This Monday 16th December evening was held the last race of the 2024 French League season. And as usual since a couple of years (since 5 years, 2019 being the first time) the last round was again held on a oval track, Kyoto oval. During the pre-qualifications, the GUM drivers made their team work on, and placed Daf on provisonal pole in front of Derinus and KingOfIce. But it was before we could count on a great work coming from the FSR boys. Kip and System managed to place their cars 0.1 seconds on top of the GUMS, with 2 days remaining. Will the money time change the pole sitter? Not this time, but the Belgians NFR brothers, Proxima and Geraxi, placed their car just in the middle between the FSRs and the GUMs, meanwhile the orders in the teams groups weren't changed. Currently runner-up in the championship, DLV set his position start on 8th, in front of Kriss and Nanex. 18 drivers had made the qualifications so far. But only 16 were on the grid, ZMaty came in too late meanwhile Loopingz was again stuck at work.
And at the light out, the safety car took a great start... To lead peacefully the pack! And then at the end of the second lap, the safety car went out, Kip didnt kept the safety pace too long and decided to go as soon as possible he could. The green flag was shown, and the FSR pair decided to escape ASAP, to build a gap which they did quickly, meanwhile the NFR duo also started doing it in front of the rest of the pack too. But in the 7th lap, a sand dust has fallen into the mechanic of their slipstream work, making them leaving the pack that was behind without the possibility to catch up. On the 10th lap, we had our almost first drama, as DLV was trying to keep on the pace in the back of Geraxi, the belgian was about to pass Daf, and then the Antiaris driver collided with the NFR one. DLV went slowly moving into the grass while Geraxi managed a good recovery of his car in the middle of the path. But one lap later came the drama of the evening. As Nanex, DLV and Papator were making passes in a 3 drivers group, Papator didn't saw that DLV was already on the side of Nanex when coming to the small corner before the start line. The TD driver closed inside too much, touched Nanex and spun to the wall, taking Geraxi, Kriss and JSK with him, in his misfortune. The MRc driver decided to retire straight after that, meanwhile the 2 others continued. Past a quarter of the race, the pack was mostly all grouped up, except the unfortunates one in the back. Behind Kip and System, we had a fighting group for 3rd with Daf, Proxima, DLV, L.Rydh, Derinus, Aposki. A bit further more Nanex was in with KingOfIce, meanwhile Kriss was in with Geraxi, leaving Donald, Papator and LeManchot alone in the back.
But approaching the midrace, things changed up again on the oval lottery. While Daf escaped alone at 3rd, Proxima lost the pack, and then later Aposki put himself in the wall. We then had a group of DLV, L.Rydh, Derinus who quickly closed the gap on Daf, and passed him, but the green GUM Garage painted car couldn't follow them and lost the group. A moment later, it was derinus turn to be left, leaving DLV and L.Rydh doing their way for the 3rd place. And at the lead? The front FSR duo was still operating smoothly and far away. We thought a moment that DLV and L.Rydh would close it, but as Kip and System were making their consistency, the gap wouldnt change. Approaching the end of the race, we had then a group with the FSR duo, another group with DLV and L.Rydh, and in the back, meanwhile Daf lost all his hopes after a incident putting him 2 laps behing the leaders, a group with Derinus, Proxima, joined in by Nanex and KingOfIce. These 4 sure animated the end of the race! And when came the white flag announcing the last lap, System took his team mate by surprise on the first turn, and then defended his position properly, making sure that Kip couldn't even try any attack. At the checkered flag, the frenchman and FSR boss won his second race of the year, 0.04 seconds in front of his dutch team mate, who still scored his best result to this date. L.Rydh got the best of DLV in the last lap to score a podium. On the crazy group of the end of the race, thing went in team mode for the ultimate lap, Derinus pairing with KingOfIce, and Nanex with Proxima, but the 4 still battled together through the last la pfor the pleasure of our eyes at the TV Broadcast. In the end, the NFR duo got the best of the GUM duo, Proxima finishing 5th in front of his boss in a ultimate effort in the last meters (Proxima was still 8th at the pitlane entry), meanwhile the reining champion, and crowned 2024 champion, KingOfIce claimed 7th in front of Derinus after a hot finish! Indeed, between Proxima 5th and Derinus 8th, there was only 0.1 second! Aposki and Donald completed the top 10, meanwhile Geraxi, 11th, was the last driver on the same lap. Papator, Daf, Kriss and LeManchot ended up the race more than 2 laps away.
And this is how the season 2024 ended up. KingOfIce has been crowned for a 3rd consecutive time, and again, System ended the season as runner-up, taking again the best from his friend DLV and finishing the season 1 point in front of the Antiaris driver. Donald and Proxima, two of the most consistent drivers of the grid, place their nickname 4th and 5th. Then follows Aposki, Nanex, Tomfuel, LeManchot and Papator to complete the Top 10 out of 31 ranked drivers. These 10 drivers are also the only ones that competed at least 9 rounds to be classified with the 3 jokers rules. On that topic, KingOfIce, System and DLV are the 3 only drivers to have competed the whole season. It's also the second consecutive season that the champion and his runner-up does it, as KingOfIce and Sytem did it already in 2023. For DLV, after years of participating some races, he finally did a whole season, and what a season to end up 3rd with a bunch of podiums!
Team wise, it's of course Tomfuel's GUM Garage who is crowned again! Behind them, it wasn't very clear, as the FSR Team did started this season slowly meanwhile the NFR drivers were already working their consistency, most especially with Proxima. But when the FSR boys started to get back on the podium, things changed up, and System's crew clinched back the P2, and followed their beautiful end of season with some podium and 2 wins for System, they definitely sealed it. NFR Team still ends up at a great 3rd position, meanwhile TD ended up 4th for their first complete season. Antiaris finish up 5th, after sadly failing to have two driver to score every round, despite Neron's joining.
