Official Report: THR 6 Heures du Mans 2025

We could not have wished for a more sensational start to the 2025 season of historic simracing at THR. Once again, we embarked on a grueling 6 hour race - this time with three classes - around a period-correct representation of the world's most famous endurance race track. Using a quadruple time progression multiplier, our participants got a compressed taste of what it could have felt like to participate in the world's most famous 24 hour race in the 1960s.

With a record crowd of 135 drivers from 10 communities sharing 52 historic Prototype & GT race cars from the mid-1960s, the THR 6 Heures du Mans 2025 has surpassed last year's edition as the biggest endurance race in THR history. Unbelievably, the entry list had run out of vacant slots within just 3:40h of opening the registrations, rapidly necessitating the addition of a waiting list.

Welcome to the official report of a race for the history books.

Expression of Gratitude

None of this would have been possible without the dedication and enthusiasm of drivers, teams, and countless supporters. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who took part in this event. Whether you were behind the wheel, supporting a team, or simply watching and cheering from the sidelines, you played a vital role in making this event a success.

A special thank you also goes out to our incredible commentators (PirateLaserBeam, Akashic, Guido, Thomas, and Jascha), who brought the race to life with their expert analysis and engaging coverage. Their efforts made both the English and German live broadcasts highly enjoyable for our audience. Additionally, we are especially grateful to GPLaps, who not only participated in the race but also streamed the event from his Matra's cockpit, bringing the excitement of historic endurance simracing to an even wider audience. Syndicate Motorsport's team Hawk additionally provided a front-row seat into their early hour-long fight for 2nd place, livestreaming from the cockpit of their #98 Chaparral 2F.

These streams combined had amassed an incredible 26,000 views within just a week and eclipsed more than 30,000 views at the time of this report's publishing, highlighting the strong appeal of vintage sim racing and the growing interest in this genre.

Seeing such enthusiasm and engagement is truly fantastic!

We also want to thank our generous sponsors for their amazing prizes that were raffled after the victory lane interviews with the podium finishing teams:

• 3DRAP: Three €50 vouchers and a vintage racing rim (McLaren MP4-4 replica steering wheel)
• PIMAX: Ten $80 vouchers
• F3 Classic Tracks by Sergio Loro: Five $10 vouchers

ALL OF YOU made this evening special for us!

Yours,
THR Orga Team

Here comes the full report to tell the story of this amazing event, featuring plenty of screenshots & videos provided by the participants. Sit back, grab your favourite beverage of choice, and enjoy the read!

Track

The 1967 Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans hardly needs an introduction to endurance racing enthusiasts all over the world. Situated in the Pays de la Loire region in the northwest of France where the Sarthe and Huisne rivers meet, Le Mans is the capital of Département Sarthe. Even more importantly, it has been the world center of endurance racing for more than 100 years, hosting countless triumphs and tragedies. 

True to the era from which this event's car roster comes from, this is still the highest-speed variant of the track, without the Ford Chicane that was built in 1968, and without the Porsche Curves that were built in the 1970s to bypass the treacherously fast and blind Maison Blanche chicane. Though run almost entirely on public roads, this layout allowed for high sustained speeds that were hardly ever interrupted. The start/finish area still retained the layout used in 1955, when a freak accident approaching the pit lane led to the worst catastrophe in the history of motorsports with 84 deaths.

The lap begins with the long and very fast but treacherously tightening uphill Courbe Dunlop. After cresting the hill under the Dunlop Bridge, the track drops down into a heavy braking zone for the "S" du Tertre Rouge in the forest. Next up, you have Virage du Tertre Rouge - still as a junction instead of the fast turn it is today - to lead you onto the Ligne droite des Hunaudières straightaway. Uninterrupted by the chicanes that were only introduced in 1990, you go flat-out all the way from Virage du Tertre Rouge through Courbe d'Antares and Courbe des Hunaudières to the brutal braking zone for the 90-degree junction that is Virage de Mulsanne. From here, you accelerate past Courbe du Golf into the forest, before slowing down through a very tricky curved braking zone coming into the Esses d'Indianapolis, after which you might get surprised by the fading of your overheated brakes when you try to decelerate again for Virage d'Arnage. From here, it's time to put the hammer down again, flat-out through Courbe du Buisson on the run to the most dangerous curve of them all: the blind high-speed chicane at Maison Blanche that takes you back onto the start and finish straightaway with its open pit lane.

Based on the stunning Le Grand Circuit by woochoo & Virtua_LM that was initially ported to Assetto Corsa by Terra21, racinjoe013 improved it further by providing a more accurate look and feel of the environment. 

For the 2025 edition, we have updated to racinjoe013's most recent baseline version 1.0.5 and updated the THR custom layout that features 54 diagonal starting grid spots directly on the pit wall and 54 straightly-alined pitboxes. Crucially, the apex wall at Maison Blanche was repositioned closer to the track now by pitman, putting it similarly close to the white line as in real life as of 1967. Also, all walls in this section are collideable now, having sealed holes that used to allow cars to fall through some walls and off the map in accidents. This update prompted all participants to re-learn how to navigate Maison Blanche.

Cars

Eligible for competition were 10 of the 20 cars from the incredible WSC Legends 60s Mod (v1.2.1), accompanied by 6 GT cars from the AC Legends GTC60 Mod (v1.2.1). Special thanks to the WSC Legends & AC Legends teams of Bazza and more than 20 other contributors who supported the development of these stunning car packs!

This event was held as a multiclass event with 3 classes that were custom selections for this track:

• P 7.0: Prototype race cars with an engine displacement of up to 7000 ccm
• P 2.0: Prototype race cars with an engine displacement of up to 2000 ccm
• GT: Production-based Grand Touring sports cars with an engine displacement up to 7000 ccm

Some of the offered cars did not make their way into the entry list:

• in P 7.0, almost three quarters of the 13 teams picked the GT40 Mk IV, while the lone GT40 Mk II entry was refused over safety concerns following public practice
• in P 2.0, half of the 29-strong field jumped into the Matra M630 BRM, leaving last year's class-winning Chevron B8 FVA and the grandfathered Porsche 904/8 without any takers
• none of the GT entrants were ready to eat flies for 6 hours in the windscreen-less Shelby Cobra 289 Competition, with 5 of 10 GT entrants preferring the comfort of the Jaguar E-Type Le Mans

We are particularly proud of the Infoboard below:
Covering detailed information on the participating teams, car types, track, active driver log, event stats, and results that helped participants get to know each other and provided a detailed overview of additional information to the commentators, it can be found at: bit.ly/Infoboard_5th-THR-Endurance

A copy of the spotterguide below was also worked into the infoboard above, and the infoboard version of the spotterguide even hyperlinked the team info page of each car to its preview picture. For your convenience, we embedded the PDF version below for a quick glance at all 52 cars. If the navigation panel gets in the way of the view below, click the burger menu icon in the top left corner of the embedded PDF.

Qualifying

The entry list was packed with drivers from 10 different communities. The participants were more than eager to put in their laps to refine their track knowledge and optimize the setups of their cars. Across three weeks of public practice and one week of qualifying, a whopping 13,415 laps were recorded on the THR servers, totaling 174,395 km and thus more than 4.3 cirumventions of the globe!

Spearheading the P 7.0 class, Attila Diner from Germany took the overall pole position at 3:17.48 minutes with a commanding margin of 0.867 seconds for Imkermeister Motorsport in the #2 Ford GT40 Mk IV. Behind him, Ks from Finland in the #98 Chaparral 2F of Syndicate Hawk managed to break into the phalanx of Fords that monopolized the rest of the Top 10, nicely mirroring Phil Hill's 2nd place in the qualifying for the 24 Heures du Mans in 1967. Streetbike from France completed the Top 3 for MS Development, the team that had taken 2nd overall in a Lola last year. Unable to keep up with the big V8s, the three Ferrari teams ended up at the tail end of their class.

