eMC Lemons at LeMans
May 3, 2022
Race fuel. Melted rubber. The sound of a 2.0 liter in-line four cylinder screaming at the top of its lungs. These aren’t going to be found on your travel agent’s typical list of attractions when you look into visiting the french countryside, but there’s a little historic corner of the world that provides motorsport enthusiasts exactly that. The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans was opened in 1923, and since then has been host to the most prestigious endurance event on earth in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams travel from every corner of the world to test their mettle in a grueling race spanning long into the night and wee hours of the morning, and on April 30th, the Bugatti Circuit portion of the track played host to yet another event in the eMotorsport Championship Lemons at LeMans race.
While eMotorsport Championship has hosted endurance events before, they have always been a single session driver vs. driver event. The team at EMC wanted to bring something different to the table this time and created its first foray into team stint racing. This was achieved by covering the overall results over two separate races. Driver A would be the leadoff driver during the day stint, and Driver B would bring the car home during the night stint. Each race would span 32 laps over the famed Bugatti circuit, roughly an hour for each stint. While still wanting to maintain the spirit of close, hard racing, the EMC staff opted to create a new MX5 Spec class that would be run by all teams. Liveries were to be standardized and lobby rules were created to simulate driver changes in the pits between races. Sounds like a lot of moving parts, right? Well, it was, but once again, the eMC was up to the challenge and absolutely nailed the end product.
The field works its way through Garage Vert (Turn 6) on the opening lap of stint one.
The Car
The eMC team really aimed to create a tune inside of the Forza7 parameters that was a middle of the road performer for gamers who were either on a wheel or using the traditional console controller. The team tested, tweaked, and repeated until they found a nice mix. Having been fortunate to have raced for the official eMotorsport Championship team, I felt the car was stable and predictable as soon as I began testing in preparation for the race. I even tested on both a wheel and controller and really kept a very similar pace on both.
The 2016 MX5 Spec car built by the eMC Team checked all the boxes necessary in making a great all around car.
The Track
With the storied history of the Le Mans circuit and the whimsical approach of calling these MX5’s “Lemons,” there really was no question as to where this race should have been held. The only question was the layout, and while the old Musanne Straight is quite iconic, it didn’t lend itself to delivering the most exciting use of an hour-long race given the length of time it might take one of these “Lemons” to finally make it to the other end. This left the Bugatti Circuit to serve as the gridiron that all the teams would need to navigate in order to claim the spoils, and the races did not disappoint.
The number 147 of Team Forza Fanatics snakes its way through the Dunlop Chicane.
The Teams
As mentioned, I was fortunate enough to fly the official eMC flag, but the field of teams that this race brought was nothing short of impressive and served as yet another successful collaboration between eMotorsport Championship, LateNightRacing, with some other orgs represented among a few drivers. The level of camaraderie and support surrounding these events is something to be admired and the community that eMotorsport Championship fosters is second to none.
Having a field packed with teams ensured great racing in both stints.
The Race
When the green flag dropped on the french countryside, the action ramped up and carried long into the night. During the first stint, Team Cloud 9 Racing jumped out to an early lead over the polesitter Team Ignite Racing. Driver RMRSupreme put on a dominant display over the course of the race; opening up a massive gap to the rest of the chasing pack and never relenting. Meanwhile, Killamonjero was the big mover up the field for Team Pasta Pony and was able to bring home a second place in stint one, setting up his teammate eMC Swiss for the night stint.
After the sun had set on the Eiffel Tower, the lights of Le Mans continued to burn and with them the ambitions of every team to gain back spots lost, keep the places gained, and claw any advantage over the drive next to them that they could. The nighttime stint of the race saw fierce bumper to bumper battles with reduced grip and visibility. Even still, the racing was clean, respectful, fair, and sportsmanlike - just how eMC runs.
After the dust had settled and the sun rose once more, the stewards staff had quite the task to sort through. Penalties for course cutting and improper pit procedures moved the pack around, but in the end, the top three teams were Team eMotorsport, UDP/NWR Team, and Team Budget IG Drivers, respectively with the time gap before penalties only .6 seconds between Team eMotorsport and Team Budget IG Drivers.
Stint two proved to be a challenge for all the teams in the field.
The Aftermath
When I saw the final time gap between Team eMC and Team Budget, I was quite surprised. I’d not had a very clean stint in the day, amassing quite a few penalties and my co-driver Dr. Artiick working hard into the night to bring us back forward. But - .6 seconds. 2 different drivers for each team. 64 total laps. And 2 hours of drive time came down to .6 seconds of raw difference. The rest of the field was much of the same with close deltas between teams and penalties really coming into play to help decide the end results. Overall, this was an incredible experience as it was my first time in a team endurance event. I feel that eMC has spoiled me and really brings a quality race, car, broadcast, race direction, and participant field to its events. I believe that eMC Swiss outlined it best when he described his motivator of wanting to beat Gsxbuff so bad that he put in lap after lap of practice trying to squeeze out as much speed as possible. That spirit of healthy competition and sportsmanship between both drivers is the sole spirit of eMotorsport Championship. I experienced much of the same with my teammate and eMC Hank pushing me and encouraging me to move forward and not give up. This is what racing is all about to me, now.
This is eMotorsport Championship.