Two weeks ago, Saturday 12th april in the evening was held the 5th round of the LFS Endurance Series. It was a custom config of Fern Bay using a sort "8" shaped FE4 that was set for the drivers, in a 4 hours race. In LMP2 qualifications, it was a classical front grid as Winner's Dod1slaw - who is racing in this series for Sosiski Racing - again had the pole position, in front of TAV's Sufor. Current championship leader, MRc'S JSK was 3rd, in front of new comer from Roda Presa Racing Team LMP2, Dark. Would then follow Owen, FSR's System and HLR's L.Valenzise. In GT3, Mazdaratie again set the pole position, a few hairs in front on MRC's new recruit and ex LMP2 driver ZMaty14Z. For the 3rd and 4th position, we would have a Brasilian pair, as the newcomers GRAU NA PIA's Ricardo and Johor Racing's M.Ribeiro were in front of Kurufan's Kyril who was 5th. The rest of the GT3 grid was composed of SM Racing's S.Martin, Roda Presa Racing Team's Lucas, Team Pél!can's Neron who was the sponsor of this round, Yes We Kan's Cyk, NFR Team's Proxima, GUM Garage's Donald, Texas Drivers' LeManchot.
Infortunately, 2 LMP2 drivers weren't at the start : Sufor (2nd) and L.Valensize (7th), while it was the same story in GT3 with the misses of ZMaty14Z (2nd) and Donald (11th)
And we weren't already on the LMP2 green flag that the first drama of the race happened, as JSK, 2nd on this grid, spun in front of the other pitlane that wasn't used for this race, meaning he was dropping 2 positions at the start. When the green flag waved, JSK already climbed to 3rd, going to chase Dark. Same story with System who climbed 4th, and could have even hoped for a bigger gain as he had a clear way of braking for the first corner, but the FSR Team's boss, and LFS France's manager played it safe, knewing it was a long 4 hour race and stayed gently in 4th. When JSK was chasing Dark, Owen was doing the same on System for the 4th. On the 3rd lap, JSK was already back to his second spot. Out of the podium, the chase continued between E.Cabral and System, which the 2 drivers wouldn't know at this time that they were in fact already fighting for the 3rd place due to the latters events, but it turned out to be a distance battle since these 2 had a very different driving probably due to the car settings. And on the 9th lap, after a couple of costful mistakes, E.Cabral already marked his first stop. And two laps later when came the first VSC, System copied him to play the game of strategies advantages under VSC, and stayed 4th. But after his first stop in lap 22 at the same time as Dod1slaw and JSK, Dark then saw his 3rd position threatened by System's regularity, despite the French man had to issue a drive through penalty for excessive speed in the pitlane. Indeed, the Brasilian started to face a lot of errors, forcing him to mark a couple of more pit stops (laps 25, 32 and 36), where System took benefit to take the 3rd for a couple of laps until he had to mark his second stop. But then, as we were approaching the mid race, another shocking change in the LMP2 rankings would happen! Dodislaw indeed found himself stuck in the sand, at the same spot as earlier with the GT3 after the 15th corner, bringing another VSC procedure... But not for long! Because more drama came with a GT3 that decided to join the Russian at the beach for some kind of "tummy tanning" as the GT3 flipped on its roof, bringing the safety car out for the first time of the race! JSK decided it was a great opportunity to jump in the pits, which Dodislaw did it too after being sent out of the beach by the rescue car a moment later, but also Dark who took benefit of it after another rail hugs. System had made a pitstop 3 laps earlier and choose to not stop again, which put him right in the back of Dark. But the dramas weren't over! Indeed, Dark and its #64 LMP2 car broke the rules under the safety car a couple of moments laters, as the Brasilian decided to pass all his opponents without being told by the stewards, and unlapped himself to ends in the same lap as JSK and Dodislaw... And when the safety car went out, the Brasilian got the elbows out to fight for the lead! Infortunately in the heat, he tapped JSK's rear, meaning the latter spun in the action, and left Dodislaw on the lead. But it wasn't a resting lead for Dodislaw as Dark decided to play his card and suddenly improved his pace as he was quicker than his Russian opponent, and Dark took the lead of the race! But infortunately for him, the stewards decided to strike him with a 2 laps penalty for safety car procedure infringement, which dropped him a lap behind System! The FSR Team's driver played his card for the podium, and improved his pace by 2 seconds, probably under the motivation of scoring his second podium of the season after Round 3. But when the French man came to mark his next pitstop, he infortunately slided exiting the last corner and crossed the line of the pitlane, as he had no fuel left, he decided to enter anyway knowing he would be facing a penalty that he indeed got. Dark was then back on the same lap while System still didn't marked his penalty, but on lap 59, while the leaders were on the 60th, Dark made a big mistake when coming off the bridge at the 9th corner and missed his braking point, ending up on a crash on the hill's wall, his car was not looking good, we thought the VSC was coming again, but he then somewhat "timed out" after this incident, leaving System all alone for the 3rd spot on the podium. But yet, it still was't over for the action in prototype! Because indeed, more than 20 laps later, while leading the race, Dodislaw went sunbathing again after the 15th corner, and offered JSK another opportunity to take the lead! And what better for the Slovakian driver to take his last pitstop of the race too? Dodislaw somewhat managed to leave the sand all alone this time, meaning the VSC didn't lasted, but then the Russian didn't stopped this time as he had a couple of laps of fuel left, his mission was to shave the most of time against JSK and try the overcut.. But infortunately that other sunbath costed him too much time and that moreover, when he came to make his pitstop, he did the same mistake as System and crossed the line of the pitlane entry, and was also "rewarded" by a drive through penalty for this action. In the end, JSK finally took his first win of the season after a eventful race! Despite his luck striking again in the wrong way, the stars decided that it was time to be aligned for the MRc's driver to be a race winner. Dodislaw finished in 2nd, which is his first time scoring anything else than a win. Behind them, System scored a deserved 2nd podium for 3rd with his #9 LMP2, while E.Cabral has put all the ingredients to see the checkered flag in a good 4th position.