Last year's dominant 2.0 Liter Prototype (P 2.0) solo entrant Adam Keefe from the United States stayed faithful to what turned out to be the most hotly-contested class of this year's race with a whopping 29 cars. This time, however, he formed a highly favored team called GoodAdamSean with his fellow VAC aces Goodsmile Racing from Poland and Sean Campbell from the USA. Instead of the Cosworth FVA powered Chevron B8 that had taken Keefe to victory lane last year, they signed up with the brandnew Matra M630 powered by an F1-derived B.R.M. V8 engine.

Continuing where he left off last year, Keefe put the yellow #77 Matra on pole in class and P14 overall, translating a laptime of 3:36.684 to a massive 0.787 second margin ahead of Maximilian Wenig from Germany in the #23 Matra of Schneider Motorsport. The winning duo of the 2023 THR 4-Stunden-Rennen Deutschlandring followed next in line but over 1.5 seconds behind Wenig. The Australian driver Jayden HW piloted the fuel-efficient but not quite as fast #127 Porsche 910/6 of Side Heart Motorsports to a laptime of 3:39.126 minutes, keeping Remco from Écurie Orange at bay by 0.3 seconds.

In the GT class, last year's overall winners FMG, Flashor and HappyKojot kept their number #727 but renamed their team to The Purple Helmets. They went for the craziest car they could find on this year's grid. That turned out to be the drum-braked Mercedes-Benz 300 SL(R) from the GT class with its tricky swing axle and a 5-speed transmission with an inverted dog-leg scheme. FMG remapped his shifter to match the shifting scheme of this unique gearbox, and fittingly placed The Purple Helmets on the pole position of the GT class:

Trailing the #727 Mercedes by 0.65 seconds within the GT class, DriK from France put the #33 Texacovid Revival Jaguar E-Type into 2nd place in class, holding a comfortable 0.8 second advantage over Mark Reed from the United States in the #9 Jaguar of Écurie Slideways.

Race

Start & Lap 1

The stage was set for an epic story that should have it all: a dramatic tale of triumph and tragedy in a relentless six hour pursuit characterized by stunning displays of bravery, skill, and sportsmanship. Friedrich Strauss's iconic "Also Sprach Zarathustra" formed the prelude to a symphony of violence that was played by an orchestra of 392 fire-breathing cylinders. Everyone in the paddock and the main grandstands felt the shockwaves in their chests and under their feet as the lights went out in sunny afternoon conditions to send 52 brave teams out on their journey.

For the first time in the history of our event, the Le Mans start was performed without a pileup. That was a close call, though, after contact between the Dinos of Adam Krech in the #38 and his fellow Polish countryman Michael in the #10 had sent the latter skidding towards the pit wall, and making contact with the #727 Mercedes and #55 Corvette. The start sadly already saw the first high-profile retirement of the event: the team that had taken 2nd place overall last year.

After having qualified the MS Development Ford in 3rd place, Streetbike from France fell sick before the race and had to retire the car on the spot, because it was not possible for his fellow countryman Kami_Kaze31 to cover the entire race alone. We'd like to thank Streetbike once again sincerely for getting into the cockpit during the starting procedure despite these circumstances at our request, because this preserved the orderly alignment of all cars on the starting grid. Had he been offline, his unoccupied car would have been spawned parallel to the pit wall, intersecting with the cars of other participants.

With a spotless start from pole position, Attila Diner took command of the race straight away, while Ks spectacularly lit up the rear tyres of the #98 Chaparral in a bid to retain 2nd place after he had bogged down. With a slow start from 4th place, InGroover in the #61 Ford of the F3 Classic Tracks Team immediately got passed by the #1 and #160 Fords.

As the field decended under the Dunlop bridge and headed into the Esses for the first time, Adam Celárek in the #127 Porsche 910/6 had captured the class lead in the P 2.0 class after a fantastic start and prepared to line up an attack against the last P 7.0 car in order to gain some breathing room. That was the #4 Ford of JVM Racing, which had suffered a poor start from 7th place on the grid.

Attila Diner led the way out of Tertre Rouge with an elegant powerslide and the Chaparral hot on his heels. Behind them, Marcus Andersson in the #1 Ford and Grosspa in the #160 Ford had a bit of a gap to catch up to. In the P 2.0 class, Adam Celárek led his class onto the Hunaudières from right under the tail of the #4 Ford GT40 Mk IV of JVM Racing, but immediately got under attack by Maximilian Wenig in the dark blue and white #23 Matra of Schneider Motorsport, who passed him around the outside through Courbe d'Antares. In the yellow #77 Matra of the pole sitting GoodAdamSean team, Sean Campbell was already in Celárek's slipstream. The leading GTs were already ahead of the slowest P 2.0 cars, with Flashor in the #727 Mercedes getting under attack by the #55 Corvette, the #33 Jaguar, and the #559 TVR.

Take in the sights and sounds down the Ligne droite des Hunaudières as the entire remaining field of 51 cars speeds into focus and powers past the camera at Courbe des Hunaudières at up to 340 km/h.

The margin of the Imkermeister Motorsport Ford was enough to defend the lead during the inaugural run down the Ligne droite des Hunaudières, but the Syndicate Hawk Chaparral driven by Ks got relegated from 2nd to 4th place by the Fords of the Andersson Brothers and Cliosspa Racing. In the red #1 car, the Andersson Brothers from Sweden competed in their first ever online simracing event, but 30 year old Mathias and 35 year old Marcus have decades of offline simracing experience against AI under their belt and both of them drive powerful vintage cars in real life.

Starting from 5th, they were also among the very few teams that performed physical driver swaps in a shared simulator cockpit. The vast majority of participants performed their driver swaps by disconnecting and reconnecting to the server from different geographic locations during the two mandatory "longstops", which had to last at least 180 seconds from pit entrance to pit exit. A few unlucky drivers lost their co-drivers in the run up to the event but rose to the challenge of driving solo for 6 hours, remaining connected to the server during their longstops that provided valuable opportunities for a short run to the restroom. The remaining pit stops in the race were allowed to be performed as quickly as possible.

At Virage de Mulsanne, the usual lap 1 drama happened across all classes. Fabienne Gärtner in the #21 Ferrari 330P4 of Dexter Racing arrived on dirty tyres after a top speed excursion into the gravel at Courbe des Hunaudières behind the #59 Ford of former superbike racer Rolf Biber. After having locked up the front left wheel in the braking zone, she bumped Biber's Ford into the escape road and understeered into the back of the #235 Ford of SimonOfTheDesert from the ASRL/VAC Road Doggs, sending it sideways and briefly backing up the rest of the P 7.0 field.

At the front of the P 2.0 field, Andreas Roggel in the #36 Cursim Vector Matra braked slightly too late and bumped Adam Celárek into a 360° spin at Mulsanne. When they got underway again, they had backed up the upper mid-field of their class into a tightly-packed battle formation of six cars fighting over 6th place in class after Bazza (#17), Ayrton Titos (#49), and Jake William (#5) had snuck through into the Top 5. Further back, the Egyptian Matra #31 of the World Sim Racers ungently passed Adam Krech's Dino (#38).

In the GT class, Mark Reed in the #9 Jaguar of Écurie Slideways spun his Jaguar stablemate DriK (#33 Texacovid Revival) out of 4th place in class, sending the Frenchman to the back of the field. In the #256 Shelby Mustang GT350 of Team Fabrication, Jolene Higgins from the USA had started last. She missed her braking point and skidded through the grass before she drilled her Mustang into the side of the #123 Dino 206S of Ramada Racing & Friends, which had been piloted through a cautious start by Duderei.

Despite smaller skirmishes at the start and at Mulsanne, it had been a reasonably clean first lap so far. Tragically, that changed in horrific fashion between Courbe du Golf and Indianapolis. Fueled by the adrenaline and frustration of having just been spun out of 3rd place in class at Mulsanne, Adam Celárek got a little too close to the car ahead. That was the #169 Zweterige Kreeft Porsche piloted by Merlijn from the Netherlands, who had just made the tactical mistake of opening the left lane up for the dark green #30 JVM Racing Matra, which allowed the Matra to start passing him, with 3 more competitors directly on their heels.

