Gulf 12 Hours - Weekend Report

Despite lack of pre-race information and rumors of its cancelation, the inaugural Gulf 12 Hours went on as planned, and what a pleasant surprise it ended up being! The first-ever endurance race at the stunning Yas Marina Circuit produced a thrilling three-way, down-to-the-wire battle for the win that nobody could have scripted, or even conceived prior to the start of the week.

A modest 16 cars turned up in Abu Dhabi, which came just one week after the Dunlop 24 Hours. Driving Force Events Ltd., the race’s organizers, had envisioned attracting more teams from the twice-around-the-clock enduro that was just a short 75-mile drive down the road from the Dubai Autodrome.

As it turned out, though, only three cars made the trip, in which the U.K.-based promoter laid blame towards the persistent rumors of the race’s demise and ongoing political battles with Dubai 24 organizers, Creventic (more on that later).

Unlike Dubai, which saw a complex set of Balance of Performance regulations and other unique race-specific rules, the Gulf 12 Hours was a pretty straight-forward event, except for one major twist. It was actually two six-hour races, with a 90-minute intermission period to allow teams to work on their cars.

The total laps from Race 1 were transferred over into Race 2 and the grid for the second race was based on the finishing positions of Race 1. Any time difference between cars on the same laps were eliminated, which ended up playing a crucial role.

With only five GT3 cars present, two AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italias, Kessel Racing’s Prancing Horse, a solo United Autosports Audi R8 LMS and Autorlando Sport’s Porsche 997 GT3 R, the balance of the field was made up of FIA CN2 class cars, commonly seen in VdeV and SPEED EuroSeries.

Six of those cars were on the entry but only five took the green flag. The rest of the grid was comprised of a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car, Cup-class Lamborghini Gallardo, an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 and a Lotus 2-Eleven all the way from Malaysia!

Qualifying

Unsurprisingly, a CN2 car took the overall pole, and by a whopping 1.5 seconds over the quickest GT3 contender. Ivan Bellarosa jumped to the top of the time sheets in Q3 (each driver got their own 20-minute session, with the best time within the team counting towards pole) in his Avelon Formula Wolf GB08. Bellarosa’s best time was a 2:10.167.

While the No. 3 AF Corse Ferrari of Matt Griffin Marco Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perazzini wound up second, thanks to the Irishman’s 2:11.687, the GT3 cars would have a clear advantage in the race, as the CN2 machines would be held for an 45 additional seconds, on top of the base 2 minute pit stop requirement for all teams.

"We've been really struggling all day with a brake problem and basically changed everything for qualifying," Griffin said after qualifying. "By the time Marco went out [in qualifying], everything was solved. It was really good from then as I had real confidence to push and I pushed hard. I had sectors that were better, but just couldn't quite put it together to better my time."

Philipp Peter, part of a four-driver roster at Kessel, qualified third, ahead of the United Autosports Audi of Ryan Dalziel, who along with Starworks Motorsport co-drivers Enzo Potolicchio and Alex Popow, were on their second leg of a three-week long endurance race adventure, with the Rolex 24 at Daytona still to go!

The Bonaldi Motorsports Lamborghini Gallardo scored the Cup class pole, shortly before erupting into flames during Thursday’s night practice. Luckily, the team was able to rebuild the car in time for Friday morning’s start.

Meanwhile, in GT4, the Yas Marina Circuit Aston Martin easily took the top spot in qualifying, with a 2:26.020 lap time compared to the Aylezo Motorsports Lotus 2-Eleven’s 2:49.588, which battled mechanical gremlins all weekend.

Race 1

At 9:30 a.m. sharp, the inaugural Gulf 12 Hours took the green, with Griffin stretching out into an early lead over Peter, with pole-man Bellarosa dropping to third. The United Autosports Audi of Dalziel ran in a solid fourth, until the first safety car of the race was deployed for the No. 16 IF Motorsport Ligier JS49, which stopped on circuit with a broken oil pump.

It ended up being the first of a drama-filled day for the Scottish squad, as its sister car, a late entry for Matt Bell, Kevin Weeder and Andres Serrano, crashed in the hands Weeder. So it was another full-course caution, this one quite lengthy, to cleanup the wreckage around the Yas Hotel.

While under the safety car, United Autosports took over the lead, thanks to efficient pit work, but still adhering to the mandatory two-minute stop in the box. Popow led the field to the green but quickly came under attack by the No. 3 AF Corse Ferrari, with the Venezuelan’s Audi having nothing for the F458 on the long straights.

