Ot was a very special weekend for Mark Ineichen, who took the wheel in both cars. Actually, the Swiss was mainly meant to race the Pro-car number 964 together with his brother Rolf and Christian Engelhart.  But after its retirement due to an engine failure with about five hours to go he also jumped into car number 963. „ In the 964 you could really go flat out, in the 963 in Pro-Am I had to concentrate more on not beating the set laptime of 1:34. Of course there you can then go with 20 more litres of fuel and do longer turns, one and a half hours instead of one hour. That needs quite a bit of stamina, but I always trained very well for my races. But I have to admit going flat out in the Pro-car was more fun.” But finishing on the podium was of course a great achievement fot the 45-year-old who races since 15 years – even if it turned out to have some unwanted consequences:  “In the end, it was a costly race – as I lost a tooth on the podium. While celebrating my teammate Christoph Lenz turned around with his bottle of champagne and took out one of my teeth with it.”

Christoph Lenz himself was ever so content about the result, to which also Milos Pavlovic and Roberto Pampanini contributed: “Together with Milos I really worked hard on Austrian track, which for me was a new one, both in the simulator and through video studies. So already during the test session on Thursday we were able to deliver some really good laptimes. The crew around our race engineer Daniel Weber did a great job. It´s really good fun to work with these guys.” One of the key factors for the top result probably was being able to lap the Hofor-Mercedes during the first part of the race in the rain on Friday: “That gained as some space to the competition behind, so we could concentrate on our own pace. Also, we did not suffer from any mistakes or incidents until the last stint. During the last stint the Hofor-Mercedes kicked us out in turn 6. Afterwards I struggled a bit about concentrating and as a result made a mistake under breaking in turn 4. Fortunately, non, of these incidents caused any damage to the car. The last code 60 helped us a bit in terms of fuel, so in the end we had quite a comfortable advantage on our main competitors, the Renault and the Hofor-Mercedes.  Many thanks to the team for the great work! We are very proud of having been able to represent the Lambo colours on the podium at the home race of the GRT Grasser Racing Team.”

A lot of bad luck hit the Pro-car number 964: “The weekend already started with technical problems which meant that that we nerly lost the whole test day”, Rolf Ineichen stated. “With a huge, effort the crew managed to repair the car in time, so that we could at least do one test run on Thursday evening.” Starting from P2 on the grid, things seemed to be going perfectly well and according to plan in the first part of the race. “The whole team again did a great job. You just have to have a look at the pitstops. The guys managed to change all four tyres in less than ten seconds. That alone is a fantastic performance.” Due to a perfect strategy, the Lamborghini Huracán finished the first sector of the race in P1, “and at the re-start after the break things again went the right way and we were able to fight for an overall win. So, it was even more disappointing that we had to retire the car due to an engine failure. I feel especially sorry for the crew. The performance of the guys had been unbelievably impressive again. But we won´t give up and keep on fighting for the long-waited success.”

His teammate Christian Engelhart also emphasized the fantastic performance of the Grasser squad: “Regarding strategy and pitstops the team really did a great job. Even having to put up with a rather visible deficit in top speed we were able to fight for victory until our retirement. Now we have to focus on the future challenges.”

Team principal Gottfried Grasser agrees: “For us it was a weekend with a lot of ups and downs. I am really happy for the guys of car number 963 with Lenz, Pampanini, Pavlovic and Ineichen, who were able to celebrate their greatest success in the Creventic Series. But, of course the broken engine in the 964 was a real pity. Until then it was a great fight with the Porsche, we really had the speed and were able to fight, until we were let down again technically. But in two weeks time there is the start of the Blancpain Endurance Series, which we are really looking forward to!”

Fourth spot overall went to the third A6-Am team, the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll/Chantal Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout) from the Forch Racing powered by Olimp Porsche 991 GT3 R (#29, Robert Lukas/Zeljko Drmic/Patrick Eisemann), that finished second in A6-Pro. Third in A6-Pro was the SPS automotive performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#24, Alexandre Coigny/David Iradj Alexander/Richard Feller) with seventh overall.

The A6-Pro entered GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#964, Christian Engelhart/Rolf Ineichen/Mark Ineichen), that had led after yesterday’s first part of the race, retired with an engine failure shortly after the halfway point. Earlier on, brake issues had already caught out one of their biggest rivals. The Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiri Pisarik/Josef Král/Matteo Malucelli) crashed into the barriers at Remus corner.

In the 991 class, the PROsport Performance Porsche 991 Cup (#85, Charles Putman/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster) won with a four lap margin to the MSG Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#92, Luca Rettenbacher/Christopher Zöchling/Philipp Sager) and their teammates, the MSG Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#93, Petar Matic/Boris Miljevic/Martin Gasser/Richard Gonda). Primarily, the Forch Racing by Lukas Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#81, Robert Lukas/Igor Walilko/Piotr Parys/Christopher Bauer) had taken the chequered flag in the leading position, but was excluded due to a breach of the technical regulations.

The B2F compétition Porsche 991 Cup (#35, Benoit Fretin/Bruno Fretin/Michel Mitieus) and the Porsche Lorient Racing Porsche 991 Cup (#64, Philippe Polette/Frédéric Lelievre/Frédéric Ancel) showed a long battle for the SP2 victory. On the final lap, the Porsche Lorient Racing Porsche 991 Cup ran out of fuel, came into the pits, and handed the top spot to the B2F compétition Porsche 991 Cup. The VDS Racing Adventures MARC Focus V8 (#58, Raphaël van der Straten/Thierry de Latre du Bosqueau) collided with the Porsche Lorient Racing Porsche only 50 minutes before the end, but could keep third position in class.

In the SP3-GT4 class, the Besaplast Racing Audi TTRS (#233, Franjo Kovac/Milenko Vukovic/Tomás Pekar) could keep its significant lead from the first part. Being outpaced by five laps, the RTR Projects KTM X-BOW GT4 (#221, Sergej Pavlovec/Daniel Skalický/Tomas Miniberger/Erik Janis) came home in second place. Despite a broken suspension in the early stages of the second part, the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 (#231, Adrian Barwick/Dan O’Brien/Tom Hibbert) reached third place.

The Team Altran Peugeot scored a double win with their two brand-new cars in the TCR class. Victory went to the Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup (#308, Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard) with a one lap margin to their teammates, the Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup (#908, Stéphane Ventaja/Thierry Boyer/Michael Carlsen). 36 laps down, the Speed Factory Racing Audi RS3 LMS SEQ (#109, Jesus Fuster/Miguel Abello/Mirko van Oostrum/Jaime Fuster) could not stay in striking distance and took third place.

The only A3 team, the Pfister-Racing Team Seat Leon Supercopa (#150, Mario Krall/Christof Pichler/Wolfgang Kriegl/Gerald Heigis), kept it cool in busy traffic and brought the car home in 25th place.

The fourth round of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook, the Hankook 24H CIRCUIT PAUL RICARD, will be held from 5 to 7 May. In the meantime, the 24H TOURING CAR ENDURANCE SERIES powered by Hankook and the 24H PROTOTYPE ENDURANCE SERIES powered by Hankook will head for the Hankook 12H MAGNY-COURS, held from 21 to 23 April.

The second GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#963, Milos Pavlovic/Christoph Lenz/Mark Ineichen/Roberto Pampanini) leads the A6-Am field with fourth place overall. One lap down, the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#32, Max Edelhoff/Horst Felbermayr Jr./Toni Forné) and the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll/Chantal Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout) follow in second and third.

The top three in the 991 class have been in a close contention. With the first part in the books, the PROsport Performance Porsche 991 Cup (#85, Charles Putman/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster) holds the lead. One lap down, the Forch Racing by Lukas Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#81, Robert Lukas/Igor Walilko/Piotr Parys/Christopher Bauer)  follows in second position ahead of the Olimp Racing by Lukas Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#67, Santiago Creel/Igor Walilko/Piotr Wojcik/Christopher Bauer).

Two Porsche teams are on top of the SP2 class. The Porsche Lorient Racing Porsche 991 Cup (#64, Philippe Polette/Frédéric Lelievre/Frédéric Ancel) kept the B2F compétition Porsche 991 Cup (#35, Benoit Fretin/Bruno Fretin/Michel Mitieus). at bay. Third is the VDS Racing Adventures MARC Focus V8 (#58, Raphaël van der Straten/Thierry de Latre du Bosqueau. The class pole setter, the True-Racing KTM X-BOW GT4 (#46, Gerald Kiska/Johannes Stuck/Ferdinand Stuck), already retired with consequential collision damage.

Having left from fourth on the grid, the Besaplast Racing Audi TTRS (#233, Franjo Kovac/Milenko Vukovic/Tomás Pekar) took over the lead in the SP3-GT4 class. The RTR Projects KTM X-BOW GT4 (#221, Sergej Pavlovec/Daniel Skalický/Tomas Miniberger/Erik Janis) is listed in second place, but was stationary in the pits for the final 20 minutes after having lost the class lead due to collision damage. Third in class is the HTM Racing Saker GT TDI (#222, Henk Thijssen/Monny Krant/Ivo Breukers), that also had multiple unplanned pit stops.

Being the only TCR car without problems so far, the Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup (#908, Stéphane Ventaja/Thierry Boyer/Michael Carlsen) already holds a four lap lead. Their teammates, the Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup (#308, Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard) follow in second, despite having suffered from a drive loss and a subsequent repair stop. Third is the Speed Factory Racing Audi RS3 LMS SEQ (#109, Jesus Fuster/Miguel Abello/Mirko van Oostrum/Jaime Fuster), that lost time with two braking mistakes at Remus corner.

The only A3 car, the Pfister-Racing Team Seat Leon Supercopa (#150, Mario Krall/Christof Pichler/Wolfgang Kriegl/Gerald Heigis), rests in 32nd position overall.

A total of 16 cars has been entered in the A6 class, predominantly for GT3 machinery. The winners of the most recent 24H SERIES round at Mugello, Scuderia Praha is running its trusted Ferrari 488 GT3, but the Czech squad will be facing strong competition in the A6-Pro class from various teams with Mercedes-AMG, Porsche (including Dubai race winners, Herberth Motorsport, keen to make up for its retirement at Mugello) and Lamborghini. Austrian Lamborghini outfit GRT Grasser Racing Team, based in Knittelfeld, just down the road from the Red Bull Ring, will be particularly motivated to do well on home soil. In A6-Am, reigning GT teams’ champions Hofor Racing are still unbeaten this year, with class wins at Dubai and Mugello. The Swiss team is leading the 24H SERIES GT Teams’ standings, just two points ahead of German team PROsport performance. Hofor Racing are up in the A6-Am class against various other teams with Mercedes-AMG, Audi, Renault, Lamborghini, the French Vortex silhouette and the Austrian-built KTM X-Bow sports car.

