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What started out as something revolutionary, something no one has ever seen before, a lot of ppl prob thought about it but it remained only fiction until we got to the month of september 2005, on the 10th of september 2005 it happened the first Masters Of Endurance race, the 12 hours of Kyoto GP Long, the eyes of the LFS comunaty where focused on the 13 teams that started out, some said that the nr of teams would bring bad luck for the season, but there was no such thing, we can only admire the few teams that went on this adventure, where no other LFS team had been before, it wasn't an easy road they all had theire share of problems and dificulties, but 11 teams did make it to the finish line at the end of the 12 hours, and because u can see the number diference of teams that started and teams that finished u probably guessed it was not an easy road for the teams that got to the end. After the first race the season unfolded nicely, with the 6h of As Historic and the 6h of Blackwood. And then the race every body had been waiting for, and the race that put the MoE and an entirely diferent level then any other league before it, the 24hours of Aston Grand Prix, everybody tuned in to watch we had a full grid of 16 cars, we had a stream we had the spectator, everything was perfect and the race was very smooth indeed a lot of team learned a lot that day and endurance racing in LFS was taken to the ultimate podium position. After this folloed the 6hours of Westhill where again we had full grid. And we arrive at the season ender the 6 hours of Kyoto national, a fair tribute to one of the best locations in LFS the Kyoto Race complex, season started and ended at Kyoto.
And so we arrived at the last race, everybody was readdy to get it started, no incidents in the formation lap
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/01.JPG[/img]
as the Safetycar pulled into the pits everybody bunched up for the start of the race ready to unleash 7840bhp out of 36.8L of engines on the tarmac of the Start/Finish line,
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/02.JPG[/img]
the FZR of POD got an early jump because of 0 turbo lag
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/03.JPG[/img]
first lap was clean no crazy moves no going off everyone kept it together nicely, but then as we were setling in our rythms in T1 of lap 2 it happened and right at the front of the field #10 Ocrana XRR and #5 Pedal to the Metal took eachother out and on that tight part of the track it set of a chain reaction that saw a lot of cars going on the grass.
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/04.JPG[/img]
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/05.JPG[/img]
That was the first major incident of the first part of the race but after a few laps the field started to spread and everybody got into theire rythm, there were small fights every where arround the track
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/06.JPG[/img]
In the few laps that followed before the first pit stops the 2 front runers Ocrana XRR and PttM begane to move up through the field 1 by 1 heading for the front of the pack
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/07.JPG[/img]
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/08.JPG[/img]
after lap 18 we could see the first pit stops being made, and the team leaders could finaly have a look at other people's strategies and see exactly where they were and what could the improve
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/09.JPG[/img]
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/10.JPG[/img]
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/13.JPG[/img]
Due the the competitive nature of the MoE drivers the racing didn't stop in pit lane with small drag race being had all over the place until the drivers would hit the limiter
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/14.JPG[/img]
But while some were pitting others were still in full combat, and a big surprise was #25 1ST|Racing in the FXR hodling of a fast XRR teams but in the end as a lot of people already knew before the race on the oval the other cars would just drive by the heavy FXR, but still some great, clean fights were made
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/11.JPG[/img]
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/12.JPG[/img]
The race started to calm down, everybody got in the rythem and the tone of the first few laps continued through out the entire race with small fights here and there and drivers swaps and pit stops
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/15.JPG[/img]
After the we past the 1hour mark the teams started to think of the points, and especialy Ocrana XRR team were despretly trying to catch up the FZR of POD Racing to have a chance to win the season
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/16.JPG[/img]
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/17.JPG[/img]
But for some the end of the race was still far far away and they had to think of track position so they pushed on racing hard and faire
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/18.JPG[/img]
Moving over for the blue flag
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/19.JPG[/img]
And pushing it to the limit defending the track position
[img]http://members.home.nl/kaspur/MOE6hKyoto/20.JPG[/img]
In the last hour of the race it looked like Faculty had failed to defend the season win with the line up P1 - Cyber Racing; P2 - Ocrana XRR; P3 - POD Racing; P4 - n!Faculty it would have given Ocrana the overall win by just 2 points but then it happened, no one expected it in the last 30 min of the race the FZR of POD blew both it's rear tyres on the oval turn after the start finish line so they had to do an entire lap at an averege speed of 100km/h and this allowed the XRR of n!Faculty to move up in P3 and that's the way they stayed until the end of the race and the season win went to Faculty congratiulations on a very good consistend season guys and congratiulations to everybody that took part in all or a part of the MoE races.
We are still waiting for the MoE officials decision on the teams who's drivers drove more the 45% of the race but here are the preliminary results of the race:
1 Cyber Racing - #16 Lap 216
2 Ocrana Racing XR GTR - #10 +1 laps
3 n!faculty racing 1 - #7 +2 laps
4 Pedal To The Metal Racing Team - #5 +2 laps
5 pod - virtual gaming - #19 +2 laps
6 tHUNder Racing - #18 +4 laps
7 Estonian Endurance Racers - #21 +4 laps
8 1ST|Racing - #25 +4 laps
9 pod - virtual gaming 2 - #27 +5 laps
10 teamnic - #8 +5 laps
11 masterblasters e.V. - #1 +5 laps
12 HighFiDelity Racing - #23 +6 laps
13 Team ITEK - #22 +6 laps
14 Ocrana Racing FXO GTR - #11 +9 laps
15 team XFR - #26 +9 laps
16 Shock.fx - #9 +10 laps
I want to personaly thank Philip Kempermann, Torfinn Dahl and Frank Drop for putting together THE Best LFS Season ever, and to all the teams that raced in all or some races we will see u all in the fall for a longer, harder and even more entertaining MoE season, and maybe on a few endu races during the summer. Congratiulations to everyone who made it past the finish lines in the races we are all winners.
I also would like to thank Casper 'Kaspur' Roescher for hosting the screen shots.
This is Alex 'Scoop' Barbu of 1ST|Racing wishing u a happy brake until we have to kick of the next season of MoE.
Over and out!