Following delays and penalties for the No. 90 AF Corse machine, the race was clearly turning into a three-horse fight by the third hour, with the Griffin-Cioci-Perazzini machine stretching out a 20-second gap over the Audi, which suffered further delay for a front brake pad change during its third stop.

With total laps, and not time, being carried over into the second race, finishing on the same lap became the goal for the United crew, as Potolicchio rejoined just on the tail end of the lead lap. But ultimately, he lost the all-important position, and was called quickly into the pits by engineer Erik Petersen for the fifth and final stop of the race.

Handing over to fellow his fellow countryman, Popow clawed his way back through traffic, and right up onto the bumper of leader Perazzini, who initially didn’t give way. But the gentleman driver finally conceded with less than 10 minutes remaining, which put United Autosports back on the lead lap, and crucially still with a fighting chance of the win in Race 2.

Kessel’s Ferrari of Peter, Michael Broniszewski, Antonio Coimbra and Miguel Ramos finished one-minute behind the AF Corse Ferrari in second and United’s Audi of Dalziel, Potolicchio and Popow the third and final GT3 car on the all-important lead lap.

Surprisingly, 14 of the 15 starters took the checkered flag, one way or another. The No. 15 IF Motorsport Ligier, which crashed in the second hour, was miraculously rebuilt in less than four hours and returned to action in the hands of U.K. rising star Bell with under 20 minutes to go.

Race 2

Continuing where Race 1 left off (except for the cars on the same lap being neutralized), the second and final six-hour segment kicked off with a bang, as contact was made between the third and fourth-placed cars on the first lap, which saw Potolicchio spun around by the No. 90 AF Corse Ferrari. While Potolicchio lost around 20 seconds, a safety car was soon deployed for what appeared to be debris on the circuit.

The caution not only gave Potolicchio a chance to catch back up, but also the chance for the leading AF Corse car and the United Audi to play a bit of a strategy game. With rules requiring five pit stops at least 2 minutes in length, both squads gambled with getting one of their stops done while under the early yellow. It would lead to time saved in a significantly quicker sixth and final stop for fuel, tires and driver change, that would take about 30 seconds less than the enforced stops.

As a result, it put the Kessel Ferrari into an early lead, as dusk turned into night around the spectacular Yas Marina Circuit. Depending on their pit stop rotations, all three of the leading contenders swapped the top spot though the first half. A crucial moment came with 2.5 hours to go when Dalziel pitted his second-placed Audi for another brake pad change, with the safety car coming out just moments later for the stationary No. 46 Avelon Formula Wolf.

While United dropped to third, one lap behind the leading AF Corse machine, their fortunes turned around when the fifth safety car of the race comes out with two hours to go for the No. 15 IF Motorsport Ligier, which crashed again. This time, it was in the hands of Bell, who had contact with the Broniszewski in the Kessel Ferrari, which ended the long, and miserable day, for the SPEED EuroSeries regulars.

Prior to the yellow, Potilicchio had grabbed second back from Broniszewski and inherited the lead as AF Corse made their penultimate stop, with Griffin back at the wheel of the Prancing Horse. All three cars were still neck-and-neck with less than two hours to go!

The final stops saw Cioci relieve Griffin, Dalziel back in the Audi and Peter climbing aboard the Kessel Ferrari, with all three separated by less than 20 seconds on track and pitting within one lap of each other. United Autosports leapfrogged from third to first, aided by a drive-through penalty for the Kessel Ferrari for not obeying the track limits, but Dalziel struggled to hold on to a 10-second gap over a hard-charging Cicoi.

With the margin shrinking, sometimes as much as 1 second per lap, despite the Scot reeling off his quickest laps of the race, the race was neutralized yet again, this time for debris, which brought the top three contenders nearly nose-to-tail on track. The final restart with 27 minutes remaining saw Dalziel try his best to hold off the faster Cioci, but was finally forced to give way with just 18 minutes to go.

Peter, who dropped back over 1 minute prior to the safety car, even got by Dalziel in the end, who wasn’t able to match the top-speed advantage of the Ferraris all race. As a result, Ferrari claimed a thrilling 1-2 finish that came down to a nail-biting closing few laps, with Cioci finishing a mere 2.636 seconds ahead of Peter. Dalziel was only 9.868 seconds behind in third after six hours, and 12 total, of hard-fought racing.

While the intense fight for the overall and GT3 win stole the headlines, there were three other class winners. Patrik Skoog, Johan Lofqvist and Mikael Bender took their PFI Racing Porsche 997 to the Cup victory, one lap ahead of the Bonaldi Motorsports Lamborghini Gallardo, which suffered engine issues.

