Second top-ten finish for BWT Mücke Motorsport in the 24 Hours of Dubai at second attempt. The team’s Audi R8 LMS #9 took P6 in the prestigious 24-hour race at the Dubai Autodrome last weekend (10th – 12th January 2019). The five drivers – Audi Sport’s Markus Winkelhock, Ford works driver Stefan Mücke, Mike David Ortmann, Ricardo Feller and Andreas Weishaupt – were on course to take a podium for quite a long time until a stone flew up, changing everything…

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.

In the Dubai 24-hour race, Mercedes-AMG is aiming at its fifth victory in the desert metropolis. The BLACK FALCON team already secured the overall win for the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach in the years 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018. This year, the team is running the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with starting number 2 with last year’s race winners Abdulaziz Al Faisal (KSA), Hubert Haupt (GER) and Yelmer Buurman (NED), paired with their new teammate Saud Al Faisal (KSA). The sister car with starting number 3 that retired while on course for victory last year will have Khaled Al Qubaisi (KSA), Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED), Ben Keating (USA), Manuel Metzger (GER) and Luca Stolz (GER) as its drivers. Four additional Mercedes-AMG GT3s will be run by CP Racing, Hofor Racing, HTP Motorsport and MP Motorsport, among others with support from Mercedes-AMG Driver Bernd Schneider (GER).

KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) gets its 2019 season underway this weekend with the Dubai 24 Hour (11-12 January), in which it will field a pair of Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 cars and a Honda Civic Type R TCR (FK7), as the Hong Kong squad aim for overall and class victories.

The first major endurance race of the year is just around the corner, the 24 Hours of Dubai (UAE), from 10th to 12th January.

There are not many certainties in the fast-moving world of international motorsport, but there is no doubt that racing action in the new calendar year starts with the Hankook 24H DUBAI. This year is no exception and therefore, Dubai Autodrome will be hosting the first major international endurance race for GTs, touring cars and 24H Specials for the 14th consecutive time already!