In this perfect storm of dangerous circumstances, all it took was a little spark, which arrived in the form of a small client lag spike that ate up the remaining margin of error that had already been downsized by the Porsche 910/6's slightly too long 3D collider model that had gone unnoticed by Team WSC Legends.

These factors combined to trigger the worst pileup in THR Endurance history:

Unsettled by the lag-augmented contact from the #127 Porsche of Celárek who had already feathered the throttle by then, Merlijn in the #169 Zweterige Kreeft Porsche veered into the side of the #30 JVM Racing Matra, which then fatally impacted the pine trees on the left at over 250 km/h. Behind the spinning #169 Porsche, Emiel in the #227 Dino of Empire Racing Team was touched from behind by Quentin Chauviteau in the black Syndicate Concorde #97 Porsche, causing the Dino to leave the track to the right and head-on into a tree. Merlijn's red Porsche spun into the trees on the right, but they spat him back out and directly into the path of Timo Weber from Switzerland in the #27 Placeholder Racing Matra. This led to a domino effect, because the drivers behind had not immediately stepped on the brakes when the chaos unfolded ahead.

The Dutchman's Porsche had barely started rolling in the right direction again when it was hit from behind heavily by Maurizio Savona (#25 Dino) who had Matt Royall (#90 Porsche) on his rear bumper. This sent Merlijn across the nose of the #31 World Sim Racers Matra and #727 Mercedes into the trees for the second time, after the #31 had previously rammed the #62 Rennpraktikanten Matra into a spin from behind.

Roughly 100 meters behind the group of colliding cars ahead, Akashic in the #100 Jaguar E-Type of Syndicate Typhoon was oblivious of the yellow flags. His heavy Jaguar became a battering ram because he only applied the brakes when he arrived at his usual braking point for Indianapolis. The big black cat kicked Adam Krech's #38 Dino of 1.5 Braincell Racing into the forest before it drilled itself into the side of the #62 Matra, which then somersaulted through the air in spectacular fashion. Having arrived behind Akashic at the same inappropriate speeds, Maximilian Putrafki (#559 TVR) and imListo (#51 Jaguar) had more luck than judgment when the sea of carnage split itself in front of them to enable their miraculous escape.

Mark Reed in the #9 Jaguar of Écurie Slideways slowed down in time to search a way around the #62 Matra that was coming to a halt after its rollovers. By doing so, he caught the following Alfa Romeo 33 Periscopica of Pablomendoza (#170) off guard, who locked up the brakes in evasive action and grazed the barriers. When Reed cautiously tried to pass the wrecked #62 Matra through the grass on the right hand side, that Matra suddenly flew into his face because Mario Mariano (#13 Mercedes) had even missed his regular braking point after having stayed on the throttle despite seeing smoke and flying cars ahead.

Equally shaken and stirred from all of the impacts and spins that he had just endured in the #62 car that somehow still had a running engine and a flat tyre, 62 year old RennOpa99 then overlooked the #123 Dino of Duderei, and powered right into his path from point-blank range before calling a tow truck. Two cars had to be towed back to the pits, several more had to pit for repairs after lap 1, and the others suffered serious bodywork damage that would slow down their early progress.

After the smoke and dust had cleared, it became evident that the Big One had put a huge dent into the hopes of more than a dozen teams!

It was a chilling reminder of the dangers of racing in the past. If this had been a real-life accident, we would have had to bury many friends afterwards - and who knows if this venue could have survived the public outcry of another major tragedy, a mere decade after the Le Mans disaster of 1955 had led a neighbouring country (Switzerland) to ban circuit racing altogether.

We'd like to take this opportunity to commemorate the famous Formula 1 and sportscar driver Joakim "Jo" Bonnier, who tragically perished in this location in 1972. After Swiss privateer Florian Vetsch had unexpectedly braked hard to force Bonnier to lap him before the braking zone of Indianapolis in the morning hours of the 24 Heures du Mans, Bonnier's Lola T280 somersaulted through the air and fatally ejected the Swede into the pine trees.

Moments later, the Assetto Corsa modding legend and architect of the magic driving experience of the carpacks used in this event caught the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Live on the screens of thousands of spectators on the GPLaps live stream, Bazza elegantly threw away 3rd place in class by boardsliding the Écurie Orange Matra on top of the sandbank after he had outbraked himself in defense against Ayrton Titos in the #49 SimRuina Dino.

When grosspa from Switzerland came through Maison Blanche in 2nd place overall after a fantastic start from 6th place in the #160 Ford GT40 Mk IV of Cliosspa Racing, he understeered into the wall and briefly lost control, nearly wiping out the car with a second impact into the left wall before regaining control. Prior to race day, his team had suffered a similar setback as MS Development. After an infection had rendered Clio Kulper from the USA unfit to drive, grosspa rose to the challenge of taking on the grueling 6 hour race alone. He finished the opening lap in the position he had started in.

The running order of the overall top 5 (all P 7.0) at the end of lap 1 was as follows:

1. Imkermeister Motorsport #2
2. Andersson Brothers #1
3. Syndicate Hawk #98
4. F3 Classic Tracks Team #61
5. Revival Stars #69

In the P 2.0 class, the top 5 after the opening lap's mayhem were:

1. Schneider Motorsport #23
2. GoodAdamSean #77
3. SimRuina Racing Team II #49
4. L'équipe des garcons #5
5. Side Heart Motorsports #127

The first five GTs at the end of Lap 1:

1. Levspeed #559
2. Silverheads Division #55
3. The Purple Helmets #727
4. debilos riders #51
5. Syndicate Typhoon #100

First Hour

InGroover from Austria found himself looking for a new THR Endurance cockpit this year after having supported SG Stern with a Nissan in their 4-car entry in last year's edition of this event. This time, a scheduling conflict with SG Stern's 9th simracing bootcamp on the evening before the race had left too many simracers of Germany's largest nationwide grassroots sports club away from home on race day. InGroover took this opportunity to support the Argentinian #61 Ford GT40 Mk IV backed by track modding legend Sergio Loro's F3 Classic Tracks. Alongside Tasking Flyer, who ended up sick on race day, and Hayley Smith, he formed a team that could challenge for an overall podium if they kept the car safe.

After a slow start, InGroover had recovered to 4th place by the end of lap 1. However, he found himself in trouble on lap 2, when under pressure from TurboTard in the green #69 Revival Stars Ford from France, he put a wheel into the grass while braking for Indianapolis. After skidding into the wall and spinning to a stop at an unfortunate angle, he resumed the race in 9th place.

While Attila Diner heavily outpaced all other P 7.0 drivers during the first hour, the big story of this stage of the race in the top class was written behind him in a monumental 3-way fight for second place. In the only Chaparral 2F (Syndicate Hawk #98), Ks from Finland traded blows with Marcus Andersson from Sweden (#1 Ford GT40 Mk IV) lap after lap. TurboTard in the green #69 Ford caught up with them by the end of the first hour, turning the duel into a 3-way fight.

In the P 2.0 class, a similar scenario unfolded. Maximilian Wenig (#23) from Germany and Sean Campbell (#77) from the USA sprinted off into the distance nose-to-tail in their Matras, having opened a huge lead on the opening lap with help of the drama behind them and only continuing from there.

Behind them, the crowd was treated to a 4-way battle for 3rd place in class.

While Roggel battled against his Matra stablemate William over 5th place in class, Celárek in the Porsche advanced to 3rd when he passed Titos on the start/finish straight after a brave flat-out run through Maison Blanche, and proceeded to pull away. This pass can be viewed from William's perspective here.

Andreas Roggel soon caught up with Ayrton Titos and started a battle with him that lasted several laps. Jake William followed just outside of striking distance and broadcasted a front-row view of the action ahead to thousands of viewers on his live stream, before Roggel eventually pulled away.

