Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours – Pre-Race

Salaam Alaikum from the 6^th edition of the Dubai 24 Hours. The season opener has continued to become an ever-bigger event. Now with 85 runners representing nearly 40 countries, the mixed GT-Touring field has risen in international stature and is better organized than ever.

The downturns in the economy are visible in the surrounding desert as nearly all the construction between here and central Dubai has ground to a halt. Nevertheless, those with the resources—and there are plenty of them, are here in force. Moreover, the importance of this race is also evident in the growing presence of the factories in either direct or indirect support.

There were seven pre-race sessions, starting with a new optional test period on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was the busy day with two early free sessions as well as the lone night period bracketing qualifying. Official times were taken across a two-hour period with 60 minutes open to all cars and two 3-minute segments with selected classes running in each. There are nine classes in the race. The GT categories include A6—effectively GT3, SP2 (consisting mostly of GT3-ish cars not otherwise homologated), SP3 (GT4-ish), and 997 for the Porsche Cup cars. The Touring car divisions are by displacement and fuel type. A1-A4 are for petrol cars of various engine sizes while A3T is reserved for turbocharged petrol cars up to 2.6-liters. The smaller diesel cars are in D1 and D2 (which has but a single entrant) extends above 2-liters.

The Creventic organized races have a unique balance-of-performance system where cars are assigned a target time under which they are not allowed to lap. Penalties of increasing severity are assessed for violations. The effect is somewhat like that of bracket racing used in amateur forms of drag racing in the U.S. In practice, “breaking-out” is not likely to be a concern given the endurance nature of the race.

In the past this race has been the scene primarily for the adventures of various Porsches and BMWs but we have at least two other significant players this year. There are two Lamborghini Gallardos poised at the front of the grid. Fabien Girioix held pole for much of qualifying in the #83 United Arab Emirates based Gulf Team First entry until being usurped later by Peter Kox in the official #15 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini. Both these cars as are most of the front runners are in the A6 class. Next up is the Belgian entered #2 Mosler with Vincent Rademecker making the start (first by a long distance in the SP2 class).

Here are some of the others in the field by grid order. Matt Halliday is aboard the fastest Porsche, the A6 class GT3 R of the German MRS Team (#16). ALMS regular Jeroen Bleekemolen is next in a similar car, the #18 Tolimit Arabia entry.  Past Creventic champion Claudia Hürtgen is starting the best of the BMWs a Z4 from Schubert Motorsports (#76).

There are three gleaming new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMGs on the grid. These are fully factory backed and are spitting images of the wonderful 300 SLs of the 1950s. None other than Bernd Schneider is handling the quickest of the trio, the # 9 entry of Heico Sportiv.

The balance of the front of the grid includes:

# 99, Attempto Racing, Porsche R, Jürgen Häring, A6

# 1, GDL Racing, Porsche Cup S, Gianluca de Lorenzi, A6

# 7, Black Falcon, Mercedes SLS AMG, Thomas Jäger, A6

# 77, Schubert, BMW Z4, Boris Said, A6

# 8, Black Falcon, Mercedes SLS AMG, David Horn, A6

# 27, Mühlner, Porsche Cup S, Mark Thomas, A6

# 41, Land Motorsport, Porsche RSR, Francesco Pastorelli, A6

# 17, Team Engstler, BMW Z4, Kristian Poulsen, A6

# 43, Land Motorsport, Porsche R, Manuel Lauck, A6

# 26, Lechner Racing, Porsche Cup S, Abdulaziz Al Faisal, A6

# 20, CC Car Collection, Porsche Cup S, Mike Stursberg, A6

# 24, Leipert Racing, Lambo Gallardo, Gerhard Tweraser, A6

# 23, Bovi Motorsport, Brokernet, István Rácz, A6

# 22, Equipe Verschuur, Renault Megane Silhouette, Duncan Huisman, SP2

# 21, Förch Racing, Porsche R, Robert Lukas, A6

# 14, Fach Auto Tech, Porsche R, Otto Klohs, A6

# 12, Fach Auto Tech, Porsche R, Carlo Lusser, A6

# 100, VDS, Mustang, Stephane Lemeret, SP2

# 4, AF Corse, Ferrari F430, Lorenzo Case, A6

# 6, AF Corse, Ferrari F430, Alexander Talkanitsa, Jr., A6 [the team’s third car won’t start after engine failure in warm-up; Michael Waltrip and Robert Kauffman have swapped to this one with Alessandro Garofano standing down]

# 33, De Lorenzi Racing, 997 Cup, Rino Mastronardi, 1^st in 997 class.