LMP3 Endurance Joins 18-Event Marseille Games Roster

An LMP3 endurance race will form one of the 18 disciplines at this year’s second edition of the FIA Motorsport Games which are being hosted by Marseille in southern France.

Prototype racing will feature on the billing for the first time, while a total of three sports car racing events will be held as part of the nation-based competition on Oct. 29-31.

The addition of an endurance racing element involving the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s LMP3 formula has long been of interest to SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel, whose organization runs the Motorsport Games alongside the FIA.

Details of the endurance competition format, including the race length and the Paul Ricard circuit configuration, have yet to be confirmed.

It will take place alongside two GT competitions for Pro-Am and Pro-only lineups.

The addition of a single-driver Pro event for GT3, similar to the FIA GT World Cup at Macau, was proposed last March for the 2020 Marseille Games which were subsequently postponed to release pressure on other calendars amid the global health crisis.

Marseille returns this year for the Motorsport Games’ second running, following the inaugural six-discipline 2019 event that was hosted by Rome and based at Vallelunga.

The event traces its lineage back to the 2018 FIA GT Nations Cup held in Bahrain.

Another addition to the schedule is Auto Slalom, which brings the number of disciplines up to 18 and increases the prize count to a total of 54 medals.

Four types of rallying, Formula 4, TCR, drifting, sim racing, regularity rally, kart slalom, two genres of kart racing and two Cross Car buggy classes complete the bill.

“The FIA Motorsport Games is an exceptional opportunity for the entire motorsport family to come together, from grassroots level to the elite, with women and men from a host of regions and countries all sharing this passion we have for the sport. It is also a chance to give motorsport in your country fresh impetus after this difficult period,” said FIA Drivers’ Commission President To Kristensen.

“As drivers, we don’t get many opportunities to race on behalf of our country. I was lucky enough to do so in my career and I have some lasting memories of that time.

“Whoever you are and whichever country you come from, there’s a category that’s made for you.”