Moments later, the next fatalities occurred. Tragically, this time not only drivers but also spectators were involved. The Eastern Bloc had entered an FSO-built clone of the Dino 206S and entered it under the Polski FIAT brand. It was only driven by Michael, a 19 year old pianist from Poland, after his Czech co-driver Kulich had become sick. Upon arrival in the Mulsanne braking zone, Michael touched the back of the #31 Matra from the Egypt-based World Sim Racers Team, piloted by Haitham Abdelkader. While Michael escaped unharmed in a spin that broke his car's transmission, Abdelkader's bronze Matra had gone off the road with disastrous consequences.

Instead of red-flagging the race, race control kept the race under green in similar fashion as it had been the case after the 1955 disaster on the start/finish straight's main grandstands. Only this time, the accident was not even announced on the official broadcasts.

Take in the atmosphere as we spend 5 1/2 minutes looking back from Courbe des Hunaudières while the low sun dips sections of the long straight between trees into warm shades of light during the first hour.

Overall Top 5 (all P 7.0) after 1 hour:

1. Imkermeister Motorsport #2
2. Andersson Brothers #1 +40.2s
3. Revival Stars #69 +0.7s
4. Syndicate Hawk #98 +0.5s
5. Cliosspa Racing #160 +8.6s

P 2.0 Top 5 after 1 hour:

1. Schneider Motorsport #23
2. GoodAdamSean #77 +0.6s
3. Side Heart Motorsports #127 +24.8s
4. Cursim Vector #36 +4.6s
5. L'équipe des garcons #5 +16.8s

GT Top 5 after 1 hour:

1. The Purple Helmets #727
2. Silverheads Division #55 +4.4s
3. Texacovid Revival #33 +24.6s
4. Ecurie Slideways #9 +8.0s
5. Syndicate Typhoon #100 +30.5s

Second Hour

As the darkness fell, viewers continued to be entertained by heated battles for podium positions in both of the prototype classes, while the top two GTs had a little bit of breathing room. The first driver changes were performed during the 2nd hour and spawned interesting questions. How quickly would new drivers be able to get into the groove after taking over from a co-driver, and who would end up cracking under the pressure of competing here at night?

Starting their first new lap of the second hour, the trio fighting over 2nd place overall emerged nose to tail on the start/finish straight after almost having run into the back of each other behind Jolene Higgins's Mustang at Maison Blanche.

Two laps later and too eager to regain the lost ground, the fast Frenchman ran wide in the unnamed fast right-hand curve that leads over a crest and through a trench before Maison Blanche. After having understeeed into the bumpy embankment of the trench, the green GT40 landed on its roof, spectacularly eliminating it from the fight for a podium because it lost an entire lap while it had to be towed back to the pits.

Andersson and Ks kept passing each other back and forth lap after lap into the darkness, until both of them pulled into the pits at the same time to serve their first of the two mandatory 3 minute longstops. During his first longstop, Marcus Andersson handed over the #1 Ford to his brother Mathias, with the two of them performing a physical driver swap as they actually shared the same simulator cockpit. Ks handed over the Chaparral to Binding from the United Kingdom.

Grosspa in the #160 had saved fuel, which briefly gave him the overall lead during Attila Diner's first pit stop, who retook it in the #2 after 1:40 hours when Grosspa performed his first longstop. This brought new names into the podium range at this stage of the race. Parrilla from Argentina had smoothly climbed through the ranks during the opposition's longstops behind the wheel of the #26 Ferrari 330P4 Berlinetta of Squadra Pending Systemas. After having held 2nd place overall for a few minutes, he was passed on the Hunaudières by Rolf Biber from Switzerland in the Overdrive Racing #59 GT40. Both of them were more than 2 minutes behind Attila Diner's leading Imkermeister Motorsport Ford, when the leader found himself under the back of the #19 Jaguar at Indianapolis after having misjudged the braking of the car ahead.

Moments later, InGroover in the #61 Ford suffered a technical problem mere seconds after having lapped Nate Lupson in the #5 Matra on the Ligne droite des Hunaudières, the outcome of which you can watch right here. Having started the race during daytime without synthetic light in the room, InGroover's VR headset lost tracking when darkness fell, leading to a sudden and complete loss of vision. The Austrian tried to pull over the car on the shoulder next to the track but lost control after grazing the fence, and was lucky not to spin back onto the track.

A few positions behind them, the two contenders who had participated in Jaguar XJ13s last year put on a great show once again after they found each other.

Only this time, they were also gradually catching up to the #820 Chucklefecks Matra piloted by Vilez. This phase of the race was characterized by plenty of duels, particularly in the P 2.0 class that saw changes of position almost every lap. Examples included when Florian Masse (#134 Thundering Two) recaptured 12th in class from "MarkSmith" in the #42 RCS Classix Matra after his accident, or a duel between Quentin Chauviteau's Porsche (#98 Syndicate Concorde) and Emiel's Dino (#227 Empire Racing Team).

The early first Longstop of the two dominant Matras at the front of the P 2.0 class temporarily handed the lead to Adam Celárek in the #127 entry, who benefitted from the less powerful Porsche 910/6's class-leading fuel efficiency that gave it an extra 15 minutes of range.

The Thundering Two suffered a setback during the first Longstop, when the server's Real Penalty app kicked our community founder pitman during his first attempts to take over the #134 from THR Orga member Florian Masse. It took 4 attempts for him to complete the driver swap successfully, and by the time he managed to get out of pit lane, 36 seconds on top of the 180 second minimum window per Longstop had passed. Faced with the next issue - poor framerate - he soon stopped the car next to the track to troubleshoot that. It turned out to be the additional load of livestreaming his VR cockpit view to his co-driver in Discord, which was too much for his PC - another 49 seconds gone.

In the meantime, some drivers struggled to find their rhythm in the darkness after having just taken over their cars from their co-drivers, and two of them encountered each other between Mulsanne and Indianapolis. Écurie Orange (#17 Matra) had used the first longstop to perform a driver swap from Bazza to Remco, and Bionic had just taken over the #235 ASRL/VAC Road Doggs Ford from SimonOfTheDesert. When Remco went from the left lane through the right lane apex and back to the left at Courbe du Golf despite the approaching Ford of Bionic, the Canadian Ford driver backed off and only passed after Remco had gone back to the left. However, Bionic also lifted the throttle in the next right-hand kink that is usually driven flat-out, leading him to hardly pull away from Remco before he reached the Indianapolis braking zone at just 270 km/h.

In the meantime, Adam Celárek (#127) had soared to new heights in the dark while the track gradually continued to gain grip, setting a new lap record for the Porsche 910/6 at 3:38.859 before he pulled into the pits after 1:45h. Ayrton Titos now assumed the lead in the #49 Dino of SimRuina Racing Team, because the Spaniard had opted to perform an early normal pit stop after an hour, where he only took new tyres and about 70 liters of fuel. This meant that this car's mandatory two Longstops would be performed during the remaining two scheduled full-service pit stops, and that an additional splash & dash would definitely be necessary to make the distance.

They say that all the best things come in threes, but for pitman in the #134 Thundering Two Dino, this worked the other way around. Following his technical gremlins at the start of his stint and just ten minutes after the accident suffered by Bionic in the white #235 Ford, a late lapping maneuver by the Canadian into Maison Blanche caught pitman off-guard.

Bionic had lapped pitman very late into the Maison Blanche approach and then slowed down to a speed of just 220 km/h, which was 15 km/h slower than pitman's usual minimum speed there. This maneuver forced pitman off the racing line in the approach to Maison Blanche. In this difficult situation, pitman made the mistake of turning in too early and hit the apex wall, leading him to spin into the outside wall before he limped to the pits for repairs. This situation flushed another 61 seconds down the drain, before pitman delivered the rest of his 3-hour double-stint without any further setbacks. He had been just centimeters away from a much worse fate, though:

Merlijn in the #169 Zweterige Kreeft entry, which translates to Sweaty Lobster in Dutch and has been a fan-favourite since it's debut on the THR Endurance scene in 2023, also performed his first regular pit stop. Just short of the 2 hour mark, he brought the car into the pits for its first longstop after he had sweated his way back up to a temporary 8th place in class following the premature repair stop that had been forced upon him by the Big One near Indianapolis on the opening lap.

