Menno started in tenth position, but gained four places in the first lap. However, still in the first lap, he was spun around and rejoined the race in P21. On lap five, he made a perfect Mark Webber imitation when he drove into the rear of Matthew Clipp and almost flipped the car. However, this didn’t stop Menno from fighting his way back through the field. He finished the race in ninth position. Chris’ second race that evening was very similar to his second race in Melbourne aswell. He started the race from ninth position, but lost his front wing after a tank-slapper in lap 4. Chris deemed the car to be too damaged to continue and decided to retire from the race.

For the first race of the third round in China, Menno started in P5. After a superb start, he was able to overtake two cars in the first corner and was in P3 for the rest of the race. While Roy Schroten was able to catch up to Menno in the last few laps, the STAX Racing driver was able to defend his position and achieved STAX Racing’s first podium finish in a GPVWC Career Ladder series. Chris had a more action packed race: After starting from sixth position, he lost one place in the first corner. After that, he enjoyed a long battle with Terence Grech and Patryk Gerber. In the second to last corner, Chris was able to overtake EJ Engineering’s Liam de Waal into fifth place.
The second race started with a bang when Roy Schroten swerved into Menno in the braking zone for Turn 6. Menno lost control of the car, went onto the grass and couldn’t slow down before entering the corner. As a result of the following pileup, he found himself in 15th position. From that moment on, he set out to do as much damage control as possible. Although he suffered from driving a slightly bent car, he was able to fight his way up to P10 in the end. Chris started the race from seventh position, but was able to overtake several drivers each lap. In the last few laps he was catching the two front running cars, but had no opportunity to attack them anymore. He finished the race in 3rd position which meant that STAX Racing left China with two podium finishes in the bag.

Menno drove the third fastest lap in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in Valencia. He once again had a brilliant start and gained one position as a result of that. Liam de Waal was able to overtake Menno on lap seven and shortly after that a battle for the last spot on the podium began between Menno and Roy Schroten. On Lap 13, Roy was able to pass Menno, but the STAX Racing driver regained third place in the next corner. After that, Menno was able to gain some time on Roy and finished the race in third position. Chris qualified in twelth position. On the first lap, he clipped the Armco barrier in the kink leading up to the bridge, causing a mass collision. He retired the car on the spot.
In the second race, Menno started from P10 and understeered into the wall on the second lap. His car suffered heavy damage and Menno had to come to the pits to do repairs. He rejoined the race in but needed another front wing after a crash in the third lap. Since he saw no chance of finishing in the points, he focused on driving the fastest lap instead. In the end, he finished in 21st place, ending his seven race streak of finishing in the points. Chris started the race in 26th position. After just one lap, he was in P16 already. In the following laps, he was able to gain even more places. In the last lap he was in P8, catching up to Roy Verzijl and Wesley Stefano infront of him. However, Roy had a suboptimal exit to the last corner, holding up Wesley in the process. Chris had no time to react and made contact with Wesley. The subsequent spin meant that Chris lost two places on the start / finish straight and was classified tenth in the end.

World GT

The team succesfully applied for a spot the 2017 World GT Series. They started in a Bentley Continental GT3 with drivers Nico Barclay (#0) and Thomas Hinss (#2) before switching to a Porsche 991 GT3-R before the second round.

For the season opener in Fuji, Nico qualified in 4th position behind Risto Kappet, Argo Teder and Chris Shepherd. While the two Estonian Eval drivers were able to build a sizable gap during the first few laps, an exciting race-long battle began between the two Bentleys driven by Nico and Chris. In the end, Nico finished 3rd.
Unfortunately, Thomas' race wasn't as succesfull. After joining the server in the last seconds of qualifying, he was forced to start from the back of the grid. During the opening laps of the race, he was able to gain various places, but not without suffering some damage to the car or being spun round by competitors in the process. After one contact too many, he retired the car.

