SPORTSCAR

Both KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 cars showed promising pace in the Dubai 24 Hour and would have been in podium contention, were it not for a number of unfortunate issues. After a strong qualifying performance by Joshua Burdon, the #35 Nissan of Katsumasa Chiyo, Tsugio Matsuda, Burdon, Shaun Thong and Andrea Gagliardini lined up 14th on the grid, with Matsuda taking the wheel for the start.

Jack Butel contested his first race meeting of 2019, with the Jerseyman traveling to the Middle East to contest the Dubai 24 hours with new team Optimum Motorsport in its Ginetta G55 GT4 sports car. Butel will be driving for the English team this season and used the desert curtain raiser to familiarise himself with his new surroundings.

The first endurance highlight of the season ended in great success for BMW customer racing teams. The excellent performance of the BMW M4 GT4 in particular stood out at the Dubai 24 Hour (UAE).

Their mission was never in any doubt. Conditions were perfect, and the start went absolutely according to plan. GRT Grasser Racing intended to win the 24 Hours of Dubai at the third attempt, but things turned out differently in the end. After 24 exciting hours filled with stress, Lamborghini works driver Mirko Bortolotti together with Christian Engelhart and Rolf and Mark Ineichen, crossed the finish line in fourth place, which sounds disappointing, considering original expectations, but in actual fact, the result was stunning and only made possible by a sensational charge up the field and a terrific team effort.

German team Car Collection Motorsport is the winner of the 2019 Hankook 24H DUBAI. With the #88 Audi R8 LMS GT3, drivers Dirk Parhofer, Christopher Haase, Frédéric Vervisch and Rik Breukers racked up a total of 607 laps of the 5.390 metres long Dubai Autodrome to win the opening round of the 2019 Championship of the Continents in the 24H GT SERIES powered by Hankook. 20-year old Dutch hotshoe Rik Breukers drove the Audi across the finish line and said: “What a race! I am so happy for the team, for Audi and myself! I drove for nine and a half hours. It was tough, but this win is a great reward.”

The KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) Honda enjoyed a strong start to the Dubai 24 Hour, but a fire during the night forced them into retirement. Driver Andy Yan thankfully managed to avoid injury and the cause of the fire is not yet known.

While the GRT Grasser Racing headquarters in Austria are currently buried under snow, the team’s first major outing of the 2019 season is about to get underway some 5,000 kilometres to the south-east. On the weekend of 10th – 12th January, GRT will be competing in the top A6-PRO classification of the prestigious 24 Hours of Dubai. At the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 will be Lamborghini works driver Mirko Bortolotti ably assisted by Christian Engelhart, Rolf Ineichen and Mark Ineichen.

For the second year running and for the third time in the event’s 14-year history, a Lamborghini will be on pole position for the Hankook 24H DUBAI. On his 29th birthday, Mirko Bortolotti gave himself and his teammates the best present by posting the fastest outright qualifying lap time of 1m57.446s in the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#63, Mirko Bortolotti / Christian Engelhart / Rolf Ineichen / Mark Ineichen). Bortolotti repeated his qualifying result at Dubai Autodrome from last year. “Again, it was hard work, but it shows that there is still plenty of speed in the old lady,” he laughed. The race in Dubai marks the final outing for the team’s current Lamborghini Huracán GT3, the new Evo version making its competition debut at the next event. Lamborghini enjoyed a clean sweep of the A6 class as Danish driver Dennis Lind put the Target Racing Huracán GT3 (#12, Dennis Lind / Giacomo Altoé / Timur Boguslavskiy / Stefano Constantini / Alex Autumn) on pole position in the A6-Am class.