Championship’s Second Half Commences at Le Mans: Round 4 Preview

We continue our European summer in France at the infamous Circuit de la Sarthe, more affectionately known as Le Mans, before returning home for back-to-back Australian rounds in Tailem Bend and Bathurst.

With Friday night fast approaching, it’s worth rewinding the tape to see how the season has taken shape.

Championship Story Remains Cloudy

While the halfway mark of regular championships would usually spell a clear pecking order, this season has thrown a spanner in the works when trying to pick apart who is in for a chance, due in part to the immense GT3 physics rework of the 2025 Season 3 Build.

Eclipse Simsports remain the benchmark on outright pace, showing dominant speed in any set of conditions across the past two rounds. Their two entries, the #56 and #17, have been split up slightly in the standings since the penalties from last round; but there is little doubt in one of those cars ending up on top at the season's conclusion.

It is eye-wateringly close at the pointy end of the standings, with four teams separated by just 22 points behind the leading Eclipse #56. These kinds of margins only intensify when looking down the order, including a points tie for 26th and 27th between Iridium Sim Sports and Tri Star Racing.

From sixth all the way down to 20th, the standings are bunched, with just 152 points covering 15 cars. Vendaval, Synergy and Trans Tasman are split by just 24 points, while further back Tri Star, Antic, and the Orbit Drop Bear Mars and Jupiter cars sit within a few points of each other. In this pack, one strong finish could easily swing a team half a dozen spots up the order.

The Low Down

That’s the spirit of Le Mans! How much top speed can you extract out of your machinery whilst keeping it driveable.

As time has passed, events have come and gone allowing teams to grasp a better understanding of each car's aero window, which have become far more sensitive to tune since the change.

A car that has arisen from the ashes has been the Ford Mustang. It has gone from a car that can be quick at a handful of circuits all the way to an inevitable front runner. Front-engined cars have been loved right from the beginning, but on-throttle rotation and setup adjustability has been able to separate it from the others in its class.

While the McLaren has been an unstoppable force at Le Mans for a number of months now, I’m hesitant to say it's as clear cut of a decision this time around as it has been in the past. Updates to the drag profiles since the initial build have brought back the Acura NSX at top speed circuits, most recently during IMSA Sprint at Daytona where they dominated the timing boards. If the Mustangs don’t wipe the floor on outright pace, I suspect it will be a close three-way manufacturer fight between Fords, McLarens and Acuras.

As for weather, we’re looking at ambient temperatures in the mid 20’s with partly cloudy skies and moderate to light wind. That should make for a track temp in the mid to high 30’s, with rain nowhere in sight. 

Once again, the race format is as follows (AEST):

7:00 PM — 1-Hour Open Practice
8:00 PM — 20-Minute Open Qualifying
8:22 PM — 8-Minute Gridding (including Grid Walk)
8:30 PM — Green Flag for 3-Hour Race

With the safety net of rear wings being stripped off the cars in search of top speed, incidents at Indianapolis and Porsche Curves are highly likely. This could easily throw what is a relatively simple strategy game into turmoil if a Safety Car is called. Saving fuel is of course going to be crucial, but teams will need to be clever with track positioning and driver swaps to avoid being caught out if things don’t go to plan.

The fight for glory continues August 22nd, catch Australasia’s most hotly contested GT3 series live on SimSpeed!