On the GT3's side, the formation lap has been more quiet, but after the GT3 green flag happened, on the first corner, Ricardo and M.Ribeiro went side by side and made a Brasilian front fender's hug. Infortunately for the first one, lag contact happened between them 2, not helped that they were both coming from Brasil on a European server, which mean they had a ping higher than most of the drivers. Ricardo found himself stuck in the sand of the exit of the first corner. Fortunately, as the race just started and that the pit exit wasn't too far, the recovery car went out to get Ricardo out of his early misery. At the same time, a couple of laps further more, Pat De Lap found himself spinning after driving on a small portion of grass. No damages but just a couple of positions lost as he went back to the race just in front of Ricardo. Mazdaratie immediatly started to gap his opponents, while at the second place, M.Ribeiro was already under the pressure of Kyril. Infortunately, the Brasilian newcomer had to give up his position at the end of the 3rd lap, after having a large cornering situation, where Kyril took the opportunity to climb 2nd. After a decent race start where he was 4th, the other Brasilian registered in GT3, Lucas started to drop in the ranking, forcing him to make a pitstop after a couple of events. And then on his 9th lap, which was Mazdaratie's 10th, he was the first driver of the race to go for a sunbath at the 15th corner, bringing out the first VSC. Cyk was the only GT3 to make his pitstop under the VSC. And when the VSC went off, M.Ribeiro infortunately suffered of his cold tires and crashed into the rails at the 24th corner, leaving S.Martin climbing on the temporary podium. At the lap 22, it was the only time Mazdaratie would leave his GT3 race lead, when he came to make his first pitstop, Kyril indeed made his one a lap later, which allowed him to lead a lap. After a hour, M.Ribeiro found himself sunbathing again, bringing out the second VSC of the race. But after getting out of the sand thanks to the recovery car, the driver came in the pitlane to retires the car. And then, the recovery car didn't stayed jobless for too long, as newcomer FRT's Maxxis, knew to be the Spanish Community CESAV's reigning champion, as he was doing a great race until then, per starting last to his temporary 4th place, he was another victim of the turn 15th's beach call, and found himself stuck in the sand too. After that, the GT3's field remained kinda calm and quiet during the end of the second hour, where only smalls race events happened, until the VSC came again for a LMP2. It's at that exact time Lucas decided to follow the LMP2. But the Brasilian driver went sunbathing on a different manner, as he decided to go for the "tummy treatment" and to give his six pack some tan, as indeed, he infortunately rolled himself on the roof... That infortunately closed the VSC and brought the safety sar. And that safety car infortunately brought a bit of confusion in the GT3, as per the place it joined the pack, it did divided the GT3 field in 2 between Kyril in second and S.Martin in 3rd. Infortunately, the latter wasn't allowed to get his lap back, also not helped on the steward room by the chaos provoked by the #64 LMP2, meaning Mazdaratie and Kyril ended up having a lap gap ahead the rest of the GT3 field at the restart... Then for the 2 last hour, the GT3 was very quiet. Everyone seemed to have set its final position already... Only NFR Team's lost a position against Grau Na Pia who had a superior pace. But we also saw the retirement of Roda Presa Racing Team's Lucas, followed a moment later by Texas Drivers' Papator, which didn't affected the ranking. And then after the 4 hours, Mazdaratie took another dominant win, a lap ahead of Kyril! The latter can thanks the safety car, as S.Martin, in the last podium spot, eventually recovered part of his lap lost under the safety car, thanks to a better lap time consistency, as he finished only a minute and 12 seconds behind Kyril. Cyk finish 4th thanks to his consistency too, meanwhile Maxxis for his first race, managed to finish 5th, despite his sunbathing visit. 6th place was property of Grau Na Pia with Mugrilo, while NFR Team scored the 7th with Proxima at the checkered flag. Sponsor of the race, Neron and the Team Pél!can finished 8th and last running GT3.