Meanwhile, the GT class saw two new leaders during the second hour, and it also accounted for the second retirement from the race.

When the class-leading Corvette pulled into the pits for its first scheduled pit stop as well, Texacovid Revival #33 and Ecurie Slideways #9 briefly assumed a Jaguar 1-2 lead in the GT class, until their first pit stops were due as well. Completing the Top 5, Mario Mariano from Poland was also still to take his first pit stop. The fantastic fuel efficiency of the direct-injected inline-8 engine allowed the Mercedes-Benz teams to complete the 6 hour race with just 2 pit stops. The thirstier Jaguar E-Types achieved the same feat due to a larger fuel tank. After The Purple Helmets had completed their preponed first pit stop, Mariano still trailed them by a little over half a minute due to his significantly slower laptimes.

Top 5 in P 7.0 (overall) after two hours:

1. Imkermeister Motorsport #2
2. Overdrive Racing #59 +130s
3. Squadra Pending Sistemas #26 +7.9s
4. F3 Classic Tracks Team #61 +22.9s
5. Andersson Brothers #1 +0.5s

Top 5 in P 2.0 after two hours:

1. SimRuina Racing Team II +49
2. GoodAdamSean #77 +31.0s
3. Schneider Motorsport #23 +12.1s
4. Revival Series #8 +17.6s
5. Chucklefecks #820 +1.9s

Top 5 in GT after two hours:
(corrected by the temporary incorrect display of Levspeed #559 during their driver swap)

1. Texacovid Revival #31
2. Ecurie Slideways #9 +71.6s
3. Silverheads Division #55 +54.5s
4. The Purple Helmets #727 +103.4s
5. FRL - P***y Magnet #13 +32.2s

Third Hour

The third hour was shaped by a mixture of battles between dark horses and the strain of driving at night at the historic Le Mans circuit, leading to numerous close calls and accidents.

A few minutes later, the 3rd retirement occurred. After a strong start in the fight for podium positions during the first hour, the green GT40 #69 of the Revival Stars had already fallen down the order after its first accident at Maison Blanche early in the second hour. To make matters worse, when Aymon Martin took over the car from TurboTard, he suffered severe framerate problems and screen freezes.

After about 2:40h, a huge accident occurred at the Dunlop Bridge. It began when Jörg U. spun out at Courbe Dunlop after hitting the outside barrier because of a missed turn-in point. He then skidded across the track into the inside wall, from where he ping-ponged towards the outside again - just before the crest under the Dunlop Bridge. While the #5 Matra driven by Nate Lupson made it through unscathed, Jörg U.'s #66 Matra was collected by the next car: the #235 ASRL/VAC Road Doggs Ford driven by Bionic, who then lost control and spun towards the start of the braking zone for the S du Tertre Rouge.

The Matra of Jörg U. came to rest on the outside lane of the track just in front of the Dunlop Bridge, and with its headlights facing the wrong direction, keeping him well-visible to the following cars. Bionic's #235 Ford, however, ended up completely sideways behind the crest, about 300 meters onwards from the Matra, and on the opposite side of the track. That was not only the side to which everyone would take evasive action after seeing Jörg U's Matra, but also right on the racing line at the start of the braking zone for the S du Tertre Rouge.

The next car in line was the #127 Porsche 910/6 driven by Adam Celárek for Side Heart Motorsports, who had played a key role in starting the pileup near Indianapolis on Lap 1, followed by the #55 Corvette.

Adam Celárek had seen the Matra in time and darted back to the right, unaware of the second crashed car. He saw the stricken Ford far too late - only about a second before the impact. Celárek's Porsche drilled itself through the Canadian's cockpit at 240 km/h, destroying both of their cars. Once again, we would have witnessed a guaranteed double fatality if this had happened in real life.

Directly behind the Porsche, Nuno Rocha in the Silverheads Division Corvette #55 failed to tighten his exit in time at Courbe Dunlop and clipped the #66 Matra, which nearly sent the Corvette flying over the wall before the Portuguese driver rammed it again in a frantic attempt to avoid impacting the #235 Ford and #127 Porsche.

Parrilla brought the #26 Squadra Pending Sistemas Ferrari into the pits from 2nd place for the team's first Longstop and driver swap after just shy of 2.5 hours. The Argentinian handed over the car to his Australian co-driver Shallowwater. Perplexingly, Ferrari only fitted a 114 Liter fuel tank to the 330P4, as opposed to the 140 Liters allowed by the 1966/67 FiA Appendix J rulebook for cars with the Ferrari's engine displacement. While this sped up their fuel stops and let them run off-sequence to other competitors in their class, it also forced the Ferrari teams to perform an extra pit stop. Combined with a slower outright Le Mans pace, this only left the Ferrari teams outsider chances for a podium.

Moving under braking, Exhibit B, after 2:50 hours:
Jörg U. from Germany in the #66 Matra (AssettoCorsaFriends ONE) crested the Mulsanne hump after a slipstream battle with the Matra of Jimbo J. Johnson from the U.S. Virgin Islands (#420 Pheonix Racing).

Attila Diner pulled into the pits with a 3 minute lead in the #2 GT40 Mk IV just before the halfway point. He handed over the Imkermeister Motorsport car to meisterJäger. The Andersson Brothers made their second pit stop at the same time, allowing Cliosspa Racing #160 to move up into 2nd place again for the time being. Hayley Smith had taken over the white #61 Ford of the F3 Classic Tracks Team early in the 3rd hour to take it all the way to the checkered flag, because Tasking Flyer had become sick, and was running in 4th place now.

The second pit stop of the leaders coincided with the second stops of the P 2.0 class, where Sean Campbell (#77) had grown his lead over Niklas Schneider (#23), who was let down by a shifter from a well-known sim hardware brand that has a well-deserved reputation for misshifting. When Campbell handed over the #77 Matra to Adam Keefe but Niklas Schneider only stopped for fuel and tyres, the #23 of car of Schneider Motorsport emerged from the pits ahead. Their duel for the class win entered its strategic phase, as they would not encounter each other again until after the end of the next stint, when the #23 Matra would serve its final Longstop halfway through the fifth hour.

With the first pit stops of the best two Jaguars in the books now as well, the GTs saw a large lead of the Silver Arrow crewed by The Purple Helmets with HappyKojot behind the wheel. Behind him, second place in class was still a tight contest between the Écurie Slideways Jaguar and the Silverheads Division Corvette. The Levspeed TVR driven by Akira trailed the podium by almost 2.5 minutes, and held a margin of nearly a minute over Wiktor Roza in the all-Polish-crewed #13 Mercedes.

Top 5 in P 7.0 (overall) after the pitstops that were ongoing at the halfway point:

1. Imkermeister Motorsport #2
2. Cliosspa Racing #160 +52s
3. Andersson Brothers #1 +136s
4. F3 Classic Tracks #61 +29.5s
5. Squadra Pending Sistemas #26 +36.5s

Top 5 in P 2.0 after three hours:

1. GoodAdamSean #77
2. Schneider Motorsport #23 +16.5s
3. Revival Series #8 +148s
4. Chucklefecks #820 +15.1s
5. SimRuina Racing Team II #49 +89.9s

Top 5 in GT after three hours:

1. The Purple Helmets #727
2. Écurie Slideways #9 +79.3s
3. Silverheads Division #55 +2.6s
4. Levspeed #559 +147.7s
5. FRL - P***y Magnet #13 +57.1s

Fourth Hour

At the halfway point of the race, most of the two-driver crews performed their driver swaps, but some of them opted to do these after the 1st and 3rd stints respectively. The race continued to collect high-profile casualties during the late stage of the night and the dawn that awaited the drivers during the fourth hour.