A total of five cars have been entered in the 991 class, with teams from Poland, Germany and Austria. Four Porsche Cup cars are also running in the SP2 class against one KTM X-Bow GT4 with an all-Austrian driver line-up, and a Marc Focus V8 silhouette car. The SP3-GT4 class includes three cars, one of them yet another KTM X-Bow. The TCR touring car class has one Audi RS3 LMS, one Honda Civic and a pair of Peugeot 308 Racing Cup cars. A BMW M3, a Mini F56 JCW and a SEAT Leon Supercopa car from the A3 class round out the field.

While Thursday, 6 April, is reserved for the usual private tests, allowing for a total of six hours of track time, official action starts on Friday, 7 April, with free practice from 8.30 till 10.00 hrs. Qualifying has been split up into two segments: the first part from 10.15 till 11.00 hrs for A6, 991, SPX and SP2 cars and the second part, from 11.10 till 11.55 hrs, for SP3-GT4, TCR CUP1, A3, A2 and D1 cars. From 13.15 hrs onwards, there will be a one-hour starting grid procedure, followed by the first part of the race from 14.15 till 17.45 hrs. Overnight, cars will be kept under parc fermé conditions, enabling teams to relax on Friday evening. On Saturday, 8 April, starting grid activities are scheduled from 8.30 till 9.15 hrs, followed by the remainder of the race from 9.15 till 17.45 hrs.

Hankook is the exclusive tyre supplier and title sponsor of the event while Panta racing fuels is the official fuel supplier. BRM is the official timekeeping partner and provides the trophies for the prize-giving ceremony. SPAA05 provides LED displays indicating the position of each car in the race. The following companies are present with sales and service booths in the paddock: DRD international for stickers, Global Crave for freshly squeezed orange juice and Speedcom for radio communication equipment and support.

Second place overall for IDEC Sport Racing
Victory in the A6-Am class for Hofor Racing
Four Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the top ten

Mercedes-AMG Motorsport remains successful in the 24H Series: after a podium finish and a class win in the season opener at Dubai, teams with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 also put in a very good performance in the second round at Mugello. In the 12-hour race at the 5.245 kilometres long track in Tuscany, IDEC Sport Racing scored the best result by finishing second overall. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 with starting number 17, driven by Paul Lafargue, Patrice Lafargue und Dimitri Enjalbert (all FRA) started from seventh place on the grid. With consistently fast lap times and largely trouble-free stints, the French trio was among the front-runner throughout the race. After 326 laps, final driver Dimitri Enjalbert drove second place home.

The #30 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 also showed an error-free performance: Tom Onslow-Cole (GBR), Remon Leonard Vos und Kevin Veltman (both NED) started from fifth place. After a faultless drive, the trio managed to work its way up into third in the final stages of the race, but came under pressure just before the end and still lost out on its podium finish, coming home in fourth place.

With starting number 1 on the Mercedes-AMG GT3, Hofor Racing took on this race. The reigning 24H Series champions had an effective strategy for the race that saw the team gradually work up its way from 20th on the grid to fifth place overall. Thus, Roland Eggimann, Chantal Kroll, Michael Kroll (all SUI), Christiaan Frankenhout (NED) and Kenneth Heyer (GER) also secured the class win in the A6-Am classification.

The #24 SPS automotive-performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 rounded out the top ten results for the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing Teams. Alexandre Coigny, David Iradj Alexander and Richard Feller (all SUI) finished eighth overall and thus ended up third in the A6-Am class. The SPS automotive performance team’s sister car with starting number 16 retired from seventh place overall with less than 90 minutes remaining, an accident putting an early end to the race for Jürgen Krebs, Tim Müller, Valentin Pierburg (all GER).

The first third of the race, that was held on Friday afternoon, saw another two Mercedes-AMG GT3, the cars with starting numbers #25 and #38, establish themselves among the front runners. After the mandatory intervention, during which parc fermé rules were in force for all cars, the race resumed on Saturday morning. A few minutes after the start of the second segment, the ninth-placed #25 HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 collided with the MS Racing car with number #38, that ran in fifth place. After a repair of over one hour, HTP Motorsport’s Brice Bosi (LUX), Wim de Pundert (NED) and Bernd Schneider (GER) were able to continue their race. The team worked its way back up to 22nd place at the finish. For the MS Racing car with Alexander Hrachowina, Martin Konrad, Zeljko Drmic (alle AUT) and Edward Lewis Brauner (GER), however, the race was over.

Paul Lafargue, IDEC Sport Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3 #17: “In preparation for the race, we tried many things and chose a set-up that proved to be very good. The team worked together perfectly. We started from seventh place and the race went pretty well altogether. There were some incidents, but we dealt with them in a good way. All the time, we were able to count on a reliable and performant car that was very easy to handle. For us as the drivers, that was very good!”

Michael Kroll, Hofor Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3 #1: “Once again, we managed to score victory in the A6-Am class with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and finish fifth overall. That is, of course, the result of the reliability of the car. While our rivals retired one after another, we were able to continue without any issues until the very end. Many thanks to Mercedes-AMG Motorsport for getting us this far up to the front again.”

Drama stroke early for the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#911, Daniel Allemann/Ralf Bohn/Robert Renauer/Alfred Renauer). The Hankook 24H DUBAI winners retired with an engine failure in the first part on Friday. The Forch Racing powered by Olimp Porsche 991 GT3 R (#29, Robert Lukas/Marcin Jedlinksi/Patrick Eisemann), that had held second place yesterday, lost time with bodywork repairs and finally retired with a puncture an hour before the end.

The 2016 overall champions, the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll/Chantal Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout), won the A6-Am class in fifth position overall. Four laps down, the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#963, Mark Ineichen/Christoph Lenz/Roberto Pampanini/Milos Pavlovic) went into second spot from the SPS automotive performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#24, Alexandre Coigny/Iradj Alexander David/Richard Feller).

Porsche Lorient Racing had both its cars in the SP2 lead battle, until they have retired with an electrical problem respectively accident damage. Victory went to the Speed Lover Porsche 991 Cup (#78, Pierre-Yves Paque/Jean-Michel Gerome/Christian Kelders). The B2F compétition Porsche 991 Cup (#35, Benoit Fretin/Bruno Fretin/Michel Mitieus) finished second from the Vortex V8 GC Automobile GC 10 V8 (#203, Martin Gøtsche/Nanna Gøtsche/Florian Revaz).

The PROsport Performance Porsche 991 Cup (#85, Charles Putman/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster) went on the top of the 991 class and kept the MSG Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#92, Philipp Sager/Luca Rettenbacher/Christopher Zöchling) at bay by just 1:06.999 minutes. Third place went to the Olimp Racing by Lukas Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#67, Christopher Bauer/Stanislav Jedlinski/Robert Lukas/Igor Walilko), that had been leading in the end of part one.

The SP3-GT4 class was finally dominated by the Nova Race Ginetta G55 GT4 (#227, Luca Magnoni/Philippe Salini/Luca Rangoni), that took the glory on home soil. Ten laps behind, the JR Motorsport BMW E90 (#114, Bob Herber/Martin Lanting) reached second place. The Besaplast Racing Audi TTRS (#233, Franjo Kovac/Milenko Vokuvic/Tomáš Pekař) came home third.

The Bonk Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS TCR (#115, Hermann Bock/Max Partl) took the victory in the TCR class with a ten lap margin from the SICL.com SEAT Leon Cup Racer V1 DSG (#120, Gavin Spencer/Ashley Woodman/Frank Pettitt/Carey Lewis). The Car Collection Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS TCR (#333, Monika Parhofer/Dirk Vorländer/Siegfried Kuzdas/Christian Schmitz) scored third spot.

Despite a wheel bearing issue in the end of part one, the only CUP1 car, the Bonk Motorsport BMW M235i Racing Cup (#145, Axel Burghardt/Jürgen Meyer/Michael Bonk/Matthias Schrey), reached the finish line in 33rd position overall.

After having lost the A2 class lead in the end of the first part, the Team Eva Solo/K-Rejser Peugeot RCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Henrik Sørensen) went back to the top right after the resumption to take home their second victory of the season. The Stanco&Tanner Motorsport Renault Clio III (#112, Andy Stanco/Armando Stanco/Stefan Tanner) finished in second place by a narrow margin to the Endurance Team Romania Toyota GT86 CS-V3 (#173, Sergiu Nicolae/Stefan Unchiasu/Mihai Costin/Fabrizio Broggi), that ended up on the podium on their championship’s debut.

In three weeks, the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook heads for its debut in Austria with the Hankook 12H RED BULL RING, held from 7 to 8 April. In the meantime, the 24H TOURING CAR ENDURANCE SERIES powered by Hankook kicks off its 2017 season with the Hankook 24H SILVERSTONE, held from 31 March to 2 April.

The A6-Am leaders are three laps behind the top of the overall field. In sixth overall, the GP Extreme Renault RS01 FGT3 (#27, Frederic Fatien/Jordan Grogor/Tiziano Carugati) is ahead of the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll/Chantal Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout) by a narrow margin only. One lap down, the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#963, Mark Ineichen/Christoph Lenz/Roberto Pampanini/Milos Pavlovic) is still on their heels.

Three Porsche are on top of the SP2 class after the first four hours. Equaled on laps, the Porsche Lorient Racing Porsche 991 Cup (#64, Philippe Polette/Frédéric Lelievre/Pascal Gibon/Christophe Bourret) is ahead of the Speed Lover Porsche 991 Cup (#78, Pierre-Yves Paque/Jean-Michel Gerome/Christian Kelders). The second Porsche Lorient Racing car, the Porsche 991 Cup (#65, Jean-François Demorge/Alain Demorge/Gilles Blasco/Frédéric Ancel), follows in third spot with a one lap deficit.

The top three in the 991 class are still classified in the order they qualified in. The Olimp Racing by Lukas Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#67, Christopher Bauer/Stanislav Jedlinski/Robert Lukas/Igor Walilko) leads the way from the MSG Motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#92, Philipp Sager/Luca Rettenbacher/Christopher Zöchling), which is still on the same lap. One lap behind, the PROsport Performance Porsche 991 Cup (#85, Charles Putman/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster) settled for third.

The SP3-GT4 pole setter, the Nova Race Ginetta G55 GT4 (#227, Luca Magnoni/Philippe Salini/Luca Rangoni), got back the class lead from the JR Motorsport BMW E90 (#114, Bob Herber/Martin Lanting), after Martin Lanting had spun into the gravel bed. Two laps down, the JR Motorsport BMW rejoined in second spot. The Besaplast Racing Audi TTRS (#233, Franjo Kovac/Milenko Vokuvic/Tomáš Pekař) came home third, but has already lost nine laps on the leader.

