The French League, also called by Frenchies the "Ligue FR", is a friendly league running since the earlier years of LFS on LFS France. It was originally founded by MT-Shark, and since 2008 it moved on the Gcomp plateform build by Gai-Luron, which is also know for his LFS Lapper. It has been managed and ran by many hoster/admins (Shark, Loconstant, Quaid, Momo92i, Worm...), but since 2013, System (Kova.) stayed in charge of it, and has never stopped it despite the lowering grids.
Basically made for french talking people, it has always allowed strangers of another nations to compete in, without any restrictions.
The concept is to take part to a certain amount of events which is an average of 10 to 12 events per season, among which you have 3 jokers, which mean you can miss or fail 3 events during the whole season, they won't be counted. Each event is made by more or less than 4 weeks of pre-qualifying, in which you compete to set your fastest lap on the designed combo at the server, in order to set your grid position. The pre-qualifying ends the night from Sunday to Monday at midnight, french time. And then the following monday at 9:15 pm french time, takes place the race for about 30 mins.
Yesterday evening was held the second round of the French League. The drivers went to South City, where the XFG was waited to sandblast the bitume (and the pavings) of the streets of South City. On this classic combo who has a short lap (in the 57 seconds), we've seen a lot of battles throughout the qualifications thanks to the small gaps. And KingOfIce had to get a lot of efforts to secure his pole position, because indeed, L.Rydh wanted to take a revenge on from the previous round. But it was the 2024 champion from GUM Garage who secured the pole position in front of his Team Winners' rival. Meanwhile the second row was fully marked GUM Garage : returner Derinus set the 3rd time, in front of his Aussie team mate, WrappedPigeon. Geraxi pulled out the best lap out of the tight midfield to secure 5th, in front of the FSR pair Yorry-System. Nex, Kip, and the "minister of laps", Daf, were completing the top 10 out of 22 qualified drivers. Infortunately, the grid would loose 3 drivers before the start, as Daf, Kriss and Bizo were missing.
At the start, King took a good beginning, so does the others drivers, as the positions didn't really changed, except Kip and DLV who struggled to get out of their spot. As the first corner passed by, the field infortunately already lost a driver. Indeed, Cyandic who was also making its league return started to lag and timed out after the first corner. At the second lap, L.Rydh started to speed up and put pressure on KingOfIce, who seemed to struggle to find the pace. The Swedish driver evidently took the lead of the race after the second corner while his French rival struggled to find speed exiting that corner. Behind, we had our second DNF of the evening, and infortunately, it was again a FSR driver, as DLV collided all alone at the chicane of the turn 4. The french driver decided it was enough for him, on a track he wasn't feeling comfy. It also seemed like KingOfIce was definitely struggling on this race, as Derinus and then WrappedPigeon also passed him, laps later. Behind KingOfIce, the fight was also warming up with Geraxi, Nex, Yorry and also System. Derinus was on fire for his return as he took the lead of the race at the 5th lap. But L.Rydh only left him dreaming for 2 laps before going back to the leadership. A few laps laters, as we were approaching the midrace, King polished his pace and froze the 3rd position out of WrappedPigeon. It seemed like the Aussie was about to risk the life of his feathers once again, as the midfield group was fighting harder than ever. And it was System who was starting to get the best of them all 6 since they were joined by Kip, starting to put pressure on Pigeon. But infortunately on lap 20, Nex had a excess of optimism when it came to brake on the last corner, and tasted System's rear left fender. The 2024 League's runner-up infortunately ended up on the barriers, and drowned to the 13th position, meanwhile the CCRT's driver could have continued to 8th. When a FSR drowns, there is always another one to take relay for the show, as indeed, Kip continued what his boss did since it was his turn to climb up to P5, meanwhile Nex got the best of his countrymate, Geraxi. In the front of the pack, L.Rydh hasn't been bothered by Derinus, and won the race. The GUM driver took a well deserved second place for his return on the league, when behind him, KingOfIce still save a important 3rd position. WrappedPigeon secure his 4th, in front of the FSR pair Kip-Yorry. Then follow Nex, Geraxi, Nanex and Proxima, completing the top 10 for 17 drivers crossing the line.
On the championship, L.Rydh evidently takes the lead in front of KingOfIce, while WrappedPigeon climbs up 3rd, in front of Kip and Yorry. Status-quo on the team side, while the gaps became bigger. GUM Garage lead the way ahead of French Street Racers Team, with Norme Francaise Racing in 3rd. Next league meeting will be under a month, the 31st March exactly, the drivers will move up to Westhill, at the wheel of Flame's ERESO.