As the #5 Matra of Jake William (GPLaps) and the #36 Matra of Andreas Roggel remained in sync with their pit strategies, the stage was set for a battle between the two of them, although William's earlier pit exit meant that the German in the #36 Cursim Vector entry had to catch up a 9 second gap first. In the meantime, William was passed by LarsT in the #169 Zweterige Kreeft Porsche and did his best to chase the Norwegian until he was due for his pit stop. Watch the action from William's viewpoint right here.

In the P 2.0 class, the #77 Matra of GoodAdamSean went off-sequence to the class-leading Schneider Motorsport #23 car by performing its second longstop. Because GoodsmileRacing had become unavailable on race day, Sean Campbell had stayed in the car during the first longstop. At the halfway point, they now used their second longstop to hand over the car to Adam Keefe, who was in for some drama along the way.

After Adam Keefe (#77) had gotten a bad exit at Tertre Rouge, pitman in the #134 Dino of the Thundering Two passed both him and the #100 Jaguar driven by Dr. BoxBox, behind whom Keefe had to lift the throttle because he was boxed in next to pitman's slower Dino. Keefe swiftly moved ahead again in the right lane after having used pitman's slipstream to assist his acceleration until the Matra's better top speed was able to take care of the rest. That was when the trio caught up with the #38 Dino of Cezary Szwaguliński, who was only moving at 260 km/h because he had just completed a gravel excursion after having touched back of the slow-accelerating #13 Mercedes driven by Wiktor Roza. When pitman and Dr. BoxBox caught the #38 Dino in the left lane with a 20 km/h delta, they had someone else behind them who caught them all with an even higher speed delta. Shallowwater clocked 315 km/h in the #26 Ferrari 330P4 Berlinetta of Squadra Pending Sistemas, making him 35 km/h faster than the P 2.0 and GT ahead.

When he was about 40 meters behind the Jaguar, Shallowwater moved into the right lane to pass the whole group. Almost at the same time, the Finnish Jaguar driver began to do the same thing because he hadn't paid attention to his rear view mirror, while pitman's slipstream had helped him to gain his 5 km/h top speed advantage over the Dino earlier than usually. The situation became even more complex about two seconds later, when pitman also began to move to the right to pass the slower Dino of Szwaguliński, accidentally creating a 4-wide situation.

Pitman and Dr. BoxBox brushed fenders because Dr. BoxBox could not go any further to the right in response to pitman's lane change, as the Finn had noticed Shallowwater's Ferrari 330P4 by now. The Australian was already far too close to start braking and had to put two wheels into the gravel to pass them all at once. He completed the pass just in time before the Jaguar swerved all the way to the edge of the road after having brushed fenders twice with pitman's Dino. This did not deter Bionic in the #235 Ford GT40 Mk IV, who had watched the drama unfold, and only briefly lifted before putting 2 wheels into the gravel at 325 km/h while lapping Dr. BoxBox and Pitman just a few seconds later. Everyone involved survived this scary moment, but their co-drivers complained about an awkward smell in the cockpit at the next driver swap.

Moving under braking, Exhibit C:
Going into his 51st lap, Adam Celárek crossed the Dunlop Bridge behind the Chucklefecks #820 Matra in their battle for 5th place in the P 2.0 class. After approaching the braking zone on the left, The Matra driver moved across the entire width of the track while braking for the S du Tertre Rouge, forcing Celárek into the haybales that line the entrance into the Bugatti Circuit. The Czech driver's Porsche suffered bodywork damage and he carried on after a spin.

For the ASRL/VAC Road Doggs Ford #235 that had already had been involved in several serious accidents including a horrendous high-speed T-Bone impact during the previous hour, things continued to get worse 3:20 hours into the race, when it ran in 9th place and 1.4 laps behind the car ahead. In the lilac #227 Dino of the Empire Racing Team, Swedish driver Erik Halin Aronsson was trying to defend his position against the #90 Porsche 910/6 of Royall Sim Sports Endurance, when he missed his braking point at Arnage. This led to a collision with the #235 Ford ahead, which had been piloted by Narwhal from the USA since the North American team's second driver swap about half an hour earlier.

Adding insult to injury, Narwhal then braked too late for the pit entry, and received a 10 second Stop & Go Penalty for Pit Speeding before embarking on an unnecessary 3rd Long Stop by disconnecting from the server and reconnecting (instead of resetting the car to restore the knocked-out suspension that could not be repaired in a normal repair stop). Possibly having forgotten that every driver swap leads to the enforcement of the 180 second Longstop timer, he left the pits 116 seconds too early, earning him an additional 116 second Stop & Go penalty to serve separately from the 10 second penalty.

Just a few minutes before the 3.5 hour mark, commentator's curse struck the leaders in one of the most brutal ways possible. It happened during a routine lapping situation, away from the TV cameras, and mere moments after Attila Diner had been asked if he felt that Imkermeister Motorsport may already have the victory in the bag during the interview about his fantastic opening double stint on the English broadcast. At this point, their leading margin over the Andersson Brothers was 2:56 minutes, but half of that was only borrowed because they still had one longstop left to serve, unlike their direct competitors. Everyone else was at least one lap behind, though.

After an earlier spin at Dunlop that led to the destruction of the #235 Ford and #127 Porsche, and a crash with the #420 Matra at Mulsanne near the end of the 3rd hour, Jörg U. from Germany was still behind the wheel of the #66 Matra of AssettoCorsaFriends ONE. Between Courbe du Buisson and Maison Blanche, he initially followed the racing line towards the left side of the road while he headed towards the exit of the trench that leads towards Maison Blanche. MeisterJäger, who had coasted towards him from behind in the leading #2 Ford GT40 Mk IV, then began applying the throttle again to accelerate into the gap that began to open up on the right, just like in so many other smooth lapping maneuvers that took place here.

Tragically, in the same moment, Jörg U. unexpectedly lifted the throttle and departed the racing line by slamming the door on the right shut again. Unable to respond to that in time with the ponderous Ford, meisterJäger made contact with the right rear corner of Jörg U.'s Matra. This sent both cars off the road to the right, where they met their demise in an incredibly violent accident that saw them flying nearly head-on into a fence that flung them back across the track. Both cars were destroyed on the spot and had to be towed back to the pits. Imkermeister Motorsport lost 5:18 minutes (1.5 laps) in this accident: their lap with the crash-induced reset and locked controls after towing back to the pits took 8:38 minutes to complete, against a race pace of 3:20 minutes. The ACF Matra was a little luckier with a shorter controls lock after the reset, but also lost nearly 4:30 minutes, yielding a laptime of 8:08 minutes (against a race pace in the mid-3:40s). The crash handed the overall lead firmly into the hands of the Andersson Brothers (#1 Ford).

Just half a lap after his return to the track, Jörg U. was involved in another fatal accident after a slipstream battle at 280 km/h with the #100 Syndicate Typhoon Jaguar driven by Dr. BoxBox from Finland. After he had approached Courbe des Hunaudières from the far inside despite having had the opportunity to use the middle of the road in this 2-wide situation, he turned in slightly too late and missed the apex of Courbe des Hunaudières by 60 cm. The Jaguar's line became a little too tight at the same time, after the driver had touched the brakes momentarily. Contact between the two cars led to a sudden shift of the Jaguar's trajectory. Although Dr. BoxBox desperately jumped on the brakes, he could not avert the inevitable anymore, and the Finn impacted the trees head-on at 260 km/h. The wreck was towed away from the scene in time for the next car to arrive - the #134 Dino driven by pitman - and Syndicate Typhoon lost approximately 4 minutes in this accident.

SimRuina is the simracing team of youtuber Gustingorriz, who entertains more than 120.000 subscribed car & simracing enthusiasts in the Spanish speaking part of the world. Sadly, unforeseen circumstances kept him out of the cockpit of the #48 car on race day, but his co-drivers DJMD19 and Marc Orós did their best to make him proud. They climbed up the ranks throughout the race end ended up finishing 6th in the P 2.0 class. Coming from a strong start by Ayrton Titos, the #49 sister car had spent much of the first half in their class's Top 5. Juanlu Gonzalez and GranTourer25 could not maintain the pace of Titos, though, and went on to bring car #49 across the finish line as 9th in their class.

