Round 9 - France (Super Touring)

Reject of the Race: Daxter Hamlett. Loses a secure win with two corners to go by taking himself out. GG.

Matthew Contey In Hot Water After Controversial Remarks, Intentional Wrecking During Dash Cup Round of France; Vows To Never Race Dash Cup Again

After wrecking mid-way through Race 1 in the Dash Cup Touring Series Round of France, rookie Matthew Contey managed to salvage a 20th place finish. Contey had expressed that he wasn't mad at Tanya Carter for running him off the road, but his comments in post-race have caused outrage among many French fans of Dash Cup.

"I just can't stand to drive this place," Contey said, "but what did you expect from a track built in France? They're all cheese-eating surrender monkeys anyway."

When asked to elaborate on these comments in the press conference later that day, rather than offer an apology, Contey was even more brazen in his remarks: "Well, I'll have you know I can speak fluent French. honhonhonbaguetteeiffeltower." After an uproar from French press members, Contey was escorted out of the room. He supposedly apologized the next day.

Race 2 made matters worse. Contey was reportedly frustrated with Katherine Williams for blocking, and took out his frustrations by turning Williams sideways and into the wall. Immediately after the contact, Contey tersely remarked over team radio, "That's what she gets."

Karma seemed to bite back almost instantly, however, as Contey himself was involved in an incident in the last turns with Thomas De Bock and Tomas Prochazka. The incident with Contey and Williams remained under investigation by the stewards until well after the race's conclusion, and Contey was hit with a $25,000 fine, but kept his points for finishing 17th place.

Despite enjoying a clean Race 3, finishing with a Top 5 run, Contey expressed his frustration with the race car, and vowed never to race a Dash Cup car again. "I know they [Carter STS] got Kody Gleason in the car for some of the US races, because they offered me to run those races if I did well here. Screw it, I'm never driving these piece of shit cars again. Good luck, Kody!"
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I'm not planning on entering my namesake in any of the leagues here; his presence in this race was all for the sake of a four-year-old joke. So be that as it may, I figure I might as well have some fun with it. #yolo

Fochesato Achieves First Career Dash Cup Podium @ Circuit Thierry Sicotte
18 May 2015

It's not often that all eyes on the podium are focused on the bottom step.

The trio of races that was the 2015 edition of the Dash Cup Pirelli Super Touring Series French GP were highlighted by close racing and thrilling finishes. Hannah Percy scored the victory in Race 1 after Daxter Hamlett and Kellan Rogers-Ashby wrecked mere seconds from taking the checkered flag, Cassandra Collins broke the series record for the most victories in a Dash Cup season by taking her 4th win of the year in Race 2, and Collins not only upped her season win count to 5 in the third race, but she also became the series' first driver to win Race 2 and the reverse-grid Race 3 in the same weekend.

Not unnoticed among the action-packed racing was the performance of Vincenzo Fochesato in Race 2. After scoring a 7th-place result in Race 1, the rookie slowly worked his way up the order whilst avoiding trouble, and found himself in the 4th position and hot on the heels of Ben Atkins for the final laps of the event. Rounding the 10th corner on the white flag lap, Fochesato made a surprising move to the left side of the former series champion, and held station alongside of him through the final turn, clearing the #80 car and crossing the line in the 3rd position.

Prior to this weekend, Fochesato's best finish was a 5th-place at Oulton Park, which was also scored during the 2nd race of the weekend.

The 23-year-old Italian appeared to greatly enjoy his first podium celebration, with a constant smile and visible shakiness during the playing of the English anthem and the following ceremony. His excitement was displayed further during his interview, following a long pause from him in an apparent failure to find words.

"It’s incredible to be here!" he finally managed to exclaim with a shaky voice. "I can never thank everyone who’s supported me enough for what they do! My team has been giving me amazing cars the whole year, but they’ve also been giving me amazing support, and it’s because of them that I’ve been able to learn how to drive the cars they give me, and I’m… I’m speechless! It’s such an awesome feeling to help give them a podium, one that I never expected! Thank you, FIAM! Thank you François [Bouillon, team owner]! Thank you, France! I mean, merci! I mean, yes! Merci! Sorry, France! This is absolutely amazing!”

Fochesato also responded to a reporter's request to comment on the last-lap pass on Ben Atkins that gave him his 3rd-place finish.

“Ben is such a talented driver, I never would have gotten by him if his car wasn’t damaged. But as much respect as I have for him, I wanted to get by him so badly! I spent the last few laps trying to set him up off of the corners and block Tanya [Carter] on entry at the same time, but on the last lap I tried to drive the turns as if I was running by myself and I got a run on Atkins off of [turn] 10. I knew it was a bad idea as soon as I moved to his left, but I just hung on for dear life on the outside and somehow came out in front. There’s no way I could have done that on my own; my car was so fast that I could hardly believe it, myself. FIAM Engineering does an amazing job with the cars that they build!”

Interestingly enough, Fochesato is being sought after by Ben Atkins, himself, the very driver that he passed to obtain the third position, to drive for the new team to be known as STS ATK Racing in 2016. FIAM Engineering have also stated that they are hoping to retain him as a driver. Fochesato, however, has largely been avoiding speaking of the subject in a public manner, responding to a reporter’s question as to if he is coming closer to making a decision with a pause and then, “Wherever I go, I’m as happy as I could ever be to be able to race!”

Following a poor showing in Race 3 in which his car sustained heavy damage in an early accident, Fochesato left the French GP with a 15th-place points rank. As the series heads to Belgium for the famed and anticipated Spa GP, he returns to the only venue where he attempted to start a race before this year. He failed to qualify for the 2014 running of the event in FIAM Engineering’s one-off #155 car, which will be driven this year by 2014 Dutch GP Race 3 winner Franco Giovanardi.