The Bonk Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS TCR (#115, Hermann Bock/Max Partl) was in a close fight for the TCR lead with the NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten Racing SEAT Leon TCR V3 (#125, Gijs Bessem/Harry Hilders/Bas Koeten). With only two minutes remaining, Gijs Bessem hit the barriers in turn eight, handing a three lap lead to the Bonk Motorsport Audi.

The only CUP1 car, the Bonk Motorsport BMW M235i Racing Cup (#145, Axel Burghardt/Jürgen Meyer/Michael Bonk/Matthias Schrey), stayed out of harm’s way and came home in 44th place overall.

In the closing stages, the Stanco&Tanner Motorsport Renault Clio III (#112, Andy Stanco/Armando Stanco/Luigi Stanco/Stefan Tanner) took over the A2 class lead from the Team Eva Solo/K-Rejser Peugeot RCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Henrik Sørensen).

Racing resumes tomorrow at 10.00 hrs. During the overnight break, working on the cars is not permitted. The cars will also have to resume the race with the fuel load left after today’s first part. Cars with a low fuel level are likely to lose several minutes during early pit stops. Lapped cars starting with filled up fuel tanks will have all the opportunities to make up some ground early on tomorrow.

The programme flows from a long-standing relationship between the two companies running F1 machinery in the BOSS GP Series and a solitary foray in the Barcelona 24 hours with a Seat Leon Cup Racer. It was this event that left all in involved thirsting for more endurance racing. “TDF and Geva have been working together for years now on all sorts of F1 machinery but it was the Barcelona race that gave us the idea of really getting stuck in”, explains TDF-director Matt Faulks. “We then looked at a programme that would give us the opportunity to race all over Europe and race for victories and the Ginetta gives us just that”

Spearheading the new project will be Melroy Heemskerk and Sven van Laere. Dutchman Heemskerk, 28, is a former Dutch and Benelux Formula Ford champion who, after making his victorious debut at Geva Racing in 2009, has been managed by team boss Gert Valkenburg and raced successfully in Formula Palmer Audi, VdeV, Dutch GT4 and the FIA GT Series. “Melroy is the ideal driver for a new project like this. His feedback is second to none, he has the speed and the maturity to tackle a long-distance race and he knows the Ginetta well”, adds Valkenburg who’s eponymous team will make its long awaited switch to GT-racing. “We’ve been successful in single-seaters, taking over thirty titles in national and international championships but the chance to move into endurance racing with the guys at TDF was too good to pass up. It’s a new challenge and something we relish as a new team.”

Successful Belgian gentleman racer Sven van Laere joins Heemskerk in the Ford V6-powered Ginetta GT4 after racing with the TDF.GEVA team in the Barcelona 24 hours. “I’ve known Gert Valkenburg for over twenty years and really enjoyed working with Matt Faulks and the guys at TDF. They are all former F1 engineers and mechanics so they really know their stuff, but most importantly they do it with a laugh”, smiles Van Laere.

The team tested the newly-built Ginetta at its Bedford base last Friday with both Heemskerk and Van Laere behind the wheel while also trying different drivers to race alongside the two full-season signings. “We’re happy with the way the car has come together and right now we are in the process of putting together the driver line-ups for each of the five TCES-races. We had a great day shaking down a car that we’ve put all our F1 know-how in and we can’t wait for the season to start”, concludes team owner Matt Faulks.

An endurance race is always a big challenge for a team. If you start at the same time with 4 vehicles in a 12-hour race, is an organizational and logistical masterpiece. The Team Car Collection Motorsport around Teamchef Peter Schmidt will face this challenge on the second round of the 24H Endurance Series on 17th and 18th of March.

First entry for the new Audi RS 3 LMS

On 3rd of February the new racing car from Ingolstadt was accepted. The Audi RS 3 LMS was developed for the highly booming TCR class. A 243 kW (330 hp) four-cylinder two-liter TFSI engine accelerates the Audi RS 3 LMS from 0 to 100 km / h in about 4.5 seconds. Car Collection Motorsport uses this vehicle for the first time at the HANKOOK 12H Mugello. The driver has not yet been finalized. They are still in some negotiations with interested drivers. Teamchef Peter Schmidt would like to receive further inquiries.

Denis Ferlemann (Team Manager): “We are very enthusiastic about our latest achievement. The TCR class is currently experiencing a boom and the Audi RS 3 LMS is just the right car to fight for success here. We are pleased that we have another member of the Audi family in the line with us and thank Audi Sport customer racing for their support and trust. “

Three Audi R8 LMS at the Marathon in Tuscany

In addition to the Audi RS 3 LMS, the tried and tested GT3 vehicles, three Audi R8 LMS, will be launched for the Walluf team. For the vehicle with the starting number 32 they are still in conversations with drivers. Max Edelhoff and Horst Felbermayr Jr., who share the “Felbermayr”-Audi R8 LMS with two other drivers, are already set. The number 33, Audi R8 LMS is piloted by Dirg and Dimitri Parhofer, as well as Johannes Siegler. The three gentlemen are supported by a professional driver. “Last but not least” the “Kirchhoff”-Audi R8 LMS is shared by Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff, Gustav Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm and Ingo Vogler. The quartet, which reached the 3rd place at the HANKOOK 24H Dubai with Max Edelhoff, would like to repeat the success or climb two more paces further up.

Peter Schmidt: “It is a great challenge for us to take part in the HANKOOK 12H Mugello with four vehicles. However, we will participate with at least three Audi R8 LMS in all 12-hour races of the 24H Endurance Series and 24-hour races with at least two vehicles. The last driver positions are not yet occupied. Interested drivers are welcome to contact me. An entry with our Porsche 991 GT3 Cup or the start in the new GT Retro Series with a SLS AMG GT3 or an Audi R8 LMS (MY2013) is conceivable.”

The Audi R8 LMS with the #33 piloted by Dimitri Parhofer, the three Spaniards, Daniel Díaz-Varela, Toni Forné and Isaac Tutumlu-Lopez, as well as team owner Peter Schmidt. The Kirchhoff-Audi R8 LMS was shared by Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff, Gustav and Max Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm and Ingo Vogler. Both cars started in the class for gentlemen drivers, the class A6-AM.

Good starting position

In Class A6-AM you can choose between two different strategies. Either one does not run faster than 2:05 minutes in the qualifying and in the race, then at each pitstop 120 liters can be refilled, or you don’t go under the time of 2:03 minutes, but only 100 liters can be refilled. With the #33 they decided for the 2:03 minutes tactic, the Kirchhoff-Audi R8 LMS #34 went with the 2:05 minutes strategy into the race. Toni Forné drove the second fastest time in qualifying, the number 33, Elmar Grimm placed the car with number 34 on grid 7 in class A6-AM.

Dominance in the first hours of the race

The Quintet of Parhofer, Díaz-Varela, Forné, Tutumlu-Lopez and Schmidt dominated the class A6-AM in the first hours of the race, thanks to fast and constant lap times and a clever strategy. Until after the end of the eighth hour, the team not only led the field, they also were 2 laps ahead. In the case of a pit stop, the clutch was broken due to too aggressive start-up. The Audi R8 LMS still drove to the fuel station, here the car didn’t start anymore. It had to be pushed by mechanics. The drivers lost three laps, but resumed the race. At this time, the Audi R8 LMS #34 driven by Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff, Gustav and Max Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm and Ingo Vogler were already in fifth position.

Incident at the start of the second race third means the off for the Audi R8 LMS #33

While the Kirchhoff-Audi R8 LMS continued to catch up and were already in the podium position, another car touched the Audi R8 LMS #33 during an overlapping. In the incident, the tie rod bent, Toni Forné was forced into a turn. The defective clutch finally prevented a further journey and the car had to be dragged into the box. After a short repair break, Daniel Díaz-Varela went back into the race on position 40. A few laps later, the Audi R8 LMS was finally decided to retire from the race. The defective clutch cost more time at each pit stop, a repair or the replacement of the transmission would have thrown back the vehicle without prospect at this time of the race.

Exciting fight for the podium places

In the further course of the race, Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff, Gustav and Max Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm and Ingo Vogler continued to pick up more positions. Thus the places 2 to 4 were mixed again, depending on the pit box window. Between the 17th and 19th race hour the second position could be maintained and also a lead of two laps. But also the Kirchhoff-Audi R8 LMS # 34 was not spared by a touch. A competitor drove to the right rear wheel. With a broken tie rod, Elmar Grimm dragged back to the pits. The incident occurred directly in turn 1, so the team lost 1.5 minutes by the slow way back to the pits. In wind ropes the defective tie rod was exchanged and so they lost only 4 minutes in the repair break. At 4th place in class A6-AM, Ingo Vogler continued the race.

Sprint race to the finish flag

The quintet did not give up. They wanted to go back in the fight for the podium. With fast lap times and cleverly placed pit stops, they managed to get back into the allocation of the podium places. The Renault RS01 FGT3 from the French Equipe GP Extreme, the SLS AMG GT3 from Gravity Racing International and the Kirchhoff-Audi R8 LMS were fighting for the final positions. Then an accident triggered a Code-60-phase. Tire piles were repaired, the vehicles had to avoid the accident and thus leave the track. When the race was resumed, all three cars were on the same lap. Max Edelhoff, at this time on position 4, picked up several seconds every lap. The better initial position had the quintet by Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff, Gustav and Max Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm and Ingo Vogler. Both opponents should still have to complete one more pit stop.

Joy and suffering are closely linked

A few laps later Max Edelhoff radioed a creeping flatfoot. This was forced to insert an unscheduled pit stop to change the damaged tire. While trying to catch up, the time was too short. Thus Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff, Gustav and Max Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm and Ingo Vogler finished third in the class A6-AM as well as the 10th place in the overall ranking.

The team and their drivers were able to gain again on a Lamborghini Huracán ST a grandiose result with a 2nd place on the podium.

The private practice session at Wednesday with the drivers Oliver Webb (GB), Jake Rattenbury (GB), Harald Schlotter (GER) and JC Perrin (CAN) went well.

But then the horror took its course. Thursday during the free practice the car crashed and that crash caused an irreparable damage to chassis and engine.

After analyse and dismantle of the car the team had to determine that a repairing was impossible.

Frustration of team and drivers in the team tent. But there is no give up at Leipert Motorsport.

After intensive discussions between team and drivers, they decided to use a replacement car from another team that had a replacement carrier on site. After this decision, nearly at 6pm,

the team dismantled the replacement car completely, because this car was not prepared for endurance races. The Leipert guys gave their best and after nearly 16 hours work, also during the whole night, the “new” car (from 2 make 1) was ready to drive the Warm Up. Jake Rattenbury went out on the track with the assembled Leipert Huracán (now with a golden head). He came in and said: Perfect, everything is running smoothly. Great pleasure for the tired mechanics and the drivers.

