Finlay Hutchison is celebrating the start of 2022 with a return to top endurance racing team Attempto Racing, the 21-year-old Scottish driver having signed a deal to race with the German squad in this month’s Hankook Dubai 24H and to also debut in February’s Asian Le Mans Series.
Delighted to be making his annual appearance at Dubai Autodrome in the UAE for the curtain-raiser to the global endurance racing season, which takes place on Friday, 14th January, and Saturday, 15th January, the Dundee driver will partner Alex Aka and Florian Scholze in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO.
For next month’s Asian Le Mans Series, which despite its name will be contested in the Middle East for the second year running due to ongoing travel restrictions in the Far East linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scotsman will team-up at Attempto with Aka and a yet-to-be-confirmed third driver at the wheel of the latest generation Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II.
Taking place over back-to-back weekends, the ALMS will begin with round one on Friday, 11th February, in Dubai with round two following on Saturday, 12th February. The teams and drivers will then travel to Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi for round three on Saturday, 19th February, and round four on Sunday, 20th February. Each ALMS race will be contested over a duration of four hours.
The coming season will be Hutchison’s sixth in GT endurance racing, fourth at headline GT3 level, and he reunites with Attempto Racing and Alex Aka for the first time since 2020 when they participated in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
“It’s fantastic to be back working with the guys at Attempto Racing and it’s going to be a busy start to the year, with the 24-hour race in Dubai next week and then the four Asian Le Mans Series races back-to-back”, said Hutchison.
“Between us Alex [Aka] and I have a lot of experience of the Audi R8 and I was one of the first to race the new EVO II car in the final round of GT World Challenge Europe last season, so hopefully that will pay dividends for the ALMS and we’ll be able to hit the ground running. As always, I’ll be aiming for the best results possible – hopefully we can have a successful start to 2022.”
In terms of the Dubai 24H the Scotsman made his debut in the event back in 2017 and won the TCR class, at just 16-years-of-age. The following year he was second in the A6-AM class at the wheel of a GT3 Chevrolet Corvette and Hutchison was second again, this time in the GT3-AM class, in the 2020 race piloting a Mercedes-AMG. Last year, he and Aka teamed-up in an Attempto Audi R8.
Hutchison’s main season last year comprised a bid in GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup where he raced a ‘Pro’ class Audi R8 alongside Audi works drivers Frederic Vervisch and Markus Winkelhock. During the final race of the year in Barcelona, Hutchison, Winkelhock and Dennis Lind gave the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II its GTWCE debut with a ninth place finish overall.
Source. Marc Orme
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