Now it's time for the French League to hibernate a bit, leaving the place for the yearly LFS France's Christmas Open, and most importantly in January the charity race from the LFS Endurance Series : the 4h for Anna, which will be made as support of the 24h for Anna series, hosting a couple of endurance races on various SimRacing, supporting the research of childs cancer.
And at the light out, the safety car took a great start... To lead peacefully the pack! And then at the end of the second lap, the safety car went out, Kip didnt kept the safety pace too long and decided to go as soon as possible he could. The green flag was shown, and the FSR pair decided to escape ASAP, to build a gap which they did quickly, meanwhile the NFR duo also started doing it in front of the rest of the pack too. But in the 7th lap, a sand dust has fallen into the mechanic of their slipstream work, making them leaving the pack that was behind without the possibility to catch up. On the 10th lap, we had our almost first drama, as DLV was trying to keep on the pace in the back of Geraxi, the belgian was about to pass Daf, and then the Antiaris driver collided with the NFR one. DLV went slowly moving into the grass while Geraxi managed a good recovery of his car in the middle of the path. But one lap later came the drama of the evening. As Nanex, DLV and Papator were making passes in a 3 drivers group, Papator didn't saw that DLV was already on the side of Nanex when coming to the small corner before the start line. The TD driver closed inside too much, touched Nanex and spun to the wall, taking Geraxi, Kriss and JSK with him, in his misfortune. The MRc driver decided to retire straight after that, meanwhile the 2 others continued. Past a quarter of the race, the pack was mostly all grouped up, except the unfortunates one in the back. Behind Kip and System, we had a fighting group for 3rd with Daf, Proxima, DLV, L.Rydh, Derinus, Aposki. A bit further more Nanex was in with KingOfIce, meanwhile Kriss was in with Geraxi, leaving Donald, Papator and LeManchot alone in the back.
But approaching the midrace, things changed up again on the oval lottery. While Daf escaped alone at 3rd, Proxima lost the pack, and then later Aposki put himself in the wall. We then had a group of DLV, L.Rydh, Derinus who quickly closed the gap on Daf, and passed him, but the green GUM Garage painted car couldn't follow them and lost the group. A moment later, it was derinus turn to be left, leaving DLV and L.Rydh doing their way for the 3rd place. And at the lead? The front FSR duo was still operating smoothly and far away. We thought a moment that DLV and L.Rydh would close it, but as Kip and System were making their consistency, the gap wouldnt change. Approaching the end of the race, we had then a group with the FSR duo, another group with DLV and L.Rydh, and in the back, meanwhile Daf lost all his hopes after a incident putting him 2 laps behing the leaders, a group with Derinus, Proxima, joined in by Nanex and KingOfIce. These 4 sure animated the end of the race! And when came the white flag announcing the last lap, System took his team mate by surprise on the first turn, and then defended his position properly, making sure that Kip couldn't even try any attack. At the checkered flag, the frenchman and FSR boss won his second race of the year, 0.04 seconds in front of his dutch team mate, who still scored his best result to this date. L.Rydh got the best of DLV in the last lap to score a podium. On the crazy group of the end of the race, thing went in team mode for the ultimate lap, Derinus pairing with KingOfIce, and Nanex with Proxima, but the 4 still battled together through the last la pfor the pleasure of our eyes at the TV Broadcast. In the end, the NFR duo got the best of the GUM duo, Proxima finishing 5th in front of his boss in a ultimate effort in the last meters (Proxima was still 8th at the pitlane entry), meanwhile the reining champion, and crowned 2024 champion, KingOfIce claimed 7th in front of Derinus after a hot finish! Indeed, between Proxima 5th and Derinus 8th, there was only 0.1 second! Aposki and Donald completed the top 10, meanwhile Geraxi, 11th, was the last driver on the same lap. Papator, Daf, Kriss and LeManchot ended up the race more than 2 laps away.
And this is how the season 2024 ended up. KingOfIce has been crowned for a 3rd consecutive time, and again, System ended the season as runner-up, taking again the best from his friend DLV and finishing the season 1 point in front of the Antiaris driver. Donald and Proxima, two of the most consistent drivers of the grid, place their nickname 4th and 5th. Then follows Aposki, Nanex, Tomfuel, LeManchot and Papator to complete the Top 10 out of 31 ranked drivers. These 10 drivers are also the only ones that competed at least 9 rounds to be classified with the 3 jokers rules. On that topic, KingOfIce, System and DLV are the 3 only drivers to have competed the whole season. It's also the second consecutive season that the champion and his runner-up does it, as KingOfIce and Sytem did it already in 2023. For DLV, after years of participating some races, he finally did a whole season, and what a season to end up 3rd with a bunch of podiums!
Team wise, it's of course Tomfuel's GUM Garage who is crowned again! Behind them, it wasn't very clear, as the FSR Team did started this season slowly meanwhile the NFR drivers were already working their consistency, most especially with Proxima. But when the FSR boys started to get back on the podium, things changed up, and System's crew clinched back the P2, and followed their beautiful end of season with some podium and 2 wins for System, they definitely sealed it. NFR Team still ends up at a great 3rd position, meanwhile TD ended up 4th for their first complete season. Antiaris finish up 5th, after sadly failing to have two driver to score every round, despite Neron's joining.
Now it's time for the French League to hibernate a bit, leaving the place for the yearly LFS France's Christmas Open, and most importantly in January the charity race from the LFS Endurance Series : the 4h for Anna, which will be made as support of the 24h for Anna series, hosting a couple of endurance races on various SimRacing, supporting the research of childs cancer.