The Lamborghini Huracan ST with #10 had to start from the end of the grid because of missed qualifying. But this fact was still better than not being at the start.

Then the sun sets and rises again for the exhausted team and the drivers Oli, Jake, Harald and JC who turned to be highly motivated again.

Oli Webb started the race from place 95. He led the Huracan through the field like a hot knife through butter. After nearly two hours stint he handed over the wheel to Jake Rattenbury on P14 overall and P1 in class SPX – absolutely amazing. The team could not believe it. Also Jake, Harald and JC had shown an amazing performance during their following stints.

After an extremely exciting racing thriller without any problems car #10 crossed the finish line after 24 hours on P19 complete and P2 in class SPX.

Ingo Leipert: “The start of season 2017 has challengend us extremely. But despite the shock during the free practice, we have never been so happy about a podium as this week. Our staff  has given everything, so we would like to thank them again. We are incredibly proud that they have shown such a perfect performance in the short time during the night and that they still have hold out the 24 hours of the racetime. The newly built vehicle ran without any problems. Also our drivers Oliver Webb, Jake Rattenbury, Harald Schlotter and JC Perrin were incredible. The Lamborghini Huracán has survived the complete race-distance without damages. Thank you for that.”

The upcoming races of the team: Lamborghini Super Trofeo Middle East (Abu Dhabi & Dubai) in Februar and March 2017.

After BLACK FALCON Team TMD Friction´s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup number 68 started the race from position five, starting driver Anders Fjordbach quickly climbed up the grid during the first few laps. He came into the pits in second position and handed the car over to Alexander Toril who managed to claim the leading position within his first stint in the car. During the next couple of hours the drivers quartet Toril, Fjordbach, Saud Al Faisal and Saeed Al Mouri only lost the leading position once due to unlucky circumstances within a Cod-60-period. After a long night number 68 had several laps advantage in front of the second car of the class. Eventually, the four drivers crossed the line with four laps advantage taking victory in class and scoring a superb 12th position overall. This also meant the team was the best not-GT3 car on the scoreboard.

The 24H race in Dubai was not only the first race outside of Europe, but also only the second 24h race in his still young career for Alexander Toril.  After his victory at the 24 hours of Nürburgring back in May 2016 Toril can look back at achievements at two of the most important 24 hour races in the world. With his recent victory in Dubai, Toril once again showed his skills to withstand the rough conditions during long distance races and that he quickly adapted from the Porsche Carrera Cup to a more complex type of racing.

“It´s a great feeling to win the second 24 hours race in a row. The whole team did a perfect job, the car was great and we had not a single issue. I want to thank my teammates for their flawless performance, the team and my partners. Without them this achievement wouldn’t´t have been possible. After this perfect start into the new season I´m looking forward to the next races”, Toril said after the ceremony.

The usual winter break has been positively disrupted this year with the 24h Dubai race participation, the most important endurance race in the Middle East. The Black Falcon team has lined up, among other vehicles, a Porsche 911 Cup to compete in the 991 category counting for this task with the Saudi Bandar Alesayi, the Germans Sören Spreng and Burkard Kaiser and the Spanish-German Miguel Toril on board.

After qualifying in 3rd place in the category, the first few hours of racing evolved favorably for team #69, which alternates between the 2nd and 3rd position, depending on the strategy. Unfortunately, during the first night hours, the mechanics of the Porsche had an issue than forced the team to proceed with a repair that costed more than 6 laps.

The race continued without incident until almost the end with the team fighting to recover the lost time for more than 16 hours of racing. A new issue just 2 hours before the end limited the few possibilities left and Miguel would cross the finish line on 5th place in the category.

Miguel Toril: “A great team effort that has not been rewarded. Black Falcon has done an excellent job, we -the drivers- have driven without making a single mistake in the whole race and personally, I am very happy with my performance on track. I am very grateful for the opportunity I received to be in Dubai. My brother Alex has done a great job with his team winning the category and that is also for me a great reason to be happy. Thank you very much again to everyone involved and see you back on track soon”.

In January 2016, the 911 GT3 R celebrated its race debut mounted with the new ultra-modern, four-litre, flat-six engine with direct fuel injection. Porsche had designed the customer sports racer for worldwide GT3 series on the basis of the 911 GT3 RS production sports car. The victory at Dubai is the first for the latest 911 GT3 R at a 24-hour race.

Race quotes
Sascha Pilz, Head of GT Customer Motorsport: “I’m very pleased with this outcome of the 911 GT3 R at the start of its second race season and proud of the performance of our customer teams. Once again, the customer vehicle has demonstrated its competitiveness in long distance racing. We can now look forward to the next season highlight; the Rolex 24 in Daytona.”

Brendon Hartley (911 GT3 R #911): “That was a great team effort from Herberth Motorsport. I only met the squad for the first time on Wednesday and I immediately felt at home. My first outing in a GT-Porsche was a great experience and I hope that I’ll be back again next year. I love driving the 911 GT3 RS on the road and now I’ve also fallen in love with the racing version.”

Sven Müller (911 GT3 R #12): “To begin my first season as a Porsche works driver on the podium is fantastic. We put in a very strong team performance. Towards the end we had a puncture so we couldn’t fight for victory, but second place is more than we had expected.”

Matteo Cairoli (911 GT3 R #12): “What a great start to the season. This is my first podium result at a 24-hour race and it makes me want more. Thanks to the entire team for this incredible performance.”

Mathieu Jaminet (911 GT3 R #76): “I’m thrilled with my first 24-hour race. Fifth place is a great result for us. We didn’t make any mistakes and our 911 GT3 R ran faultlessly over the entire distance. A double victory and fifth place for us – that’s a fabulous start to the season for Porsche.”

Race result
1. Hartley/R. Renauer/Allemann/Bohn/A. Renauer (NZ/D/CH/D/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R, 578 laps
2. Müller/Cairoli/Klohs/Krumbach (D/I/D/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R, 576
3. Al Faisal/Haupt/Buurmann/Bronizewski/Engel (KSA/D/NL/PL/D), Mercedes GT3, 575
4. Osborne/Haigh/Ratcliffe/Haase (GB/GB/GB/D), Audi R8, 571
5. Jaminet/Narac/Cornac/Jousse (F/F/F/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R, 569

Between them, the Manthey and Herberth Motorsport Porsche teams spent more than three quarters of the race in the lead of the field. Driving the Manthey car around 5.30 hrs, Otto Klohs became involved in a collision with another vehicle, after which some repair on the left front side of the Porsche was required. That gave the Herberth team a slight advantage to which it held on for the final eight hours of the race. In total, the Herberth Motorsport Porsche led the field for 380 laps. The two Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 both were in contention for a podium finish, running in the top four until well after sunrise, but then local hero Khaled Al Qubaisi, driving the #2 car, spun and collected the #963 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini (Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart/Rik Breukers/Rolf Ineichen/Mark Ineichen). Both cars retired after the accident. Earlier in the race, the Austrian team’s #964 car (Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart/Ezequiel Companc/Rolf Ineichen/Adrian Amstutz) had already retired following a collision while the HB Racing Lamborghini (#7, Herbert Handlos/Norbert Siedler/Sam Tordoff/Florian Spengler/Andrea Amici) was out early in the race following a burst tyre that damaged the fuel line and led to a fire. Polish ex-Formula 1 racer Robert Kubica didn’t make it to the finish either in his first-ever 24h race as the car on which he was entered, the Forch Racing powered by Olimp (#29, Robert Lukas/Marcin Jedlinski/Wolf Henzler/Santiago Creel/Robert Kubica) retired with technical issues.

Reigning 24H SERIES teams’ champions, Hofor Racing, won the A6-Am class on the first competitive outing with its new Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll/Chantal Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout) after a largely trouble-free run. GP Extreme finished second in class with its Renault RS01 FGT3 (#27, Frédéric Fatien/Tiziano Carugati/Nicky Pastorelli/Stuart Hall), followed by Car Collection Motorsport’s Audi R8 LMS (#34, Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff/Gustav Edelhoff/Max Edelhoff/Elmar Grimm/Ingo Vogler).

Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo cars scored a 1-2 in the SPX class with victory for GDL Racing Middle East (#87, Franck Pelle/Rory Penttinen/Vic Rice/Pierre Ehret), followed by Leipert Motorsport (#10, Oliver Webb/Jake Rattenbury/Jean-Charles Perrin/Harald Schlotter), a fine performance by the team that started from the back of the grid due to a chassis change following an incident in practice. The Fach Auto Tech Porsche (#51, Thomas Fleischer/Peter Joos/Marcel Wagner/Heinz Bruder/Martin Ragginger) came third in class.

The Black Falcon Team TMD Friction won the Porsche 991 Cup class with its #68 car (Saud Al Faisal/Saeed Al Mouri/Anders Fjordbach/Alexander Toril), from Prosport Performance (#85, Charles Putman/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster/Andy Pilgrim) and race:pro motorsport (#63, Stanislav Minsky/Murad Sultanov/Klaus Bachler/Carlos Rivas/Mark Wallenwein).

The SP2 class saw the Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silversting (#207, Wolfgang Kaufmann/Kalman Bodis/Jaap van Lagen/Heino Bo Fredriksen) come out on top from the Reiter Engineering KTM X-BPW (#247, Anthony Mantella/Dore Chaponick jr./Brett Sandberg/Benjamin Mazatis) and the VDS Racing Adventures MARC Focus V8 (#58, Raphaël van der Straten/Joël Vanloocke/Grégory Paisse/Pierre Dupont/José Close).

British sports car brand Ginetta scored a 1-2 in the SP3-GT4 class. Optimum Motorsport (#231, Stewart Linn/Ade Barwick/Dan O’Brien/William More) won by a comfortable margin from Century Motorsport (#229, Nathan Freke/Aiden Moffat/Jack Mitchell/Ben Green). The GDL Racing Team Asia Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR (#267, Jonathan Hui/Frank Yu/Antares Au/Kevin Tse) came third.

Making its competition debut in Dubai this weekend, the Audi RS3 LMS scored a class win in the TCR category with the Cadspeed Racing with Atech entry (#108, James Kaye/Julian Griffin/Erik Holstein/Finlay Hutchison). A long-time class leader, the Modena Motorsport SEAT Leon TCR (#216, Wayne Shen/John Shen/Francis Tjia/Mathias Beche) came second, with the Zest Racecar Engineering SEAT (#105, Philippe Ulivieri/Gosia Rdest/John Allen/JT Coupal/John Weisberg) third.