The second race of the season was held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos. The mod used for this season was updated after the first race, adding a new car with the Porsche 991 GT3-R to the grid. Because of this, the league made it possible to switch cars for the rest of the season. Nico Barclay did some test runs and STAX Racing decided to switch to the Porsche for the remainder of the season. For this race, the team had no livery ready which is why they ran with a basic temporary livery. For the next round, the team has submitted their final livery.
Unfortunately, turnout for the race in Brazil was very low with only 13 drivers starting the race. Nico had a Back of the Grid penalty from the first race and thus started from last position. His teammate Thomas Hinss qualified in sixth position. Both drivers had a good start to the race: Nico was in P9 after the Senna-S and gained two more places by lap 3. Thomas also gained a position in the first lap. After David Jundt and Chris Shepherd crashed due to lag, the STAX Racing drivers were in third and fourth position, closing the gap on Philip Morby ahead of them. However, the race went downhill from there. Nico had major tyrewear issues and had to pit early on lap 15. He rejoined the race in sixth position. Two laps later, Thomas suffered a disconnect while running in third position. He would eventually rejoin the server but was now in tenth position. After Philip Morby and David Jundt made their pitstops, Nico was in third position, however he still suffered from a high tyre wear rate and found it difficult to keep the Porsche on track. He later told the team that it was like driving on ice for most of the race. Morby was able to overtake him on lap 37 and Nico lost another position to Osvaldo Angelone after spinning on lap 37. In the end, he finished the race in fifth position. Thomas was able to gain another spot after David Jundt retired and was three laps down when he finished in ninth place.

Race Results

Formula Challenge

2017

Driver	AUS		RUS		CHN		ESP		AUT		MON		CAN		GBR		HUN		GER		BEL		ITA		SGP		JPN		USA		MEX		BRA		UAE		Points	WDC	Team
Menno Klont	7	14	6	9	3	10	3	21	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	66	6th	4th
Chris Shepherd	24	DNF	7	DNF	5	3	DNF	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	42	12th	4th

International Touring Cup

2016

Driver	UK			POR			POL			FRA			UAE			BRA			Points	WDC	Team
Diego Carranza	23	22	20	21	DNF	DNS	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	40th	10th
Carlos Andres Ladines	24	29	17	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	33rd
Nico Barclay	-	-	-	17	7	8	DNF	DNF	DNS	11	6	8	9	7	2	8	6	DNF	91	13th
Rob Mason	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	16	13	13	15	15	DNF	12	14	8	22	23th

World GT

2016

Driver	JPN	BRA	TUR	BEL	CZE	GBR	USA	Points	WDC	Team
Diego Carranza	19	8	11	7	11	-	-	27	10th	3rd
Geoffrey Fournier	8	-	-	-	-	6	12	22	14th
Carlos Andres Ladines	-	-	3	3	3	5	2	79	4th
Andrew Waring	-	22^†	-	-	-	-	-	0	49th

2017

Driver	JPN	BRA	ITA	FRA	GER	BEL	GBR	USA	Points	WDC	Team
Nico Barclay	3	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	27	3rd	3rd
Thomas Hinss	DNF	9	-	-	-	-	-	-	7	12th	3rd

Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap. (key)
^† Cars did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance.