Next race will take place at Aston, the 31st May. It was due to be a 8h race, but following the actual attendance of the series, and as a lot of drivers actually race in single, the staff decided to reduce it to 4 hours, hoping the drivers to score a better attendance.
Infortunately, 2 LMP2 drivers weren't at the start : Sufor (2nd) and L.Valensize (7th), while it was the same story in GT3 with the misses of ZMaty14Z (2nd) and Donald (11th)
And we weren't already on the LMP2 green flag that the first drama of the race happened, as JSK, 2nd on this grid, spun in front of the other pitlane that wasn't used for this race, meaning he was dropping 2 positions at the start. When the green flag waved, JSK already climbed to 3rd, going to chase Dark. Same story with System who climbed 4th, and could have even hoped for a bigger gain as he had a clear way of braking for the first corner, but the FSR Team's boss, and LFS France's manager played it safe, knewing it was a long 4 hour race and stayed gently in 4th. When JSK was chasing Dark, Owen was doing the same on System for the 4th. On the 3rd lap, JSK was already back to his second spot. Out of the podium, the chase continued between E.Cabral and System, which the 2 drivers wouldn't know at this time that they were in fact already fighting for the 3rd place due to the latters events, but it turned out to be a distance battle since these 2 had a very different driving probably due to the car settings. And on the 9th lap, after a couple of costful mistakes, E.Cabral already marked his first stop. And two laps later when came the first VSC, System copied him to play the game of strategies advantages under VSC, and stayed 4th. But after his first stop in lap 22 at the same time as Dod1slaw and JSK, Dark then saw his 3rd position threatened by System's regularity, despite the French man had to issue a drive through penalty for excessive speed in the pitlane. Indeed, the Brasilian started to face a lot of errors, forcing him to mark a couple of more pit stops (laps 25, 32 and 36), where System took benefit to take the 3rd for a couple of laps until he had to mark his second stop. But then, as we were approaching the mid race, another shocking change in the LMP2 rankings would happen! Dodislaw indeed found himself stuck in the sand, at the same spot as earlier with the GT3 after the 15th corner, bringing another VSC procedure... But not for long! Because more drama came with a GT3 that decided to join the Russian at the beach for some kind of "tummy tanning" as the GT3 flipped on its roof, bringing the safety car out for the first time of the race! JSK decided it was a great opportunity to jump in the pits, which Dodislaw did it too after being sent out of the beach by the rescue car a moment later, but also Dark who took benefit of it after another rail hugs. System had made a pitstop 3 laps earlier and choose to not stop again, which put him right in the back of Dark. But the dramas weren't over! Indeed, Dark and its #64 LMP2 car broke the rules under the safety car a couple of moments laters, as the Brasilian decided to pass all his opponents without being told by the stewards, and unlapped himself to ends in the same lap as JSK and Dodislaw... And when the safety car went out, the Brasilian got the elbows out to fight for the lead! Infortunately in the heat, he tapped JSK's rear, meaning the latter spun in the action, and left Dodislaw on the lead. But it wasn't a resting lead for Dodislaw as Dark decided to play his card and suddenly improved his pace as he was quicker than his Russian opponent, and Dark took the lead of the race! But infortunately for him, the stewards decided to strike him with a 2 laps penalty for safety car procedure infringement, which dropped him a lap behind System! The FSR Team's driver played his card for the podium, and improved his pace by 2 seconds, probably under the motivation of scoring his second podium of the season after Round 3. But when the French man came to mark his next pitstop, he infortunately slided exiting the last corner and crossed the line of the pitlane, as he had no fuel left, he decided to enter anyway knowing he would be facing a penalty that he indeed got. Dark was then back on the same lap while System still didn't marked his penalty, but on lap 59, while the leaders were on the 60th, Dark made a big mistake when coming off the bridge at the 9th corner and missed his braking point, ending up on a crash on the hill's wall, his car was not looking good, we thought the VSC was coming again, but he then somewhat "timed out" after this incident, leaving System all alone for the 3rd spot on the podium. But yet, it still was't over for the action in prototype! Because indeed, more than 20 laps later, while leading the race, Dodislaw went sunbathing again after the 15th corner, and offered JSK another opportunity to take the lead! And what better for the Slovakian driver to take his last pitstop of the race too? Dodislaw somewhat managed to leave the sand all alone this time, meaning the VSC didn't lasted, but then the Russian didn't stopped this time as he had a couple of laps of fuel left, his mission was to shave the most of time against JSK and try the overcut.. But infortunately that other sunbath costed him too much time and that moreover, when he came to make his pitstop, he did the same mistake as System and crossed the line of the pitlane entry, and was also "rewarded" by a drive through penalty for this action. In the end, JSK finally took his first win of the season after a eventful race! Despite his luck striking again in the wrong way, the stars decided that it was time to be aligned for the MRc's driver to be a race winner. Dodislaw finished in 2nd, which is his first time scoring anything else than a win. Behind them, System scored a deserved 2nd podium for 3rd with his #9 LMP2, while E.Cabral has put all the ingredients to see the checkered flag in a good 4th position.