A3 touring class honours went to the Team Altran Peugeot with the victory for the #308 Peugeot 208 GTi (Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard/Michael Carlsen) and second for the #908 sister car (Yusif Bassil/Thierry Boyer/Gonzalo Martin de Andres/Loïc Dupont). The PB Racing Lotus Elise Cup (#133, Stefano D’Aste/Stefano Pasotti/Lorenzo Pegoraro/Immanuel Vinke/Michele Bartyan) came third.

German team Sorg Rennsport scored a 1-2 in the CUP1 class with its #151 BMW M235i Racing Cup Car (Stephan Epp/Christian Andreas Franz/Michael Hollerweger/Heiko Eichenberg/Oskar Sandberg) in first and the #152 sister car (Ahmed Al Melaihi/Jesus Diez/José Manuel de los Milagros/George Richardson/Shawn Peh) in second, followed by the Bonk Motorsport entry (#146, Hermann Bock/Rainer Partl/Max Partl).

Danish Team Eva Solo/K-Rejser won the A2 class with its Peugeot RCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Thomas Sørensen/Jens Mølgaard/Henrik Sørensen) from the Team Cooksport Renault Clio Cup IV (#172, Alex Sedgwick/Shayne Deegan/Oliver Cook/Jonathan Maybin/Josh Cook) and the Team Sally Racing 1 Renault Clio Cup III (#52, Martin Sally Pedersen/Peter Obel/Steffan Jusjong/Sune Marcussen/Mads Christensen).

24H SERIES powered by Hankook action continues with the Hankook 12H MUGELLO (17-18 March) while competitors in the 24H TCE SERIES powered by Hankook will get their season underway with the Hankook 24H SILVERSTONE (31 March-2 April). Following the great success of the Hankook 3x3H DUBAI prototype races, the inaugural 24H PROTO SERIES powered by Hankook season starts with the Hankook 12H MAGNY-COURS (21-22 April).

The British team’s second entry was battling from the start at the front for outright victory with its Audi R8 LMS, eventually settling for fourth in a tough race, littered with Code 60 safety periods.

“I’m delighted to have three wins in six attempts in the GT4 class,” stated Team Principal Shaun Goff. “Also, to be the best Audi with P4 is a big achievement in a 99-car grid, coming ahead of the (Belgian Audi) WRT squad. It’s really satisfying for us. Big thanks to all the drivers and support team for their time during the weekend.”
 
Sharing the driving duties in the #14 Audi R8 LMs GT3 were Christopher Haase, Flick Haigh, Ryan Ratcliffe and Joe Osborne.

The start of the race proved to be frenetic, with the #14 Audi losing positions initially before regaining ground to run in fourth position in the A6-Pro class. As the race unfolded, with an unprecedented 21 Code 60 periods, strategy became something of a lottery but the team were still confident of a solid result.

After 20 hours of largely trouble-free running a power steering failure in the midst of Joe Osborne’s stint put the podium chase on hold and presented the drivers with a real physical challenge to bring the car home, eventually succeeding with a hard-fought fourth position.

“Probably my most enjoyable race, but also the hardest race – especially in those last few stint as we didn’t have any power steering,” Ratcliffe explained. “The team have done a really good job and we wanted to bring the car home. We were behind the P3 and hoping they might have a mechanical issue or something. P4 is the same as last year which isn’t really what we wanted but everyone has driven really well and that’s all we can really ask for.”

Flick Haigh echoed Ratcliffe’s comments. “The car was really good except for the power steering issue, which forced us to change the strategy,” she explained. “I am sad I’ve been out of the car for 14 hours since then! It’s the same result as last year which with this grid isn’t bad at all.”
 
Over in the class SP3 GT4 class winning #231 Ginetta G55 GT4, Stewart Linn, Ade Barwick, Dan O’Brien and William Moore took turns behind the wheel. The early running proved to be frustrating four-minute stop go penalty but the team fought back, eventually taking the chequered flag with a comfortable seven-lap margin.

“A massive team effort and the car didn’t disappoint,” Moore summarised. “Thanks to all the boys from Optimum team, great effort, I’m over the moon.”

Dan O’Brien was also happy with the end result, even if a bit frustrated with the penalty.  “The race was very good, we overcame an early penalty as opposed to what happened last year, when we dropped to the back right at the end. So, it’s nice to be able to do it the right way around this time! We had a big push through the night to get the lead and build a gap, and then the morning was about keeping the gap.”
 
Stewart Linn was keen to praise both the team and his teammates. “It’s great how the car has coped with the conditions, and the team has done a top job too at keeping the race going smoothly, it’s being absolutely fabulous. The other drivers have been fantastic, I was focusing on bringing the car in one piece after my stints and everyone else has done the same, we worked great as a team.

“Our strategy as a team, driving the car at approximately the 90-95% of its potential instead of going flat out for fast laps has definitely helped us in the long run achieving the win. Will specially, has been under a lot of pressure, but he did a stellar job!”
 
Having kicked the 2017 season off on such a positive frame, Optimum Motorsport will now focus on the season ahead which will include British GT as well as further outings in the Hankook Tyres 24H Series. Drivers interested in joining the winning team should get in touch via the details below.

In 2016, Webb had a car fire that destroyed his Mercedes SLS GT3, a new car was found and he started from the back of the gird. His team worked overnight to get his car onto the track and he fought back against the odds to finish on the podium. Unbelievably lightning struck twice and here in 2017 Oli was once again up against it right from the get-go. Oli’s teammate crashed the Huracan during practice, causing irreparable damage to the chassis. Prior to that, Oli was P1 in class and looking good for pole. However, much like the previous year, a replacement car was found in the form of a gold Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and Oli’s Leipert Motorsport team was back in action after cramming 3 weeks work into a single overnight marathon to transform the car into a race worthy machine. The team would start from the back of the grid in 100th position, but at least they were there.

Oli did much of the running and fought hard, pitting in the lead after each stint until track position was lost due to ignition issues. On limited sleep, an exhausted Webb returned to the car 3 laps down to the leader to finish just a few seconds back to cap a remarkable weekend and Oli’s 4th podium in as many races in Dubai, and his second from last on the grid following car issues before the race.

They say things happen in three’s so we’d better prepare a spare car in advance for 2018!

A jubilant but weary Webb commented after the race:

Keep an eye out for Oli’s UAE video filmed in conjunction with the Ras Al Khaimah Tourist Authority. The trailer will be hitting your social media channels soon!

“I’m exhausted. That was one of the toughest races I’ve been involved with. After last year’s car fire and having to start from the back I didn’t ever imagine we’d go through the same thing again. On Thursday evening I thought our weekend was finished but the team performed a miracle on a spare car and somehow got us on the grid for Friday. To come back from 100th place to finish 2nd in the SPX class is a great feeling and the perfect way to repay the team for their efforts. Thank you to every one of them, my sponsors and the fans that turned out. I’ve been in the UAE for almost 10 days taking part in various media activities and of course the race and it’s been a pleasure to enjoy the country, the hospitality and the Dubai 24 hrs. I can’t wait to come back and do it all again next year. Time for some rest and relaxation before getting back in the seat for the rest of the year”.

Dubai – In the 24-hour race at the Gulf, BLACK FALCON secures third place in the overall classification among a 92 cars strong field and thus added to its impressive achievements from previous years. AMG Customer Sports Team BLACK FALCON has always been on the podium in recent years (2011 till 2017): the team already won the Dubai 24 Hours three times, scored one second place and three third places, the achievements including the maiden 24-hour race win of a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in the Mercedes-AMG Customer Sports programme back in 2012.

Driving the BLACK FALCON Mercedes-AMG GT3 with starting number #3, Yelmer Buurman (NED) started the race on Friday at 14.00 hrs local time from fifth place on the grid. The Dutchman had a good start, but already had to come in for an unscheduled pit stop after only a few laps. Buurman and his team-mates Abdulaziz Al Faisal (KSA), Michal Broniszewski (POL), Maro Engel (GER) and Hubert Haupt (GER) quickly established contact to the front-runners again and firmly placed themselves in the top five as the race played out. The dense traffic, numerous code 60 phases and time penalties for speed infringements in the refuelling zone had no effect on the team. After 575 laps, final driver Maro Engel crossed the line to finish third.

The defending 24H Series teams’ and drivers’ champions, Hofor Racing scored another top result: the Swiss team was able to repeat its A6-Am class win in the Dubai 24-hour race from the previous year, back then still with the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. Roland Eggimann (SUI), Christiaan Frankenhout (NED), Kenneth Heyer (GER), Chantal Kroll and Michael Kroll (both SUI) gradually worked their way up from 35th place on the grid with their new Mercedes-AMG GT3 and already reached the top ten in the ninth hour of the race. After a strong team performance, final driver Christiaan Frankenhout concluded the 24 hours in seventh place overall and in first place of the A6-Am class, an important step on the way to defending the 24H Series titles.

With its #16 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in eighth place, SPS automotive-performance rounded out the good overall result of the Mercedes-AMG Customer Sport Teams with another top ten result. With the only Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in the field, Gravity Racing International (#22) was classified in 17th place. On the other hand, there was bad luck for HTP Motorsport with the #25 Mercedes-AMG GT3: following an accident in practice, the team was unable to take part in qualifying, had to start from the back of the grid and impressively worked its way back up into the top ten. The efforts remained unrewarded, however, as the driver quartet with Brice Bosi (LUX), Wim de Pundert (NED), Bernd Schneider (GER) and Carsten Tilke (GER) only finished 60th due to a longer pit stop with repair works after an accident through no fault of the team. The second Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by BLACK FALCON with starting number #2 didn’t have luck on its side in the race either. In qualifying, Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED) shone with the fastest time (1m57.705s) and led the field from pole position during the first laps of the race. Together with team-mates Patrick Assenheimer (GER), Manuel Metzger (GER) and Khaled Al Qubaisi (UAE), he was in contention for victory until the morning hours, but then a collision with an opponent led to the early retirement. Likewise, IDEC Sport Racing had to retire its car from the race after 216 laps.

Maro Engel, BLACK FALCON Mercedes-AMG GT3 #3: “Many thanks to the entire BLACK FALCON team. All the drivers and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 had an excellent pace. Unfortunately, we lacked that little bit of luck for victory. We had many code 60 neutralisations that were called just after we had made our pit stops and we lost a lot of time as a result, but not by our own fault. However, third place is a very good start of the new year. We are looking forward to the upcoming races.”

Christiaan Frankenhout, Hofor Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 #1: “Seventh place overall and victory in our class is a great start for our mission of defending the 24H Series titles. We ran our new Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the first time in a race and we coped well straight away. Fortunately, we only had two or three little moments of contact and apart from that, we were able to drive flawless laps and put in good pit stops. That is what eventually gets you up front, even from 35th place on the grid. Anyway, we can be very happy with the result.”
 
