24H of Dubai - To The Finish
A Hard-Fought Win For IMSA The battle for the lead didn't let up for a minute over the final hours of the Dubai 24H, with the #66 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche scratching out a lead that rarely extended beyond three laps - and was often down to one lap - over the #40 Petronas Syntium BMW Z4. But while the second-placed car doggedly stayed in the leader's dust, it was itself coming under pressure from the #2 Al Faisal Racing Z4 that finished second overall a year earlier. With five hours remaining, the Saudi car had managed to gain second place, but this moment of glory was shortlived and the positions soon reverted to their previous incarnation. Just a handful of miles ahead, the IMSA car carried on relentlessly and seemingly trouble-free, and it was Marco Holzer who had the honour of bringing the car home for a famous debut victory; “My first ever outright win in a 24-hour race, a fantastic feeling”, said the young German, who thus began his third year as a Porsche Junior in the best possible way. “Of course, we had our little problems, but it is great having been able to bring victory home. I am particularly happy for Porsche and for our sponsor MATMUT”, said driver and team owner Raymond Narac. Patrick Pilet, who had qualified the car on pole position on Thursday, admitted to having had a difficult moment right after the start. “There was a driver of a smaller car who didn’t see me and hit the left rear wheel of my car. I was really worried then, but fortunately, the car turned out to be all right.” The Japanese Petronas Synthium team was also racing in Dubai for the first time; and while both of its BMW Z4s ran in the top five for most of the race, the second car (Tatsuya Kataoka/Manabu Orido/Johan Adzmi/Kosuke Matsuura/Hiroki Yoshida) retired with half an hour remaining. A good performance was shown by the BMW Team Hungary with Efficient Dynamics; the 120D driven by Lázlò Palik/János Vida/Csaba Walter/Gábor Weber finished eleventh overall out of the 75 participating cars, winning the D2-class for diesel-powered cars. The Hungarian Brokernet Silversting sportscar was also successful, winning the SP1 category with Kalman Bodis/Attila Barta/Istvàn Ràcz/Wolfgang Kaufmann driving for the Bovi Motorsport team. Leading the A3T-class, the SEAT Leon of the Spanish SUNRED team (Oscar Nogues/Michael Rossi/Ferran Monje/Borja Veiga) was in the top ten for a long time, but dropped back after a collision. Still, the SUNRED team scored a 1-2 in this class. The German Black Falcon team that has won the title in the German Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring for the past two years also had a very successful debut in Dubai, winning the SP2-class with the BMW M3 (Vimal Metha/Sean Patrick Breslin/Sean Paul Breslin/Christer Jöns/Alexander Böhm) and the A4-class with the BMW Z4 Coupé (Oleg Volin/Andrii Lebed/Marc Colell/Kai Riebetz/Alexander Böhm). There was local success for the AUH Motorsport team that won the SP3-class with the Aston Martin Vantage, driven by Humaid Al Masaood/Alex Kapadia/Michael Prophet/Eric Charles. The A2-class brought victory for Team Sally Racing from Denmark, their Renault Clio driven by Anders Maigaard/Dan Brian Träger/Martin Sally Pederson/Brian Borger/Mick Reimerson. Victory in the D1 class, last but not least, went to the Marcos Racing International BMW 120D of Jim Briody/Hall Prewitt/Toto Lassally/Cor Euser. The top three: 1. Narac/Pilet/Holzer (F/F/D), Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, 608 laps in 24.01.34.668
2. Taniguchi/Yanagida/Hairuman/Stuck/Yoshida (J/J/MAL/LIE/J), BMW Z4, 3 laps
3. Al Faisal/Hürtgen/Hartung/Al Faisal (KSA/D/D/KSA), BMW Z4, 5 laps The class winners: A2 # 89 Team Sally Racing Renault Clio
A3T # 74 Sunred 1 SEAT Leon Supercopa
A4 # 88 Team Black Falcon 2 BMW Z4 Coupé
A5 # 40 Petronas Synthium Team BMW Z4 Coupé
A6 # 66 IMSA Racing Performance Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
D1 # 112 Marcos Racing International 1 BMW 120D
D2 # 33 BMW Team Hungary with E.D. BMW 120D
SP1 # 168 Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silversting
SP2 # 111 Team Black Falcon 1 BMW M3 E92 Full results here | 
