Newly announced Red Bull Ford Academy driver Chloe Chambers secured two top-10 finishes at the IMSA Ford Mustang Challenge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, delivering an impressive drive from the back of the field to ninth in race one and battling to eighth in class in race two.
Newly announced Red Bull Ford Academy driver Chloe Chambers secured a pair of top-10 finishes as she returned to the IMSA Ford Mustang Challenge.
Racing at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Chambers produced a stunning drive from the rear of the field to finish ninth in race one following the cancellation of qualifying. Starting race two from ninth position, the Spark Performance driver enjoyed some close midfield battles to take the checkered flag in eighth position in the Dark Horse class.
Chambers was unveiled as part of the Red Bull Ford Academy Programme at Indianapolis with her second appearance of the season in the IMSA Ford Mustang Challenge coinciding with this announcement. Currently sitting fourth in the F1 Academy standings, Chambers has been a consistent frontrunner in the all-female single seater series and will be looking to end the season on a high with Haas, before moving to the Red Bull stable on a permanent basis in 2025.
Due to the relationship between the Red Bull Academy Programme and Ford Motor Company, a further appearance in the IMSA Ford Mustang Challenge, alongside Spark Performance, was an ideal opportunity to develop this partnership.
Chambers competed in the opening round of the newly-created one-make series and achieved a best result of seventh position at Mid-Ohio. After competing at the Brickyard in Porsche Sprint Challenge North America in 2023, Chloe was aiming to use her experience of the circuit and knowledge of the car to challenge for positions within the top-10.
On-track action at Indianapolis Motor Speedway began on Wednesday with two free practice sessions for the drivers to gain familiarity with the circuit. Chambers finished session one of the day in 11th position, before setting the 12th quickest time in the second practice session. Completing 32 laps across the day, the Spark Performance racer had turned the most laps of any driver across the opening day of practice.
Qualifying was set to take place on Saturday morning and consisted of a single, fifteen-minute session to determine the grid positions for the two races to follow. With less than two minutes on the clock, the session was red flagged for an incident involving Zachry Lee and with the session time continuing to run, the clock expired with no drivers able to set a lap time. As a result, the grid positions were set based on championship points, leading to a tall task for Chloe with just one round of competition under her belt.
Chambers lined up 19th on the overall grid, tenth in the Dark Horse class, for the first of two races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Spark Performance driver made a superb start to gain four overall positions on lap one, while negotiating a number of the Dark Horse Legends class competitors. In the early stages of the 45-minute race, Chloe was driving smartly and attempting to follow class rival Wesley Slimp through the field.
As Chambers caught a number of drivers who were contending for positions just outside the top-10, a spin for Cristian Perocarpi at the opening turn presented an opportunity to move forward. Chloe passed Perocarpi while also moving ahead of both Tom Tait and Nick Smither to claim 12th position overall.
Now with a small amount of clear track ahead, Chambers set her fastest lap of the race. This time was just two tenths of a second away from her quickest lap of the weekend to date and held greater importance with the race two grid set by the drivers fastest laps set in race one.
Into the middle portion of the race, Chambers was catching Dark Horse Legend competitor Mike Stillwagon and she was able to force the Skip Barber Racing driver into a mistake on lap 14. Chambers was now on the fringes of the top-10 and was showing excellent speed as the tyres continued to wear. After Slimp retired with a technical issue, Chambers was into tenth position and now catching teammate Alex Bachoura along with class rival Christian Bach.
Following a period of sustained pressure on her teammate, Chambers passed Bachoura on the penultimate lap of the race before closing in further on Bach. Crossing the line less than two seconds behind the Kohr Motorsports driver, Chambers completed an exceptional comeback drive to finish race one of the weekend in ninth position overall, while securing a fifth row starting position for race two courtesy of her fastest lap of a 1:37.256.
Race two of the weekend took place on Friday afternoon with Chambers lining up from ninth on the grid and targeting further progress to complete the weekend. The Spark Performance driver made a clean start and although she initially fell behind Alfonso Diaz, Chambers re-passed the TechSport Racing driver prior to the conclusion of lap one. As Chambers ran in a competitive train of cars at the front of the field, she ran her fastest lap of the entire weekend on lap two as she began to pull away from Christian Bach behind.
Her strong early race pace allowed Chloe to catch Wesley Slimp and after running side-by-side with the Precision Performance Motorsports driver, she cleared her rival into turn one on lap four. In her eagerness to catch the next group of drivers, Chambers ran wide at turn 12 and slipped back to 11th position. Now behind Slimp, Bach and Diaz, Chambers was looking to recover lost positions with Diaz the first target.
Diaz was showing good pace as the first half of the race progressed and this resulted in Slimp now being the driver ahead. The middle portion of the race saw Chambers and Slimp enjoy a fantastic battle with both drivers changing positions on multiple occasions.
Cristian Perocarpi was therefore able to close in on the duelling pair and on lap 16, he overtook Chloe to drop her to 12th position. Nonetheless, Chambers was determined to make progress and twice passed Slimp with a nice move into the opening turn.
On lap 22, Chambers began to build an advantage over Slimp and was targeting a late-race challenge for a top-10 position. Dark Horse class rival Reid Sweeney retired to the pits on the penultimate lap and this indeed promoted the Red Bull Ford Academy driver into tenth position.
A strong final lap saw Chambers take the checkered flag in tenth position overall, ninth in the Dark Horse category, before being promoted to ninth overall, eighth in class after a penalty was assessed to Perocarpi for contact with a competitor earlier in the race.
It was a successful return to the IMSA Ford Mustang Challenge for Chambers who twice finished inside the top-10, while enjoying a number of close battles throughout the field. Her hard-charge through the field in race one was particularly impressive as Chloe used her racecraft to gain ten positions despite limited time in the car this season.
Chambers will now turn her attention to the penultimate round of the F1 Academy Championship where she will be aiming to return to the top-3 of the overall standings. Lusail International Circuit in Qatar will host round 6 with the pair of races being held on the weekend of 30th November – 1st December.
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