Out of the five starters, only one FIA CN2 car finished, that being the Ibanez Racing Service Norma M20F of Philippe Mace, Jean-Pierre Mothe and Philippe Yschard after the pole-sitting Avelon Formula car ran into late-race gearbox failure and was stranded on-track.

Finally, the “home team” from Yas Marina Circuit took their Aston Martin Vantage to the GT4 class victory. The Mohamed Al Mutawaa, Thani Al Thani and Saeed Al Mehari-driven Vantage was the only classified GT4 finisher, as mechanical problems saw the Aylezo Motorsports Lotus 2-Eleven complete only 177 laps.

Ten of the 15 starters finished the race, which ran to a grand total of 299 laps for the overall winning AF Corse entry of Cioci, Girffin and Perazzini.

Quotes

Marco Cioci: “It was a stunning race, the grid wasn’t big, but the quality was amazing. Usually in a 12 hour race you expect somebody to make a mistake, here nobody did any, neither in Race 1 nor in Race 2. I had the honor of driving the last stint, against talented drivers as Dalziel and Peter, and beating them is a really great feeling. I want to say thanks to the team for giving me a perfect car and being so good at the pit-stops, they deserve this win.”

Matt Griffin: “Marco did an amazing job because we had no brakes left at the end of my last stint and he had to really, really push and dig deep. We really had no good luck in that second part of the race. Every time we pitted a Safety Car would happen. At one point we had a real one lap advantage and that just evaporated. I pitted from my last stint with a 30-second lead thinking that was perfect and we could coast it home, but then I think the Audi and Kessel cars pitted under the Safety Car and that changed things. From there on Marco did a brilliant job.”

Piergiuseppe Perazzini: “Winning a race is always a great feeling, but winning the first edition of a race that I’m sure will become a classic, makes it even more special. It wasn’t an easy race, Safety-Cars changed the strategies a bit, but in the end we got it right. I look forward to next edition, I’m sure it will be even better.”

Philipp Peter: “I’m racing in endurance from a long time but maybe I’ve never been in such an hard fought race, with three cars in 2 seconds after 12 hours of racing. Predicting the outcome of the race was pretty hard because the top three were always very close and a Safety-Car could change everything. Ourselves, we were out of contention with 50 minutes to go, but then the Safety-Car came and packed the group again.

“It was a thrilling fight and I’m happy that the organizers got that in response to their great efforts. I know that they had to overcome a lot of obstacles to make the event come together, so they really deserved such a finale. I know that they are already planning the next edition, and I will be really happy to come again.”

Ryan Dalziel: “We knew that we were up against the factory Ferrari 458s and United Autosports gave us a really good car. We all drove the wheels off it all day - all the guys did an incredible job. We went a little bit off-strategy, but came out in the lead and everything was going perfectly until the last safety car which was the last thing we wanted.

“It was a difficult race - for sure second was on the cards, but we got a podium; third place is good. We accomplished everything we came out here to do - we wanted to represent North American & South American racing and we mixed it with some really good guys and great teams so really happy to be part of this. Very grateful to United Autosports and between the three of us thank you to everybody for having us.”

Alex Popow: “This has been a sweet and sour experience; in the beginning we were struggling with trying to go six hours with the brakes and that's one of the things that didn't work for us and we lost some time [changing the pads]. But the car was great. Ryan did a good job; the Ferraris were so fast on the straight but we were faster on the slow parts of the track.

“The best part of the race for me, the moment when I was most inspired was trying to go to the end of the first 6-hours to the limit and it paid off because in the end we were able to keep it on the same lead lap to start the second part of the race on the lead lap which was crucial to being in contention for the last fifteen minutes.”

Final Thoughts

The inaugural Gulf 12 Hours certainly proved that you don’t need quantity to have have a successful race. Doing anything for the first time can always be a challenge, and it was by far a walk in the park for Driving Force Events Ltd, given the obstacles that were presented to them.

However, when you have the right ingredients, as witnessed with genuine, hard-fought battles on the track over the course of the 12 hours, and the idealistic setting of the Yas Marina Circuit, this event can only grow from here, as a number of drivers and team owners said post-race.

With winners AF Corse expressing strong interest in returning and United Autosports set to confirm their participation with a very significant effort in due course, the next Gulf 12 Hours, scheduled for Dec. 14-15 later this year, could just hit the jackpot for endurance racing in the Middle East.

Words and Pictures from John Dagys