Jochen Bitzer, Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Sports: “The season opener in Dubai was a very successful one with the overall result of the Mercedes-AMG Customer Sport Teams with three top ten classifications. Of course, the podium finish for BLACK FALCON and the class win for Hofor Racing are making us particularly happy. Even though we didn’t have luck fully on our side for the season opener, we have shown that our Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a contender for victories in its second season as well. Our customer sport teams have shown a great performance and a highly competitive spirit. My respect also for HTP Motorsport for never giving up and still being able to finish the race in spite of some setbacks. I am looking forward to another exciting season of GT3 racing.”

This fresh new series developed by Creventic forms a triple-header of three-hour races only for prototypes. This is the first opening round of a new International series, with the three races squeezed in around the Dubai 24hr event at Dubai Autodrome.

Racing with factory driver Charlie Robertson in the #53 Ginetta G57-P2 prototype car with the HHC Team, Khaled enjoyed a successful first taste of the mighty 6-litre Chevrolet V8 engine.

The team had minimal time to set up for free practice and Khaled had only 3 laps with the new car before some technical issues caused the car to pit for repairs, this saw Khaled and the team lose out on valuable practice on Tuesday morning.

The car went on to qualify in third position at mid-day for the first of three races over the following days. Charlie Roberston took the start, but after 32 laps he had to pit early with an electrical problem and the team spent the remainder of the day fixing the car, this meant that they would also miss out on valuable night-time practice. The HHC team worked through the night to source the issue and eventually changed the engine overnight.

Race two took place on Wednesday at 9:00am, the car was prepared and ready to go. Khaled took the start, but from the back of the grid due to the DNF in race 1. He fought his way through the other class cars to try and catch the other eight Ginetta G57 cars but found it hard going.

The second race was to be just as testing as the first, again with engine issues causing the car to be under powered, and Khaled was forced to pit after 39 laps. Charlie Roberston took the wheel and also found the car to be under power, the team then took the decision to retire the car completely.

Race 3 would shine some luck on Khaled as he swapped over cars into #57 with Graff Racing team, taking the place of Ginetta Chairman Lawrence Tomlinson. He would join Mike Simpson and Jordan Sanders in the final race of the day at 4:00pm.

Khaled took his turn in the car at 5:00pm just as the Dubai sun was setting. But in one final twist, after leaving the pits and going to fill for fuel, there was a problem with the fuel station pump and the car was not filled up as it should. On leaving the pits for his opening lap Khaled noticed the car felt under weight and radioed the team. They then had to re-pit for more fuel causing almost 5 minutes of lost time.

The car however, once fuelled proved to be perfect and allowed Khaled to truly unleash the full power of the 500HP machine.

On the finish of the race the #57 car was awarded back only 3 minutes of time lost in the fuel station, but this allowed them to claim a spectacular second place on the podium.

“I can’t believe we are here on the podium after the past few days of all the technical issues we had with the first car and I didn’t get hardly any time to test initially, so finally after changing cars we managed to get the fuel problem, it was a true test of my willpower at the end,” commented Khaled post race.

Isaac Tutumlu and his teammates didn´t have Lady Luck on their side at the 24 hours of Dubai and clutch issues in his Audi R8 LMS ended the race early for Car Collection Motorsport. Tutumlu, Toni Forné, Daniel Díez-Varela, Peter Schmidt and Dimitri Parhofer secured second place in A6-Am class in qualifying and it wasn´t long before Forné and Díaz-Varela shot into the lead with excellent opening stints. Then, both Schmidt and Parhofer started their first stints and the latter finally handed over to Tutumlu. Isaac put on a perfect performance and, seven hours into the race, the Audi racing under the Car Collection Motorsport banner was leading A6-Am class and ran 7th overall.

But unfortunately the team hit problems into the night. In the words of Tutumlu, “the clutch burned out. After Toni got hit by another car and spun on turn 1, the engine ran backwards because the automatic clutch did not work. We were forced to stop because otherwise we could have had a blown engine. It was a shame because we were leading our class. Let´s see next time, maybe we will be luckier!”

After 249 laps, the 24 hours of Dubai came to an early end.

 Some ten minutes into the session, Jeroen Bleekemolen was the first driver to post a lap time under 1m58s and with that time, he remained on top of the time sheets. “It got pretty close in the end, because Mirko Bortolotti was quite quick with the Lamborghini. I went out for another attempt and I was faster, but then I had my time disallowed because there were said to be yellow flags, although they were gone by the time I got past. In the end, it didn’t matter anyway because my initial lap time was enough fir pole,” Bleekemolen said.

 Fastest car in the A6-Am class was the IDEC Sport Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#17, Patrice Lafargue/Paul Lafargue/Nicolas Minassian/Alban Varutti) with a time of 2m02.268s set by Paul Lafargue, followed by the Belgian Audi Club WRT Audi (#5, Mohammed Bin Saud Al Saud/Mohammed Bin Faisal Al Saud/Marcel Fässler/Michael Vergers) and the V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 (#18, Wolf Nathan/Rick Abresch/Luc Braams/Duncan Huisman/Alex van ‘t Hoff).

 Arnaud Gomez claimed pole position in the SPX class with the Vortex V8 Vortex (#204, Lionel Amrouche/Cyril Calmon/Olivier Gomez/Arnaud Gomez), with the COOL Racing by GPC Motorsport Vortex (#24, Alexandre Coigny/Gino Forgione/David Iradj Alexander/Tom Dyer) second and the Eurotrac by Bas Koeten Dodge Viper (#19, Bert de Heus/Daniel de Jong/Ivo Breukers/Leon Rijnbeek) third.

Christopher Zöchling was fastest in the 991 class for a long time, but it was Klaus Bachler who eventually put the race:pro motorsport Porsche 911 Cup (#63, Stanislav Minsky/Murad Sultanov/Klaus Bachler/Carlos Rivas/Mark Wallenwein) on pole in class with a lap time of 2m03.556s. The fastest of the two MSG Motorsport cars (#92, Philipp Sager/Alex Autumn/Christopher Zöchling/Nico Rindlisbacher/Stephan Kuhs) ended up second with the Black Falcon TMD Friction Porsche (#69, Burkhard Kaiser/Sören Spreng/Miguel Toril/Bandar Alesayi) third.

Top SP2 car was the Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silversting (#207, Wolfgang Kaufmann/Kalman Bodis/Jaap van Lagen/Heino Bo Fredriksen) with a time of 2m04.571s set by Van Lagen. The Vortex V8 GC Automobile (#203, Günther Deutsch/Marco Deutsch/Mathieu Pontais/Kurt Thiel) qualified second, followed by the Speed Lover Porsche 991 Cup (#78, Guy Verheyen/Pierre-Yves Paque/Jean-Michel Gerome/Pieder Decurtins/Richard Verburg).

British driver Mike Simpson secured pole position in the SP3-GT4 class with the CWS Ginetta G55 GT4 (#178, Colin White/Tom Hibbert/Mike Simopson/Brandon Gdovic). Simpson posted his time of 2m08.835s fairly early in the session and then remained on top. Jann Mardenborough was second fastest with the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan (#123, Jann Mardenborough/Ricardo Sanchez/Romain Sarazin/Johnny Guindi), followed by the Century Motorsport Ginetta (#229, Nathan Freke/Alden Moffat/Jack Mitchell/Ben Green) thanks to a last-gasp effort by Freke.

In TCR, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen was the early pace-setter with the Team Bleekemolen SEAT Leon TCR (#100, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen/Michael Bleekemolen/Dennis de Borst/Aart-Jan Ringelberg), but he eventually had to make do with second place in class as versatile Swiss racer Mathias Beche claimed class pole with the Modena Motorsports SEAT Leon TCR (#216, Wayne Shen/John Shen/Francis Tjia/Mathias Beche) with a time of 2m11.319s. Third place in class went to the brand-new Cadspeed Racing with Atech Audi RS3 LMS (#108, James Kaye/Julian Griffin/Erik Holstein/Finlay Hutchinson) on the endurance racing debut of the car.

CUP1 qualifying honours were taken by Oskar Sandberg in the Sorg Rennsport BMW (#151, Stephan Epp/Christian Andreas Franz/Michael Hollerweger/Heiko Eichenberg/Oskar Sandberg) with a time of 2m18.099s. The fastest of the two Bonk Motorsport cars (#146, Hermann Bock/Rainer Partl/Max Partl) was second, followed by the second Sorg Rennsport car (#152, Ahmed Al Melaihi/Jesus Diez/José Manuel de los Milagros/George Richardson/Shawn Peh).

Team Altran Peugeot locked out the first two positions in the A3 class, with Gonzalo Martin de Andres putting the number 908 Peugeot 308 (#908, Yusif Bassil/Thierry Boyer/Gonzalo Martin de Andres/Loïc Dupont) on pole with a time of 2m16.141s, followed by the sister car (#308, Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard/Michael Carlsen). The Cor Euser Racing BMW (#71, Sam Allpass/Richard Verburg/Cor Euser/Klaus-Dieter Frommer/Michael Nielsen) was third.

There were three different brands on the first three places in the A2 class, with the Team Eva Solo/K-Rejser Peugeot RCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Thomas Sørensen/Jens Mølgaard/Henrik Sørensen) claiming pole with 2m19.819s set by Kristensen. The Team Cooksport Renault Clio (#172, Alex Sedgwick/Shayne Deegan/Oliver Cook/Jonathan Maybin/Josh Cook) was second while local team Lap57 Motorsport had its Honda Integra DC5 (#570, Junichi Unemoto/Kouich Okumura/Teruhiko Hamano/Peter Jürgen/Ashan Silva) third.

After a warm-up from 10.00 till 10.30 hrs, the race will start tomorrow at 14.00 hrs local time

“Finally seeing these prototypes racing here at Dubai Autodrome after a long time of preparation was a great experience,” CREVENTIC’s Ole Dörlemann comments. “We have had very positive feedback and support from many drivers and teams for our prototype initiative and this really whets the appetite for what is to come in our new 24H PROTO SERIES powered by Hankook this year!” Apart from GP2 and A1GP single-seater cars that raced at Dubai Autodrome some ten years ago, the prototypes are the fastest cars ever driven in competition around the 5.399 kilometres long circuit.

