Patrick Fogel

**Patrick Fogel**

Nationality	American
Year Joined	2013
First Race	2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix
Series Entered	Formula Challenge
Current Team(s)	Fogel Motorsport
Championships	{{{Championships}}}
Wins	{{{Wins}}}
Podiums	{{{Podiums}}}
Poles	{{{Poles}}}
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Formula Challenge Career (up to April 2013)
Debut Year	2013
Associated Teams	Fogel Motorsport
Races	7
Championships	0
Race Wins	1
Podium Finishes	1
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First Race	2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix

Patrick Fogel entered the GPVWC scene in March of 2013, making his debut at the 2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix. Fogel is fairly new to the world of road racing, as the 12 year veteran of sim racing has spent most of those 12 years in the oval racing scene. The highest level of competition that the American would face was the NASCAR iRacing World Drivers' Championship on iRacing. He was a competitor in that series from 2010-2012 with a highest point finish of 14th in 2010. After losing interest in the series in the middle of 2012, he took a brief leave of absence for the world of sim racing before coming back at the tail end of 2012. At that point, his interest was more in the road racing side of things. His focus in sim racing now is in the Formula Challenge season with hopes of reaching the highest level of road racing in the Superleague one day.

He is currently driving for his own team in the Formula Challenge, Fogel Motorsport, which is currently fielding two Formula Challenge cars, with Jeremy Allen as his teammate.

Formula Challenge

2013

Round 2 of 18 - 2013 Challenge Malaysian Grand Prix

After failing to get his team ready for the 2013 Challenge Australian Grand Prix, Fogel and his team would make their debut at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Qualifying was fairly good for him as he found himself setup 10th on the grid for race one. His maiden GP did not get off to a good start as he jumped the start and would be forced to come into the pits to serve a penalty. Despite the penalty, he would find his way up to 7th in the extremely challenging weather conditions.

Race two was a race full of mixed emotions. The start of the race really threw the field for a loop as the sun was fully out after a week of nothing but thunderstorms. Fogel struggled for pace for the first few laps until the rain drops came down again. It seemed like the harder it rained, the more cars Fogel passed. The track ended up losing complete grip and forced everyone to come in for wet tires. After the stops Fogel found himself sitting inside the top 5. Due to issues and/or pit stops by cars in front, he quickly saw himself sitting in second position. Sadly for Fogel, he would be just one lap short of fuel and would be forced to make a second stop. He still ended up finishing 6th.

After the race, penalties were posted and his name was listed on their three times. He received a 5 place grid penalty for Challenge Austrian Grand Prix for escaping out of his car, and a 20 second penalty in each races for unsafe pix exits. Both of those time penalties knocked Fogel down to 10th in both races, still good for points but disappointing nonetheless. All three penalties could be chalked up to being a rookie in the series and mistakes that will surely be corrected.

Round 3 of 18 - 2013 Challenge Austrian Grand Prix

The weekend in Austria, at the Red Bull Ring was a complete disaster. After a completely bone dry practice, the rain drops started to fall before the start of qualifying. This caused complete chaos up and down the pit lane, but actually seemed to helped him early on as he was sitting 2nd in the session for the first few minutes. The rain stopped and the track was quickly drying out. Between failure to adapt to the changing track and being on a crowded race track, Fogel never got a clean dry lap in the books. His time was only good 27th place and with the 5 place penalty, he would be starting 32nd place. He got a great launch off the line and was picking up several spots until he got to the starting line when there was a massive wreck that completely blocked the track. With nowhere to go, he would pile into it and severely damage his car and finishing his race before turn one.

The damage from that wreck forced Fogel to sit out of the second race. With his starting position for race two in the upper 30s, the team made the decision to park the car and move onto the next round.