Useful Links

@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
 [[File:STAX_Racing_2017_FC_Sideview.png|left|400px|caption|alt=Alt text|The STAX Racing FC-017 for the 2017 GPVWC Formula Challenge series]]
 At the 2016 GPVWC day it was announced that STAX Racing was allocated a spot in the [[2017 Formula Challenge season]]. On January 15th 2017, the team revealed that [[Menno Klont]] (#36) and [[Chris Shepherd]] (#37) would drive for the team in its début GPVWC Career Ladder season [http://en.gpvwc.com/news/4706/stax-racing-confirm-lineup-for-debut-formula-challenge-season].
-In the first and only preseason test in Bahrain, both drivers reported that they were very pleased with the preparations before the first race. Each driver was able to do 70+ laps. Chris Shepherd was classified 2nd, followed by his teammate Menno Klont in 3rd position. The gap between the two drivers was just 0.008 seconds in the end.<br>
+In the first and only preseason test in Bahrain, both drivers reported that they were very pleased with the preparations before the first race. Each driver was able to do 70+ laps. Chris Shepherd was classified 2nd, followed by his teammate Menno Klont in 3rd position. The gap between the two drivers was just 0.008 seconds in the end.
 The first round of the championship was held in Melbourne, Australia. In qualifying, the STAX Racing drivers locked out the second row with a respectable 3rd (Shepherd, +0.034 seconds) and 4th (Klont, +0.362 seconds). Both drivers were able to match the pace of the front runners, but driver errors in the first race meant that they would finish in P7 (Klont) and P24 (Shepherd). The latter was able to post the fastest lap of the race. Unfortunately, the second race wasn't free of incidents, either. Both drivers were involved in crashes. In Shepherd's case this meant the end of the race while Menno Klont fought his way back to finisih 14th.
 Menno qualified 5th for the second round in Russia. Chris started one row behind his STAX Racing teammate in seventh. On lap four, second placed [[Patryk Gerber]] spun directly in front of Menno who was able to just avoid contact with the Polish driver. Later that race, Menno had a long battle with Davidt Jundt for fifth place. In the end, he finished the race in sixth place behind the [[Downforce Racing]] driver.  Chris had an equally action packed race. On the second lap, he got a tap from behind which spun him around. Miraculously, Chris was able to do a perfect 360 and continued the race without any damage. In the end, he finished the first race behind Menno in seventh place, scoring points for the first time this season.<br>
 The second race was very similar to the second race in Australia for both drivers. Menno started in tenth position, but gained four places in the first lap. However, still in the first lap, he was spun around and rejoined the race in P21. On lap five, he made a perfect Mark Webber imitation when he drove into the rear of [[Matthew Clipp]] and almost flipped the car. However, this didn’t stop Menno from fighting his way back through the field. He finished the race in ninth position. Chris’ second race that evening was very similar to his second race in Melbourne aswell. He started the race from ninth position, but lost his front wing after a tank-slapper in lap 4. Chris deemed the car to be too damaged to continue and decided to retire from the race.
+For the first race of the third round in China, Menno started in P5. After a superb start, he was able to overtake two cars in the first corner and was in P3 for the rest of the race. While Roy Schroten was able to catch up to Menno in the last few laps, the STAX Racing driver was able to defend his position and achieved STAX Racing’s first podium finish in a GPVWC Career Ladder series. Chris had a more action packed race: After starting from sixth position, he lost one place in the first corner. After that, he enjoyed a long battle with [[Terence Grech]] and [[Patryk Gerber]]. In the second to last corner, Chris was able to overtake [[EJ Engineering]]’s [[Liam de Waal]] into fifth place.<br>
+The second race started with a bang when Roy Schroten swerved into Menno in the braking zone for Turn 6. Menno lost control of the car, went onto the grass and couldn’t slow down before entering the corner. As a result of the following pileup, he found himself in 15th position. From that moment on, he set out to do as much damage control as possible. Although he suffered from driving a slightly bent car, he was able to fight his way up to P10 in the end. Chris started the race from seventh position, but was able to overtake several drivers each lap. In the last few laps he was catching the two front running cars, but had no opportunity to attack them anymore. He finished the race in 3rd position which meant that STAX Racing left China with two podium finishes in the bag.
