Our great sim racing league partner CMS keeps the community up to date and posted on their racing in rFactor 2.
CMS keeps the sim racing community informed on how the racing has been through the past week in their rFactor 2 leagues. Covering a selection of races and different disciplines, CMS knows what it takes to keep this community vibrant and ever growing.
The CMS rF2 Week in Review: No Matter the Question, the answer is Le Mans!
While MNRL was on a gap, both the NARS and VWSC enjoyed one of their marquee events for their multiclass Hypercar/GT series with the longest events of their respective calendars. Le Mans holds a special place in the hearts of endurance drivers whether RL or virtual, with the two CMS events seeing strong fields to contest their races.
On a relatively cool and dry track for the NARS event, it was PRO Hypercar driver Daniel Kirby that set the fastest overall lap at 3:25.961 in his Mercedes AMG 1 with Hypercar AM driver Jerry Chen coming in at P7 after putting up a 3:30.097 in his Porsche 908-04. On the GT side, PRO Eduardo Beninca set the standard for that field at 3:53.82 in a Lexus RCF with the fastest GT AM qualifier, Stuart Barge putting his Honda NSX around the circuit in 3:58.349.
But as always the case in endurance racing, one fast lap does not always translate into a race winning pace and with this in mind, the field launched into the 90 minutes of racing that went from late afternoon into the middle of the night. The first dozen laps saw intense racing across the field of 27 drivers as they jockeyed for position and true race pace came into play.
Hypercar PROs JT Tami and Daniel Kirby alternated in leading overall through the second half of the race with Kirby retaking the lead with only 4 laps to go, building a 8s gap by the checkered flag. Hypercar AM driver Jerry Chen had much of the class lead to himself as he contested overall placement with the PROs, however an error in entering the pit gave him penalties and he had to content himself with second behind the patient Ross Smith in his Bugatti Bolide who had been keeping pace but with several PRO cars in-between the racers.
The GT field was given little to see of PRO Beninca as he proved his one lap pace was not accidental, finishing a lap ahead of his closest rival. The GT AM field was a closer race, with Barge in a race long duel, continually just out of reach of Erik Jacobs who finished 23s behind the class leader.
The outright race of the night went to GT driver Chris Brew who gained 12 positions as he cut through the GT field only to retire on his final racing lap and record a ‘no result’.
The stage was then set for the rematch during the VWSC 4.8 race on the Saturday, only with track and air temperatures well above those seen in the previous race. With 29 teams and 45 drivers overall, the pre-race chatter translated into a v busy track with lots of great racing action.
It was Daniel Kirby again seizing the pole position with both hands, only this time in a Bugatti Bolide and having shaved time off his Thursday night lap to register a scintillating 3:25.674. Bart Slobodzian, in an Aston Martin Valkyrie was only slightly behind with a 3:26.641 to register the top Hypercar AM qualifying lap. Elisio Netto recorded the top GT time at 3:53.909 in his Ford Mustang, while the GT AM field was led by Tom Lane in another Mustang with a 3:56.394.
Series Admin George Angelidis summed up the race nicely with the following comments: “Le Mans picks its winners. Got to feel for the Jason Whited /Ben Boorman crew that were pushing their car to the utmost limit to suffer 2 brake failures and at the end a spectacular (for the fans) engine blow up. George Whitehouse would detonate his engine earlier in the night when he accidentally bumped his h-shifter that put the car in 1st gear from 4th ending an amazing fight he had with Maciej Kasprzyk . But it also showed us great battles: the Tom Lane /Matt Buice fight proved those two are tied with a rubber band unable to break free from each other. The strategy fight at the end between Wouter de Bruijn and Ross Smith was a nice final touch to to an exciting event from Q through to the checkered flag, with lots of racing action and the many many many heartbreaks”.
After 4.8 hours of racing around a full 24 hour cycle, congratulations were in order for the CMS Pro crew of Daniel Kirby and Jon Uyan taking their Bugatti Bolide to the overall race and Hypercar win, the Storm Rider n00n crew of Ross Smith and Bart Slobodzian powering their Aston Martin Valkyrie to the win in Hypercar AM, and then the win for the solo drivers Maciej Kasprzyk (Independent, Audi R8) and Matt Buice (Trash Panda Racing, Lamborghini Huracan) for the GT and GT AM wins respectively.
You can catch all the action on the race streams on the CMS Youtube channel.
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