On the GT3's side, the formation lap has been more quiet, but after the GT3 green flag happened, on the first corner, Ricardo and M.Ribeiro went side by side and made a Brasilian front fender's hug. Infortunately for the first one, lag contact happened between them 2, not helped that they were both coming from Brasil on a European server, which mean they had a ping higher than most of the drivers. Ricardo found himself stuck in the sand of the exit of the first corner. Fortunately, as the race just started and that the pit exit wasn't too far, the recovery car went out to get Ricardo out of his early misery. At the same time, a couple of laps further more, Pat De Lap found himself spinning after driving on a small portion of grass. No damages but just a couple of positions lost as he went back to the race just in front of Ricardo. Mazdaratie immediatly started to gap his opponents, while at the second place, M.Ribeiro was already under the pressure of Kyril. Infortunately, the Brasilian newcomer had to give up his position at the end of the 3rd lap, after having a large cornering situation, where Kyril took the opportunity to climb 2nd. After a decent race start where he was 4th, the other Brasilian registered in GT3, Lucas started to drop in the ranking, forcing him to make a pitstop after a couple of events. And then on his 9th lap, which was Mazdaratie's 10th, he was the first driver of the race to go for a sunbath at the 15th corner, bringing out the first VSC. Cyk was the only GT3 to make his pitstop under the VSC. And when the VSC went off, M.Ribeiro infortunately suffered of his cold tires and crashed into the rails at the 24th corner, leaving S.Martin climbing on the temporary podium. At the lap 22, it was the only time Mazdaratie would leave his GT3 race lead, when he came to make his first pitstop, Kyril indeed made his one a lap later, which allowed him to lead a lap. After a hour, M.Ribeiro found himself sunbathing again, bringing out the second VSC of the race. But after getting out of the sand thanks to the recovery car, the driver came in the pitlane to retires the car. And then, the recovery car didn't stayed jobless for too long, as newcomer FRT's Maxxis, knew to be the Spanish Community CESAV's reigning champion, as he was doing a great race until then, per starting last to his temporary 4th place, he was another victim of the turn 15th's beach call, and found himself stuck in the sand too. After that, the GT3's field remained kinda calm and quiet during the end of the second hour, where only smalls race events happened, until the VSC came again for a LMP2. It's at that exact time Lucas decided to follow the LMP2. But the Brasilian driver went sunbathing on a different manner, as he decided to go for the "tummy treatment" and to give his six pack some tan, as indeed, he infortunately rolled himself on the roof... That infortunately closed the VSC and brought the safety sar. And that safety car infortunately brought a bit of confusion in the GT3, as per the place it joined the pack, it did divided the GT3 field in 2 between Kyril in second and S.Martin in 3rd. Infortunately, the latter wasn't allowed to get his lap back, also not helped on the steward room by the chaos provoked by the #64 LMP2, meaning Mazdaratie and Kyril ended up having a lap gap ahead the rest of the GT3 field at the restart... Then for the 2 last hour, the GT3 was very quiet. Everyone seemed to have set its final position already... Only NFR Team's lost a position against Grau Na Pia who had a superior pace. But we also saw the retirement of Roda Presa Racing Team's Lucas, followed a moment later by Texas Drivers' Papator, which didn't affected the ranking. And then after the 4 hours, Mazdaratie took another dominant win, a lap ahead of Kyril! The latter can thanks the safety car, as S.Martin, in the last podium spot, eventually recovered part of his lap lost under the safety car, thanks to a better lap time consistency, as he finished only a minute and 12 seconds behind Kyril. Cyk finish 4th thanks to his consistency too, meanwhile Maxxis for his first race, managed to finish 5th, despite his sunbathing visit. 6th place was property of Grau Na Pia with Mugrilo, while NFR Team scored the 7th with Proxima at the checkered flag. Sponsor of the race, Neron and the Team Pél!can finished 8th and last running GT3.
Next race will take place at Aston, the 31st May. It was due to be a 8h race, but following the actual attendance of the series, and as a lot of drivers actually race in single, the staff decided to reduce it to 4 hours, hoping the drivers to score a better attendance.