My Third Le Mans Ultimate Race Finally Reached the Finish Line at Spa
There are racing results that look almost meaningless when you read them without context.
I started 11th.
I finished 10th.
One position gained.
No podium. No fastest lap. No dramatic charge through the field.
Yet P10 at Spa-Francorchamps felt like the biggest result of my Le Mans Ultimate career so far.
The reason was simple.
I actually finished.
My first Le Mans Ultimate race at Circuit de la Sarthe had ended before I completed the opening lap.
My second race at Spa ended in a disqualification.
Race 3 put me back at the same Belgian circuit, back in the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and back behind the same Xbox controller.
This time I completed eight laps.
My best lap was 2:28.889.
For the first time since starting this experiment, the result beside my name was neither DNF nor DQ.
It was 10th.
That changed the story.
Race 3 gave me another chance at Spa
My third Le Mans Ultimate multiplayer race took place on 30 July 2026 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
After the first two races, I was still very much learning what online sim racing actually demanded.
I had arrived with confidence.
Experience was another matter.
Race 1 had already shown me how quickly a multiplayer event could fall apart.
Race 2 had demonstrated that problems could begin before I had even reached the first corner.
Yet I kept racing.
For Race 3, however, there was one useful difference.
For once, I wasn’t changing absolutely everything.
I had already driven Spa.
I had already driven the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
That gave me at least some familiarity.
I still had an enormous amount to learn, but I wasn’t starting with a completely unknown track and car combination.
I qualified P11.
Then came the part I had failed to complete twice already.
The race.
My Le Mans Ultimate Race 3 result
| Race 3 | Result |
|---|---|
| Simulator | Le Mans Ultimate |
| Date | 30 July 2026 |
| Circuit | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps |
| Car | Ferrari 488 GTE Evo |
| Class | GTE |
| Grid | P11 |
| Finish | P10 |
| Positions gained | +1 |
| Laps completed | 8 |
| Best lap | 2:28.889 |
| Control method | Xbox controller |
P11 to P10.
Nothing about that result suggests domination.
At this stage, domination wasn’t the point.
Finishing was.
Eight laps suddenly mattered more than one position
The number I remember from Race 3 isn’t really 10.
It’s eight.
Eight completed race laps.
That might not sound like much to an experienced sim racer, but my previous results had given me almost nothing to work with.
It is difficult to learn racecraft when your race ends almost immediately.
It is difficult to understand consistency when there is no opportunity to be consistent.
And it is impossible to build meaningful experience of traffic when you keep removing yourself from the race.
Race 3 finally gave me repeated exposure to the same problems.
I had to approach La Source more than once.
I had to climb Eau Rouge and Raidillon more than once.
I had to judge braking points while other drivers existed around me.
I had to keep the car on the circuit for lap after lap rather than producing one qualifying lap and assuming that meant I could race.
That repetition was probably more valuable than the finishing position itself.
Le Mans Ultimate was beginning to expose the difference between driving and racing
This was one of the first lessons that Le Mans Ultimate was forcing me to learn.
Driving quickly on an empty circuit and racing safely around other people are not the same skill.
In qualifying, you can focus almost entirely on yourself.
Where should I brake?
Where should I turn?
How early can I get back on the throttle?
During a race, those questions still matter, but they are suddenly competing with several others.
Where is the car beside me?
Is somebody attempting an overtake?
Am I leaving enough space?
What happens if the driver ahead brakes earlier than I expect?
Do I really need to attack this corner?
That final question was one I was only beginning to appreciate.
Le Mans Ultimate’s official guidance for new online drivers places considerable emphasis on Safety Rank before Driver Rank.
Safety Rank measures how cleanly you race, while Driver Rank is concerned with your competitive results relative to the other drivers in the session. The official beginner guidance specifically recommends focusing on SR first rather than chasing outright pace. (Le Mans Ultimate)
That advice makes considerably more sense after you have already failed to finish your first two races.
Spa-Francorchamps was hardly the easiest place to learn
There was another issue.
I was trying to learn all of this at Spa.
The official Le Mans Ultimate circuit information lists Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps at 7.004 kilometres with 20 turns. It is the second-longest circuit on the FIA World Endurance Championship calendar after Le Mans. (Le Mans Ultimate)
It is also one of those circuits where several corner names are famous even outside endurance racing.
La Source.
Eau Rouge.
Raidillon.
Les Combes.
Pouhon.
Blanchimont.
Knowing the names does not make them easier.
La Source immediately creates a multiplayer problem because a large group of cars has to slow for a tight hairpin.
Then comes the descent towards Eau Rouge and the climb through Raidillon.
A poor exit there affects your entire run towards Les Combes.
Spa keeps alternating between areas where patience matters and sections where confidence matters.
That makes it an intimidating place to learn racecraft.
Push too hard and the circuit punishes you.
Back off too much and the field disappears.
Somewhere between those two extremes is the pace you can actually sustain.
Race 3 was one of my first attempts at finding it.
The Ferrari 488 GTE Evo was from a disappearing era
The car deserves its own part of the story because Race 3 was not in the newer Ferrari 296 LMGT3.