 Bradley Ellis puts Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G57 on pole in qualifying

Having topped the time sheets in the first free practice sessions already, the Ginetta G57s were setting the pace in qualifying as well. Driving the #57 Graff entry (Lawrence Tomlinson/Mike Simpson/Jordan Sanders), Simpson posted a fast lap time of 1m51.194s early in the session that left him on top for a long time. In the final ten minutes, however, Bradley Ellis showed his speed by setting a time of 1m51.666 in the #54 Optimum Motorsport car (Adrian Barwick/Bradley Ellis/Kyle Masson/James French) and went one better on his next lap. That resulted into a time of 1m51.136s, enough for the Brit to claim pole position for the first three-hour race. Six overall behind a quintet of Ginettas, Peter Kox put his #48 Kox Racing Ligier JS P3 (Peter Kox/Nico Pronk) on pole in the P3 class, with the #45 Avelon Formula Wolf GB08 CN (Ivan Bellarosa/Guglielmo Belotti) emerging as the fastest CN car in the hands of Bellarosa.

Trouble-free run secures race win for Graff Racing Ligier

At 14.00 hrs local time, 16 prototypes got the first three-hour race underway with a rolling start as the #52 Simpson Motorsport Ginetta (James Wislow/John Corbett) joined the field from the pitlane. Out in front, there was a fierce battle in the first 30 minutes between Charlie Robertson in the #53 HHC Racing Ginetta and Bradley Ellis in the pole-winning #54 Optimum Motorsport Ginetta, but neither of these cars would make it to the finish.

On lap 17, there was the first of three code 60 neutralisations as the #45 Avelon Formula Wolf GB08CN retired from the lead in the CN class with Belotti behind the wheel. As the Ginettas had to make longer pit stops to make up for their performance advantage compared to the other prototypes in the field, the two P3 cars came to the fore and a close battle between Franck Matelli in the #12 Graff car and Peter Kox in the #48 Kox Racing entry brought the decision for victory. Following a late-race pair of code 60s, one after a retirement of the #82 Krafft Racing Norma (David Cristini/Max Bortolami/Régis Treff) from the lead of the CN class and the next one, only one minute after racing had resumed, to allow for the stranded #46 Avelon Formula Wolf (Amro Al-Hamad/Nick Adcock) to be removed, Kox was no longer in a position to mount a challenge. As a result, Matelli drove the #12 Ligier across the line to take the outright win and P3 honours for Graff Racing, with Kox finishing second overall. The McKays were third overall and first in G57 with their #51 Century Motorsport Ginetta 57, one lap ahead of the #55 CWS Ginetta (Colin White/Brandon Gdovic/Jason Coupal). The battle for the CN class win went down to the wire, with Romain Vozniak in the #17 IDEC Sport Racing LigierJS53 Evo 2 (Frédérique Da Rocha/Nicolas Da Rocha/David Abramczik/Romain Vozniak) overtaking the #85 Krafft Racing Norma M20FC (François Kirmann/Daniel Kirmann/Jean-Charles Perrin) on the final lap to take a class win in fifth place overall.

After this evening’s night practice from 18.00 till 19.30 hrs, there are two further prototype races tomorrow, the first one from 9.00 till 12.00 hrs and the second one from 16.00 till 19.00 hrs (all times local in the UAE). Live streaming and live timing can be found on the website: www.24hseries.com.

It will be Optimum’s sixth consecutive appearance in the Middle Eastern endurance race and its second with its Audi R8 LMS GT3, which Haase will share with Joe Osborne, Ryan Ratcliffe and Flick Haigh.

The British squad will also attempt to repeat its 2013 SP3 class victory with a sole Ginetta G55 GT4, which will be piloted by Stewart Linn, Ade Barwick, Dan O’Brien and William Moore.

Linn will make his debut at the Dubai Autodrome, but Barwick and O’Brien both featured in Optimum Motorsport’s 2016 line-up and return as stronger, well-rounded competitors, while Moore is a fan of the circuit and a proven performer in the G55.

In stark contrast to most professional racing drivers, Haase skipped karting and only got behind the wheel of a racecar at the age of 19, when he was recruited for the inaugural Dacia Logan Cup in 2006.

What was initially a three-year plan to acclimatise to racing and reconnaissance circuits before gunning for race wins and championship titles was drastically shortened when Haase beat the opposition to victories in only his first season of competition.

The German went on to finish first overall in his maiden season of sportscar racing in the 2007 ADAC GT Masters and he was justifiably selected as the ADAC Northern Bavaria Sportsman of the Year, before going on to win the FIA European GT4 Superlight title in 2008 and the FIA European GT3 Championship in 2009.

Haase has continued accruing high profile successes and a sensational record now includes wins in 24-hour races at Spa and the Nürburgring, as well as at Petit Le Mans in the United States.

A dual 2016 campaign in ADAC GT Masters and the Blancpain Endurance Series has also yielded strong results, but Haase most notably rounded-out the season by becoming a two-time Sepang 12 Hours winner.

Most of Haase’s victories have been achieved with Audi GT3 machinery, therefore the German duly expects to challenge for the 24H Dubai victory with Optimum Motorsport and teammates Osborne, Ratcliffe and Haigh, who are fresh from scaling the podium in December’s Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi.

“We are starting in the high level A6-Pro class and we will try everything to achieve a podium or victory,” said Haase. “I know we have a team, drivers and an Audi R8 LMS that are able to do it, but to be successful you do need luck on your side.  I would be glad if I can help with my Audi GT3 experience.”

The 2016 edition of the 24H Dubai served as Optimum Motorsport’s first competitive GT3 outing and the Wakefield, England-based squad did itself justice by racing to fifth overall and fourth in the headlining A6-Pro classification against a record 100-car entry.

Interest in the 24H Series continues to soar and the task of winning will be as tough as ever in 2017, although lessons learned over the course of a varied 2016 season with its 585bhp, V10-engined Audi will undoubtedly aid Optimum Motorsport’s bid to better its results.

Optimum Motorsport Team Principal, Shaun Goff said: “Following on from a strong result in last month’s Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi and with consistency in our driver line-up, there is a strong feeling that we can achieve an overall podium in the 2017 24H Dubai. We certainly believe we should have had a top three result with the Audi R8 in last year’s race so that has to be the target this time around, particularly with Christopher Haase – a great addition to the team – in our line-up.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how our four SP3 drivers knuckle down. Ade (Barwick) and Dan (O’Brien) competed together in last year’s race, but Dan has achieved a huge amount of success and has come on leaps and bounds since then. Ade will be stronger and fitter than ever for his third consecutive 24H Dubai, but Stewart will face a steep learning curve as the only driver not to have raced at the Dubai Autodrome. He’s no stranger to 24-hour races or Ginettas and Will (Moore) is full of confidence – he really enjoys the circuit and always possesses great pace in the G55. We led the 2016 race for 16 hours and, overall, I believe we have a stronger line-up this time around.”

The Hankook 3x3H DUBAI, a triple-header of three-hour races for prototypes, marks CREVENTIC’s first-ever race for this type of race cars. The provisional entry list includes 18 cars: two in the P3 class, seven in the CN class, one in the PX category and eight in the G57 class. Famous outfits such as Graff Racing, IDEC Sport Racing, Avelon Formula, GDL Racing Middle East, Krafft Racing, and Kox Racing will be competing in the P3 or CN classes with prototype brands Norma, Radical, Ligier, and Wolf. The G57 class is a predominantly British affair, with Simpson Motorsport, Century Motorsport, HHC Racing, Optimum Motorsport, and CWS all present with one or more Ginetta G57s, plus entries from Atech-DXB from the United Arab Emirates, Graff Racing from France. Dutch team V8 Racing is running the Renault R.S. 01 in the PX class. Prototype action at Dubai Autodrome starts on Tuesday, 10 January, with two free practice sessions from 9.00 till 10.00 and 10.30 till 11.30 hrs, followed by qualifying from 12.00 till 13.00 hrs and the first race from 14.00 till 17.00 hrs. A night practice is scheduled from 18.00 till 19.30 hrs. The second race takes place on Wednesday, 11 January, from 9.00 till 12.00 hrs, the third race runs from 16.00 till 19.00 hrs.

No less than 99 cars entered for Hankook 24H DUBAI

The provisional entry list for the Hankook 24H DUBAI includes no less than 99 cars. The A6 class is the biggest one with 25 entries, including reigning 24H SERIES team champions, Hofor Racing, taking on its first race with the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. Further AMG GT3s are expected from Black Falcon, including local hero Khaled Al Qubaisi and Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen, SPS automotive performance, IDEC Sport Racing and HTP Motorsport, with five times’ DTM champion Bernd Schneider among the drivers. Gravity Racing International will be running its proven Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.

Last year’s Dubai race winners, Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, will be back with a pair of Audi R8 LMSs, with a line-up that includes reigning Blancpain GT Series Sprint champion Enzo Ide and three times’ Le Mans winner Marcel Fässler. Optimum Motorsport and Car Collection Motorsport will be running R8s as well. American racing power can be expected from V8 Racing with a Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 and Eurotrac by Bas Koeten’s Dodge Viper CC. UAE-based team GP Extreme will be running a pair of Renault R.S. 01 with a line-up that includes single-seater hotshoes Louis Deletraz and Jean-Eric Vergne. Porsche is represented by Forch Racing powered by Olimp, including works-driver Wolf Henzler, Attempto Racing, former Dubai race winners IMSA Performance, Herberth Motorsport and Manthey Racing including works driver Sven Müller. Lamborghini teams participating in the race are Konrad Motorsport and GRT Grasser Racing Team.

The SPX class includes three Lamborghinis, a pair of Vortex silhouet cars, and a Porsche 991 Cup MR car. The Porsche 991 Cup class includes twelve entries from nine different teams, including former overall 24H SERIES team champions Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing that has made the switch from the TCR touring car class. There are seven entries in the SP2 class, with two Porsches, a MARC Focus V8, an Audi TTRS, a KTM X-BOW, a Vortex and the Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silver Sting, the Hungarian team making its 24H SERIES comeback after an absence of several years.

Fierce competition is also expected in the SP3-GT4 class, with no less than 20 cars representing Porsche (ten Porsche Caymans have been entered), Lotus, BMW, Nissan, Ginetta and KTM. Especially the competition debut of the new BMW M4 GT4, run by German outfit, Schubert Motorsport, is eagerly awaited. The TCR class has seven cars as four SEAT Leon TCRs are up against the brand-new Audi RS3 LMS, making its world competition debut in Dubai, and a Honda Civic run by UAE-based team Lap57 Motorsports. The A3 class includes eight cars from BMW, Honda, SEAT, Lotus, and Peugeot. Six BMW M235i Racing Cup cars will be competing for CUP1 class honours, while eight cars from Honda, Renault, and Peugeot have been entered in the A2 class.