+Menno drove the third fastest lap in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in Valencia. He once again had a brilliant start and gained one position as a result of that. Liam de Waal was able to overtake Menno on lap seven and shortly after that a battle for the last spot on the podium began between Menno and Roy Schroten. On Lap 13, Roy was able to pass Menno, but the STAX Racing driver regained third place in the next corner. After that, Menno was able to gain some time on Roy and finished the race in third position. Chris qualified in twelth position. On the first lap, he clipped the Armco barrier in the kink leading up to the bridge, causing a mass collision. He retired the car on the spot.<br>
+In the second race, Menno started from P10 and understeered into the wall on the second lap. His car suffered heavy damage and Menno had to come to the pits to do repairs. He rejoined the race in but needed another front wing after a crash in the third lap. Since he saw no chance of finishing in the points, he focused on driving the fastest lap instead. In the end, he finished in 21st place, ending his seven race streak of finishing in the points. Chris started the race in 26th position. After just one lap, he was in P16 already. In the following laps, he was able to gain even more places. In the last lap he was in P8, catching up to [[Roy Verzijl]] and [[Wesley Stefano]] infront of him. However, Roy had a suboptimal exit to the last corner, holding up Wesley in the process. Chris had no time to react and made contact with Wesley. The subsequent spin meant that Chris lost two places on the start / finish straight and was classified tenth in the end.
 ===World GT===
-The team succesfully applied for a spot the [[2017_World_GT_Series_season|2017 World GT Series]]. They started in a Bentley Continental GT3 with drivers [[Nico Barclay]] (#0) and [[Thomas Hinss]] (#2).<br>
+The team succesfully applied for a spot the [[2017_World_GT_Series_season|2017 World GT Series]]. They started in a Bentley Continental GT3 with drivers [[Nico Barclay]] (#0) and [[Thomas Hinss]] (#2) before switching to a Porsche 991 GT3-R before the second round.
 For the season opener in [[Fuji Speedway|Fuji]], Nico qualified in 4th position behind [[Risto Kappet]], [[Argo Teder]] and Chris Shepherd. While the two Estonian [[Eval]] drivers were able to build a sizable gap during the first few laps, an exciting race-long battle began between the two Bentleys driven by Nico and Chris. In the end, Nico finished 3rd.<br>
 Unfortunately, Thomas' race wasn't as succesfull. After joining the server in the last seconds of qualifying, he was forced to start from the back of the grid. During the opening laps of the race, he was able to gain various places, but not without suffering some damage to the car or being spun round by competitors in the process. After one contact too many, he retired the car.
+The second race of the season was held at the [[Autódromo José Carlos Pace]] in Interlagos. The mod used for this season was updated after the first race, adding a new car with the Porsche 991 GT3-R to the grid. Because of this, the league made it possible to switch cars for the rest of the season. Nico Barclay did some test runs and STAX Racing decided to switch to the Porsche for the remainder of the season. For this race, the team had no livery ready which is why they ran with a basic temporary livery. For the next round, the team has submitted their final livery.<br>
+Unfortunately, turnout for the race in Brazil was very low with only 13 drivers starting the race. Nico had a Back of the Grid penalty from the first race and thus started from last position. His teammate Thomas Hinss qualified in sixth position. Both drivers had a good start to the race: Nico was in P9 after the Senna-S and gained two more places by lap 3. Thomas also gained a position in the first lap. After David Jundt and Chris Shepherd crashed due to lag, the STAX Racing drivers were in third and fourth position, closing the gap on [[Philip Morby]] ahead of them. However, the race went downhill from there. Nico had major tyrewear issues and had to pit early on lap 15. He rejoined the race in sixth position. Two laps later, Thomas suffered a disconnect while running in third position. He would eventually rejoin the server but was now in tenth position. After Philip Morby and David Jundt made their pitstops, Nico was in third position, however he still suffered from a high tyre wear rate and found it difficult to keep the Porsche on track. He later told the team that it was like driving on ice for most of the race. Morby was able to overtake him on lap 37 and Nico lost another position to Osvaldo Angelone after spinning on lap 37. In the end, he finished the race in fifth position. Thomas was able to gain another spot after David Jundt retired and was three laps down when he finished in ninth place.
 ==Race Results==

Difference between revisions of "STAX Racing"

Revision as of 03:06, 25 April 2017

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