I was driving the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
That distinction matters.
The Ferrari 488 GTE Evo represents the previous GTE era of endurance racing, and Le Mans Ultimate includes it as part of its recreation of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
The official LMU specification gives the Ferrari a 4.0-litre turbocharged V8, approximately 500 bhp, a six-speed sequential transmission and a weight of 1,245kg without fuel and driver. (Le Mans Ultimate)
It was hardly an unsuccessful racing car either.
The factory 488 GTE won the LMGTE Pro category in both 2021 and 2022, while 2023 became the final WEC season for the GTE class.
There is also a particularly appropriate Spa connection.
The #54 Ferrari won at Spa in 2023, with Lilou Wadoux becoming the first female driver to win an FIA WEC race. (Le Mans Ultimate)
So I was learning Spa in a Ferrari that had genuine history at the same circuit.
My own ambitions were considerably more modest.
I wanted to finish.
My 2:28.889 showed how much pace was still missing
Finishing the race did not suddenly mean I was fast.
My best lap was 2:28.889.
RaceControl has published a professional setup reference from Coach Dave Academy for the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at Spa with a lap time of 2:15.245. (RaceControl News)
That is a gap of 13.644 seconds.
It is important not to misunderstand that comparison.
The 2:15.245 is not some official Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum Driver Rank requirement.
It does not mean every competitive LMU driver should automatically be capable of that lap.
Different conditions, setup choices and driver ability all matter.
It is simply a useful public reference showing what the same car can achieve around the same circuit in capable hands.
For me, the interesting part was how enormous the opportunity for improvement still was.
Thirteen seconds is not something you find by braking five metres later into one corner.
It points towards improvement everywhere.
Braking.
Corner entry.
Mid-corner speed.
Throttle application.
Track knowledge.
Confidence.
Consistency.
And perhaps most importantly for me at this stage, simply staying out of trouble long enough to practise those things.
I was still doing all of this with an Xbox controller
There was no sim racing wheel involved yet.
Every one of these early races was being driven with the same Xbox controller that started the entire experiment.
As I explained when I wrote about why I started Le Mans Ultimate with an Xbox controller, I already owned it.
That meant I could start racing without first spending money on a wheel, pedals and cockpit.
It was the cheapest possible route into the experiment.
It was also the only control method I really knew at the time.
That point matters because I don’t want to rewrite these races using knowledge I gained later.
During Race 3, I wasn’t sitting there thinking about what a steering wheel might eventually change.
I was trying to make the controller work.
A small analogue stick had to handle everything from the hairpin at La Source to the fast changes of direction further around Spa.
The triggers had to give me enough braking and throttle control to keep the Ferrari balanced.
There was no physical steering feedback through my hands in the traditional sense.
There was no brake pedal underneath my foot telling me how hard I was pressing.
This was simply how I raced.
And in Race 3, it finally got me to the finish.
Safety Rank was becoming the number that mattered
I had started Le Mans Ultimate online racing at Bronze 0 Safety Rank.
That is the entry point for new drivers.
LMU’s current Safety Rank structure progresses from Bronze through Silver, Gold and Platinum, with sub-levels inside those broader categories. Higher Safety Rank levels also unlock access to additional online events. (Le Mans Ultimate)
The game records contact with other vehicles and barriers, and unclean laps can also negatively affect Safety Rank.
Importantly, LMU uses what is effectively a no-fault approach to ordinary contact. The system does not attempt to determine which driver caused every incident; both drivers can receive an SR penalty. (Le Mans Ultimate)
That makes avoidance important even when you believe another driver is doing something wrong.
At this point, I was nowhere near worrying seriously about my Driver Rank progression.
I had a more basic problem.
I needed clean racing.
Race 3 finally gave me something in that direction that the first two races had not.
A finish.
It wasn’t proof that I had suddenly solved Safety Rank.
It wasn’t proof that I had become a clean racer overnight.
But eight completed laps created eight opportunities to do something positive.
That was progress.
P10 was not proof that I had figured Le Mans Ultimate out
It would be very easy to turn Race 3 into a heroic chapter.
DNF.
DQ.
Then P10.
A neat recovery story.
That isn’t how I want to tell this series.
I had not figured the game out.
My lap time showed there was an enormous amount of speed still missing.
My first two races had already exposed serious gaps in my understanding of multiplayer racing.
And one completed race could not erase any of that.
Race 3 simply proved something smaller.
I could finish.
That was all.
But sometimes progress begins with a very small result.
For the first time, the result screen said P10
My third Le Mans Ultimate race ended after eight laps of Spa-Francorchamps.
I had started P11.
I finished P10.
My best lap was 2:28.889.
I was still using an Xbox controller.
I was still learning the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
I was still at the beginning of understanding Safety Rank.
And I was still nowhere near knowing how much pace was hiding inside both the car and myself.
But after a DNF and a DQ, the result screen finally showed something different.
P10.
For experienced racers, tenth place might be forgettable.
For my third race, it wasn’t.
It was the first time I reached the chequered flag.
And that made Race 3 the first result that felt like something I could actually build on.