Following the traditional rent-a-car rides and optional private tests on Wednesday and Thursday, teams and drivers from the Hankook 24H DUBAI will take to the track for tree practice on Thursday, 12 January, split up into three heats: classes D1, A2, A3, CUP1, TCR and SP3-GT4 from 12.15 till 12.45 hrs, classes A6, SPX, SP2, 991 and 997 from 13.00 till 13.30 hrs and all classes from 13.30 till 15.25 hrs. Qualifying runs in two heats, with classes D1, A2, A3, CUP1, TCR and SP3-GT4 from 16.30 till 17.00 hrs and classes A6, SPX, SP2, 991 and 997 from 17.15 till 17.45 hrs. Night practice runs from 18.00 till 20.00 hrs. There is a warm-up on Friday, 13 January, from 10.00 till 10.30 hrs. Pre-race ceremonies get underway at 12.45 hrs, the race starts at 14.00 hrs. A prize-giving ceremony for the overall classification and all classes will follow approx. 15 minutes after the finish of the race.

On Friday morning, the new TCR Middle East series, a new sprint race series in the Gulf region, will have two races of 60 kilometres each at Dubai Autodrome. TCR Middle East action starts on Thursday, 12 January, with two free practice sessions from 9.00 till 9.30 hrs and from 11.30 till 12.00 hrs, followed by qualifying from 15.40 till 16.15 hrs. The races are scheduled on Friday from 9.00 till 9.30 and from 11.00 till 11.30 hrs, with the warm-up for the Hankook 24H DUBAI in between.

As usual, Hankook will provide the tyres for the Hankook 3x3H DUBAI and the Hankook 24H DUBAI. SPAA05 is providing the LED displays showing the race positions of the cars. BRM, Stand21, DRD International, Speedcom, Global Crave and Racing Sportiva will be present with sales booths in the paddock. The Hankook 24H DUBAI, the Hankook 3x3H DUBAI and the TCR Middle East will have live streaming in HD quality and commentary by Radiolemans.com.

Taking place from 12th to 14th of January 2017, with an additional private test day at Wednesday, 11th of January, the already traditional event after its inaugural edition in 2006, is the first race of the Creventic endurance race series, which consists of a total of 16   races in three different categories. The 24 H SERIES powered by Hankook with its flagship event, the 24 hours of Dubai, is rated as the top category.

In a field of more than 60 cars fighting for victory in different classes, GRT will be taking part with two Lamborghini Hurracán. Driver wise, the team can count on the services of their experienced drivers Rolf Ineichen (CH), Mirko Bortolotti (I) and Christian Engelhart (D), who can look back to a very successful history with GRT. They will be joined by Rolf´s brother Mark Ineichen, his Swiss fellow countryman Adrian Amstutz und a completely new face in the team:  Lamborghini Junior Rik Breukers from the Netherlands who emerged as a top talent from the Lamborghini Supertrofeo Series. Also joining will be Argentinian Ezequil Companc. The 22-year-old in 2014 won the Amateur class of the Ferrari Challenge Europa Trofeo Pirelli and came third at the World Final of this series. In 2016 he took part in the Blancpain GT Series in a Ferrari.

„We really like to give a chance to rising talents out of the Supertrofeo Series,” states GRT team principal Gottfried Grasser. „The level of performance there is getting higher and higher, so it´s a perfect preparation for the even higher challenges in GT3.“

After completing a very competitive test program in the US, Grasser is not only optimistic for the upcoming American races. He can also see his team fighting at the very top of the field at the 5,39 km long track of the Dubai Autodrome: “We do have a very competitive car, a strong driver line-up and our guys have proven over and over again that they have everything that´s needed to master the special challenges of a 24 hour race. For us as a relatively small team it is not easy to be present at many different playing fields at the same time, but due to the extreme effort of everybody within our squad, we are able to match the standards of some much bigger organisations.”

Most likely the 24 hours of Dubai will not be the only event of the Creventic series to see the participation of GRT Grasser Racing Team, but no final decisions have been made about numbers and chosen races, according to Grasser: “We have to do a thorough investigation of what will fit best into our busy schedule with also includes Blancpain GT Series, ADAC-GT-Masters, etc.  If it works out for us we will take part with one GRT Lamborghini GT3.”

GRT Grasser Racing Team – Wolfgang Koepp

The GRT Grasser Lamborghini team wishes you a Merry Christmas and a successful 2017

GRT Grasser Program in early 2017 – Dubai and USA

ROAR Test Daytona
06.01.2017 – 08.01.2017

24 Hours of Dubai – Creventic
12.01.2017 – 14.01.2017

24 Hours of Daytona
26.01.2017 – 29.01.2017

12 Hours of Sebring
16.03.2017 – 18.03.2017

“Following successful development and testing, production of the RS 3 LMS was launched at the end of November,” says Chris Reinke. “The delivery of the first cars to customer teams is a special moment for this project that is still young. We are delighted about the great demand and already very excited about the first races of the RS 3 LMS in the customer’s hand.”

The Audi RS 3 LMS has been developed by Audi Sport GmbH for the burgeoning TCR touring car category for which more and more fielding opportunities exist around the globe. By now they include the new TCR Middle East debuting as part of the 24-hour race in Dubai from January 12 to 14, 2017. For the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring and the VLN Endurance Championship dedicated classes for TCR touring cars have just been established as well.

The Audi RS 3 LMS puts customer sport at Audi on an even broader base than before. Together with the Audi R8 LMS GT3 sports car that is the market leader in its segment, Audi Sport GmbH concurrently offers two customer race cars for the first time. A 243 kW (330 hp) four-cylinder two-liter TFSI engine accelerates the Audi RS 3 LMS in about 4.5 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h. The purchase price for the TCR variant with a sequential six-speed racing transmission is 129,000 euros (plus VAT). Additionally, Audi Sport GmbH offers a TCR version with an S tronic direct-shift transmission for 109,000 euros (plus VAT) and a club sport variant for 99,000 euros (plus VAT) which further expand the possible uses of the RS 3 LMS.

Company Chairman Lawrence Tomlinson will be joined by regular co-pilot, Factory Driver Mike Simpson at the helm of the Graff Racing prepared car for the trio of three hour races. The duo’s usual team, Simpson Motorsport, will instead field cars for revered GT racers Philippe Hazebrouck and Jordan Sanders.

Century Motorsport will run brothers Euan and Daniel McKay who make the switch from Porsche Carrera Cup GB. Euan is no stranger to the G57-P2, having played an important part in the teams podium finish during their debut with the car in the V de V Championship finale at Estoril on 5-6 November 2016. This will be the first time the brothers will share the same car over a race.

Euan McKay – #51 Century Motorsport Ginetta G57-P2: “Having driven the G57-P2 in Estoril I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to race in it again, this time in Dubai. The car was brilliant to drive and I can’t wait to get back in the seat. After seeing the potential of Century in Estoril, they were much the obvious choice and so I’m looking forward to teaming up with them again. This also presents a new opportunity for me, in sharing a car with my brother for the first time. It’s great to have him on board and I know how quick he is so there’s no doubts about the driver line-up in my eyes. This should mean we can challenge at the very front and hopefully bring home some more silverware!”

Daniel McKay – #51 Century Motorsport Ginetta G57-P2: “I am over the moon to be getting the chance to sample the Ginetta G57-P2 over a race weekend! After hearing all that my brother Euan had said about his experience in Estoril I quickly became quite jealous and knew I needed to get behind the wheel sooner rather than later. The move into prototypes is something that every GT driver looks at doing at some stage, I just hadn’t expected that the jump would be so soon, and quite so big! I’ve always raced against Euan and we work well in that capacity bringing each other on, so getting to work together in the same car is an experience I have been looking forward to for quite some time.”

Optimum Motorsport are regulars in the Dubai 24 hour race itself, having previously taken class wins in 2012 and 2015 with their Ginetta GT4 cars. They will run former SP3-GT4 Class Champion Ade Barwick as their make their G57-P2 debut. Colin White will race in his own CWS-prepared car whist his teammate and the driver line-ups for the HHC Motorsport and Atech Racing Dubai cars will be announced at a later date.

The 2017 Dubai 24H Prototype races will run over Tuesday and Wednesday following two practice sessions and qualifying. Each race will be three hours in total with the first race on Tuesday and final race on Wednesday running into darkness.

The 24H Proto Series makes its debut with a triple header of three hour races supporting the Dubai 24 Hours. The full calendar for 2017 is below.
12h Magny-Cours (21-22 April)
12h Misano (6-7-8 July)
12h Paul Ricard (18-19 August)
12h Spa-Francorchamps (6-7-8 October)

The No. 249 and No. 250 cars feature a nearly all-American line-up, with backing from primary sponsors AERO Advanced Paint Technology and OCC Lasik.

Mathew Keegan, Jeff Stammer and Derek Welch will helm the No. 249 Porsche, whilst the No. 250 Cayman will be driven by Roy Block, Ian James, Jim McGuire, John Schauerman and Nico Rondet.

“We’re incredibly excited to add another marquee endurance event such as Dubai to those that Rotek competes in,” said team owner Roland Pritzker

“We’ve got two Cayman GT4s, which are such great cars, and a really talented group of drivers, so we’re planning for a good result.”

Keegan comes off a strong season in the American Ferrari Challenge series, having finished second in that championship at Daytona a few weeks ago.

Stammer is a veteran touring car driver, whilst Welch has formula car, prototype and touring car experience.

Block, James, McGuire and Rondet have all competed in IMSA’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, with James having experience in Daytona Prototypes as well, and Rondet in Formula Atlantic.

Schauerman, meanwhile, brings experience from many formula cars.

The No. 250 car will feature a livery created using AERO Advanced Paint Technology, an environmentally sustainable paint appliqué, providing significant performance gains in weight reduction and convenience.

“AERO is an incredible new way to apply paint, and the finished product looks just incredible,” said team manager Christian Miller.

“We’ve been really impressed with the quality and ease of application. It’s far superior to traditional sprayed-on paint.”

The No. 249 is sponsored by OCC Lasik, a multidisciplinary ophthalmology clinic that provides a very intimate and personal experience featuring the latest technology in LASIK.

The 24 Hours of Dubai is set for Jan. 13-14.

Webb took the win in 2015 but that victory may even have been eclipsed in 2016 when a huge fire took hold of Oli’s Black Falcon Mercedes resulting in a car change and starting the race from the back of the field. Fighting back from 100th on the grid to complete a remarkable comeback Oli and his teammates managed to carve through the runners to finish 2nd in an astonishing race.

In 2017, Webb returns to Dubai but this time will be racing a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the hope of securing another podium and hopefully the top step.

“I’ve always enjoyed racing at the Autodrome. Dubai is a city I love to visit and its a great way to kick off the year. I’ve always done well in this race and I’m determined to keep up my 100% record of getting on the podium”.

In the lead up to the race, Oli is planning some exciting media activations with amazing new partners so stay tuned to find out more.