The ASRL/VAC Road Doggs in the off-white #235 Ford GT40 Mk IV had suffered a very difficult night with a fatal accident and later a broken suspension after having been hit by their VAC colleagues from the Empire Racing Team less than half an hour earlier. On the bright side, though, they were still 9th overall and 2.3 laps behind 8th place because the two slower Ferraris had suffered even worse races so far. The streak of bad luck for the North American trio refused to end even after the sun had begun to rise. On the run to Maison Blanche, Narwhal in the Ford was closing in on the #559 TVR of Akira. Initially, the Venezuelan TVR driver remained on the usual racing line, taking the apex at the start of the trench and then gradually moving towards the left again, at which point Narwhal committed to passing on the right.

When Akira suddenly darted to the right again from near the middle of the road and lifted the throttle on top of that, Narwhal could not avoid running into the back of the TVR anymore despite his best efforts to take evasive action. The TVR of Akira crossed the little stream without taking the bridge, and it was able to carry on because somehow, it had only sustained bodywork damage. This could not be said about the other car, though. In the ill-fated #235 Ford GT40 Mk IV, Narwhal rebounded off the pasture fence before crashing into the bridge railing from behind, knocking out the engine of the ASRL/VAC Road Doggs for the second and final time. It had been the last straw for the three North American wrestling enthusiasts.

Take in the golden hue provided by the rising sun a few minutes later, while drivers demonstrate their bravery and precision as they speed through Maison Blanche:

As beautiful as the sunrise might have been for viewers, it also came with its own set of challenges for the drivers. The sunrise had begun right under the Dunlop Bridge, blinding them on the way into the braking zone for the S du Tertre Rouge. And while the low sun gradually brightened up some areas, others were still in the shade. For a while, these areas were not dark enough for the headlights to make a big difference anymore, but not bright enough to identify the usual reference points yet.

A few moments later, Squadra Pending Sistemas pulled into the pits from 3rd place to perform their second Longstop, with Shallowwater handing the #26 Ferrari back to Parrilla. Meanwhile, Mathias Andersson in the #1 Ford had emerged as the pacemaker of the 4th hour, delivering the most consistent fast laps. That didn't keep the drivers behind from trying, though - with the Spanish squad of JVM Racing in the dark green #4 Ford reaching its personal best lap of 3:20.2 at this stage, Cliosspa Racing reaching occasional mid-3:20s, and MeisterJäger running a couple of laps in the 3:22 range before recovering to the 3:20s as well after the shock of his huge accident. But trouble was on the horizon again at the end of the 4th hour, when the timekeepers struggled to quantify the gap between the leading #1 Ford and its closest pursuer - its #160 stablemate. What on earth was going on?

Top 5 in P 7.0 (overall) after four hours:

1. Andersson Brothers #1
2. Cliosspa Racing #160 +???
3. Imkermeister Motorsport #2 +84.1s
4. JVM Racing 4 +62.7s
5. Overdrive Racing #59 +57.9s

Top 5 in P 2.0 after four hours

1. Schneider Motorsport #23
2. GoodAdamSean #77 +58.0s
3. Revival Series #8 +168.9s
4. L'équipe des garçons #5 +14.1s
5. Cursim Vector #36 +1.2s

Top 5 in GT after four hours:

1. Silverheads Division #55
2. Écurie Slideways #9 +29.7s
3. The Purple Helmets #727 +82.1s
4. Texacovid Revival #33 +114.9s
5. FRL - P***y Magnet #13 +170.0s

Fifth Hour

Entering the last third of the race, the effective race positions of many participating cars were still under a cloud cover that wouldn't be fully lifted until after all Long Stops would be completed. Having survived the most dangerous timeframes, the teams were doing their best to up the pace and gain positions after swapping in fresh drivers during the night who were now figuring out how to be fast in the daytime while avoiding costly mistakes. For some unlucky drivers with unplanned extra stints, however, fatigue was taking its toll.

In the red #1 Ford GT40 Mk IV, the fast Andersson Brothers had inherited the strongest chances to win the race after the demise of the #2 car from Imkermeister Motorsport. After four hours, their fairytale dream of overall victory in their first ever online simracing event came crashing down at Maison Blanche.

By the time the timing screen was updated, a comfortable lead had been inherited by involuntary solo driver grosspa from Switzerland, who had survived numerous close calls at Maison Blanche in the purple #160 Ford GT40 Mk IV of Cliosspa Racing throughout the last four hours. On the bright side for the Andersson Brothers, their towing operation back to the pits was 98 seconds faster than that of the Imkermeister Motorsport squad half an hour earlier.

The Swiss driver then proceeded to the pits and handed the #59 GT40 Mk IV over to Stefan Röß (Roess), who helps to keep the legendary racing simulation title Grand Prix Legends (GPL) alive by maintaining GPLWORLD and the GPLRACER community.

Meanwhile in the P 2.0 class, Andreas Roggel had caught up to Jake William, and was just 1 second behind him when they passed the main grandstands for the first time in the 5th hour. Ahead of them, though, a huge cloud of tyre smoke appeared near the pit exit. What happened?

It was enough to distract Jake William, though, who lost 4th place in the P 2.0 class to Andreas Roggel after understeering into the wall at Courbe Dunlop. The US-American driver had carried too much speed into the turn for his wide line taken to avoid the Écurie Orange Matra that emerged from the pit exit. Although he lost the position there, William continued to chase the German for the rest of his stint.

Top 5 in P 7.0 (overall) after five hours:

1. Cliosspa Racing #160
2. Imkermeister Motorsport #2 +76.1s (while standing in the pits for a longstop)
3. Andersson Brothers #1 +74.3s
4. Squadra Pending Sistemas #26 +91.7s
5. JVM Racing 4 #68.5s

Top 5 in P 2.0 after five hours:

1. GoodAdamSean #77
2. Schneider Motorsport #23 +124.9s
3. Cursim Vector #36 +114.7s
4. Side Heart Motorsports #127 +61.0s
5. L'équipe des garçons #5 +62.3s

Top 5 in GT after five hours:

1. The Purple Helmets #727
2. Écurie Slideways #9 +119.7s
3. Silverheads Division #55 +32.2s
4. Texacovid Revival #33 +194.9s
5. FRL - P***y Magnet #13 +137.1s

Sixth Hour

Going into the final hour, the cloud cover of strategies in the Top 3 had cleared up. Behind them, it also became increasingly apparent whom a team was fighting against until the end. The teams who had kept their cars out of trouble to climb up the ranks gradually emerged. Many teams wondered whether their direct competitors would get to the end nonstop, or whether some of them might still need a late splash & dash - particularly in the P 2.0 class. Also, danger could always be lurking behind the next corner, ready to take out those whose fatigue got the better of them in the wrong moment.

The last 5 minutes of the race arrived, and so did the boiling point of the drama. In many cockpits, the nerves were raw!

Finish

Meet your new THR Endurance King!

Honourable mentions

Official Results

Six hours of stunning displays of bravery, skill, and sportsmanship came to an end - an epic story that had it all: drama, triumph, and tragedy. These are the official results of the THR 6 Heures du Mans 2025.

Detailed information with the backstories on all cars, the track, event stats and (almost) all participants can be found at: bit.ly/Infoboard_5th-THR-Endurance

Only the top 3 cars finished on the lead lap! So many teams had soldiered on through the agony of limping bent cars back to the pits or even towing back cars with blown engines and ripped out wheels after tragic accidents. The sporting spirit of continuing to fight against all odds is what keeps us coming back to it, but we also feel like the stakes might have to become a little higher to reward those who keep their cars in one piece.

Congratulations to the winning teams and everyone who made it to the checkered flag, and thank you to everyone who helped us to make this spectacular event happen. It was magic, marking another chapter of fond memories with you all!

Watch it all again on Youtube

English Live Broadcast

Special thanks to PirateLaserBeam and Akashic for their fantastic English live broadcast.

