Saturday 25th October in the evening at Rockingham, it was time for the LFS Endurance Series by LFS France to launch on track its second season since its return after the long 10+ years break. And for this first round, it seemed like the work done by the staff during the off season has paid off, as it was the first time since the off season 2023 4h of Westhill - which was the first ever 24h for Anna support event on Live For Speed - that both categories would see over 10 qualified teams. Indeed, there was 12 LMP2 cars that were qualified, meanwhile in GT3, we would count 15 qualified cars. At the start, it was usually another story, as the SyNores LMP car was missing on the LMP2 side, meanwhile GUM Garage #1, Chile Racing and Papini Racing were missing on the GT3 side.
In LMP2, it was a Master Race Car team that was on pole position, but not the one we expected last season! Indeed, if we would have expected the reigning champ, Jsk, to be at this spot, but it was the sister car number 55 with at his wheel Sufor who signed the pole position. Gabor was just behind for Team S1DUS. On second row we would see Sobis (YES Motorsports) and Dodislaw (Winners Team). Then in 5th place, here was the champ, Jsk couldn't do better than this position before the end of the qualification, he placed his car in front of G Ligue by FSR Team's DLV who switched from GT3 this season. And while we were talking of the first "4h for Anna" on Westhill a few lines ahead, its first Winner, Lalurux, was in 7th place for Meta Racing, in front of Race Green Autosports' Rony. SyNores LMP with Owen (who didn't took the start) and FSR Team LMP1 with System would complete the top 10, in front of Horniga Loca Racing with Nano and PR with SkyEfe.
Gabor perfectly started his 2025-2026 campaign with a dominant win. But at first, it wasn't a peaceful route for the Team S1DUS driver who suffered a early incident in the race beginning. Indeed in the 7th lap, the Hungarian driver almost ended up into a crash with a GT3 car he was about to lap. He avoided the contact, but couldn't unfortunately avoid the mowing session, and joined back behind System, in 7th position. But he even dropped further down a couple of laps later when the safety car came by, when the 2024 stars Jsk and Dodislaw got involved into a crash with a GT3 and saw the Team Winners' driver flipped down into the sand. In the front, Darius had inherited of the leading. But the Lituanian driver for YES Motorsports had to make his pit stop and left the wheel to Sobis, and they had to leave the leadership to Gabor after the latter made a remontada. They would eventually take back the leadership for a quick lap when Gabor made his ultimate pit stop, but they had to do theirs a lap later, leaving Gabor on a leader cruise for the last 27 laps, but they still earned a well deserved second place. It's Jsk who claimed the last spot on the podium after a eventful race for the MRc driver who was part of the reason of the only safety car of the race, when at lap 10, he couldn't avoid the back of Cyk's GT3, they both went for a visit to the litter, but behind them, a in-chain reaction started, implying Dodislaw and Lalurux. The latter would finish in 4th, in front of Rony, who has been in the fight for the podium for half of the race. Further more behind them, we would find the FSR pair as DLV finished 6th after a battle with his team mate System. They even had a incident, where they both said it was their own fault.. And then Dodislaw is the last LMP2 classified in 8th, because indeed, SkyEfe gave up on the 24th lap, when Nano parked his car after 3 laps. It was still one more lap than Sufor who joined the spectators after only 2 laps, after he suffered a chaotic race start from his own fault, according to his saying.
Master Race Car domination in both categories? It looked like it was the case, as ZMaty signed the GT3's pole position, in front of Lost Points Team, and the returners Renesis who signed up for the whole season this time, after 2 participations for the "4h for Anna", Alex placed his iconic green and orange livery into the 3rd place, in front of the reigning champ S.Martin. We would meet another Master Race Car line up in 5th with Crizze, in front of the fastest man of the GT3 last year, Mazdaratie for Team America 3. 2024-2025 GT3 runner up, Cyk, was in 7th for his new team, Fantastcyk, in front of NFR Team with Proxima, while a GUM Garage's duo was closing the top 10 with Donald in front of Meuh. Chile Racing, Team America, Lambda Motorsports, Papini racing and Savage SimSports were completing this beautiful GT3 grid.
In GT3, the race has been less chaotic, despite some GT3 implied into some incident with the LMP2, which isn't surprising as Rockingham isn't a wide track. But Mazdaratie started his season as his ended his previous one, with a beautiful win. Belgian's Alex at the wheel of the McLata of the iconic French team Renesis claimed a great second place, after fighting with Mazdaratie during the race, the 2 drivers were only separated by less than a second, when MRc's Cride claimed the last position on the podium not too far, as he was 4 seconds from his 2 other rivals. The reigning GT3 champ, S.Martin for SM Racing, finished in 4th a lap behind, when his last season opponent, Cyk, unfortunately was involved into the early chaos with the LMP2 Jsk who caused the only safety car of the race. But the independant driver, who race for his own team called Fantastcyk, still finished in 5th. Would then follow Lost Points Team (6th), GUM Garage #3 (7th) and the last Team America's car in 8th. Master Race Car's ZMaty14 was in the fight for the podium, or even potentially for the win, but the Chilean driver unfortunately had to park his car off after his computer suffered a technical issue. Lambda Motorsports, NFR Team and SAVAGE SimSports were the other drivers who also gave up in the GT3.
This season started on a more positive note in term of amount of participants, and the drivers can't wait to be at the next round, who will be held on the Shibuya's layout the 6th december. At the same time, the LFSES' staff took benefit to announce that the 3rd round, who will be the support race for the "24H For Anna" charity event held in many SimRacings, will take place the 24th January 2025 at Westhill. The track was planned to be used for the 4th, but instead, 4th round will be held at Aston.