German Live Broadcast

German Live Broadcast of the first 20 minutes:

German Live Broadcast of the remaining 5 hours and 40 minutes:

Special thanks Guido, Thomas and Jascha from the Virtual Racing e.V. community (VR) for entertaining the German-speaking audience with their coverage of the race, with several insightful interviews.

GPLaps Live Stream in the Matra #5

Jake William is one of the best-known proponents of Historic Simracing through his Youtube channel GPLaps. Together with SROL admin Nate Lupson with whom he formed the team L'équipe des Garçons, he piloted the #5 Matra M630 BRM. Special thanks for your awesome livestream that brought our event to an even wider audience and gave the viewers an insight of what it took to fight for the top 5 within the most hotly-contested class of the race!

Syndicate Hawk Live Stream in the Chaparral #98

While the onboard live stream of the #98 Syndicate Motorsport "Hawk" Chaparral 2F piloted by Ks, Binding, and Pixel came with pretty little engine sound, it came with a lot of on-track action. Ks fought a spectacular battle for 2nd place overall throughout the opening 1.5 hours against Marcus Andersson (#1) and TurboTard (#69), trading positions almost every lap.

Pedro Ramada Live Stream in the Dino #123

In the #123 Ferrari Dino 206S Berlinetta of Ramada Racing & Friends, Pedro Ramada from Portugal livestreamed his doublestint through the night and into the morning hours.

Cinematic Highlights of SimRuina Racing Team

SimRuina Racing Team is the team of famous Spanish motorsports & simracing Youtuber Gustingorriz. Although real life events sadly prevented him from driving in the #48 car in this event, his team delivered not only a strong race in their pair of black and red Dinos, but also the spectacular cinematic highlights video by Ayrton Titos above. Enjoy!

Quotes

Ok race one was cool, now are you ready for race two with reverse grid?

grosspa

[right after having taken the win with a 6 hour solo drive because his co-driver was sick]

Speaking of lap 1, great job launching the cars at an angle everyone, could have gone south very quickly (some of you might remember other LM starts). For a second there, I got flashbacks and wondered if doing a Ickx would be better 😀

Parrilla

Really fun race and lovely event! Was so impressed with how well it all worked and especially the start (atleast from my view) was super clean for the most part. Traffic and everyone did a really great job of respecting each other from what we could see and all in all it was just a fast competitive race! Great time doing it and look forward to maybe doing some more in the future!
[...]
Our strategy was not ideal, we didn't want to do 3 hours without a swap, but even with the extra swap we managed a decent finish. We unfortunately also ran out of fuel on the last lap, the race went a lap longer than we thought it might.

Jake William (GPLaps)

Sorry for the incident in Indy Team Sweaty Lobster
Got stucked gears and then ran into the grass spinning out

Bazza

Congrats Adam, Sean, GoodsmileRacing ! Awesome performance from you guys!

Maximilian Wenig

I sent the link to my girlfriend, friends, few people at work and my dad, who all mentioned how good the stream was when they got the chance to watch. I love how the event is live streamed as a driver we miss other battles and drivers. I always try to watch the streams back for the entertainment they give. Gives a different sense than just taking part. Thank you to both the English and German streamers <3

Vilez

"Seriously PirateLaserBeam, there is no money that will pay for the work you did during the broadcast of the race, despite the fatigue caused by spending 6 hours attending to all the details, you have done an incredible job, my most sincere congratulations. a hug.

And in the same way, I would like to thank the entire organization for the hard work to carry out a race of this caliber, thank you ValentinK, Pitman, as the most visible faces and of course the others who also collaborate. a big hug.....I had more fun than a pig in a mud puddle."

al

Gotta say, my dad watched the German stream and he was very impressed hahaha.
He is a casual fan of 60s and 70s racing, it is the era he grew up in after all.
He especially praised the commentators, said that it felt like watching a real life event.

NPanic

PirateLaserBeam ... my teenage daughter told me yesterday that she watched the stream for a bit (I had left the TV on before anyone in my house woke up) and that you sounded super professional and made it sound exciting. I think that's like the highest level of admiration a teenager can give a total stranger.

questionmarket

From my POV the first tap felt like I could barely hold on and the second one I couldn't hold on. And I hated the fact that other racers were also involved in the incident. The explanation afterwards just felt unsatisfactory to me (like that I lifted of the throttle) and that's why I was a bit angry about it. Sorry about that. And truth be told; the field was so bunched up that I think there would've been a pile up in Indianapolis regardless. Your spin and the collider issue was something we didn't see. Makes sense and shit happens, it's unfortunate that the consequences were really big. Let's learn from this and battle each other next year again. 🙂

Merlijn

I guess all the happy, congratulatory, tidings of that post-race buzz are now gone and it's time for the Blame Game to begin in full. In that case, I want to file two race incidents against the #19 Jaguar E-Type driver of Schlitz Malt Liquor Racing, Scott Cutshall. He wrecked me twice in Maison Blanche.

Oh shit, that's me. But in all seriousness, I witnessed some really good racing and driving, and sadly, some absolutely horrendous jive driving too. Maybe it's my age, old, or place in life, also old, but I'm writing it all off to, "Shit Happens" and "Hopefully we all learn from our mistakes & get better."

Scott Cutshall

I think we also have to penalize the arsonists who set the haybales before Esses du Tertre Rouge on fire. And the imbecile who enabled their ignitability.

Valentin Knechtel

Periscopica wasn't the fastest P2 but we had a lot of fun with @Pablomendoza. Forza tipo 33 !

Matanjah

We had our Australian skin designer join us before the start and he sounded quite tired. We had our third driver falling off during qualifying due to a major medical issue and he would have been our first driver out of the European timezone. Between me and Scott Cutshall I think we had a combined 6 hours of sleep the night before the race.

Regardless .. this was our first longer enduro together and we truly enjoyed it. Having organized a measly 1.5 hour one in October and seeing how much time it takes, I can only bow in admiration to pitman and @ValentinK for organizing this each year. Thank you from the bottom of my heart as your hard work has not gone unnoticed.

questionmarket

why making a feedback when it's a perfect performance?
THR : goats of vintage racing nothing else to say

Nopitch

The folks at THR out did themselves and the sheer amount of effort from ValentinK & pitman were absolutely amazing & astounding. I commend everyone at THR, Salue!!! Sending a PayPal donation as soon I finish typing this and strongly urge any among us, if you have the means, please do so as well. Bravo, THR.

Scott Cutshall

I can only concur with Maurizio. Absolutely incredible race, amazing fun and super well organized. Kudos to the admins and the Orga team, probably one of the best organized endurance races I have seen in ANY game (To be fair, almost all of the other ones were shitshows, even when within organized leagues on games like rFactor 2). One thing that was a little bit frustrating (But possibly exclusive to the TVR) was that a lot of the 2 litre prototypes tended to get "stuck" behind the TVR and then barely have enough speed to get past on the Hunaudieres or after the Hunaudieres. It's not really a problem as much as it was a quirk of the cars we were racing. I don't know exactly how it was in real life but it felt like the 2 litre prototypes were a bit too slow compared to the GTs.

Thank you very much to the commentators aswell, without which we wouldn't be able to get such a great broadcast (Two great broadcasts in fact!) The only feedback to that regard I could have is that it would be great for the German stream to have the same leaderboard as the English stream, as that one is much more informative. Other than that both streams were excellent.

Other than that I can only concur with Maurizio. A race that is as great as this with such good organization would be really cool to have maybe twice per year, with a different venue. Sebring would be a excellent venue, or even the Nordschleife (If the drivers dare) - Other possible venues could be Daytona as Maurizio said, or maybe a full 1000km at Monza, Spa, Brands hatch, et cetera.. I am just throwing ideas into the air here for possible venues to also hold endurance races.

Seawolf

That concludes it!
On behalf of the entire THR Orga team:
We would like to thank all of you again for making this event as special as it turned out to be.
Thank you also to everyone who provided their screenshots in the "endurance photo contest" channel.
They were a huge help!

p.s. And I hope that you had as much fun reading this one as I did writing it. Until the next time!
- Valentin