24h Dubai: Good starting position for the Swiss
24h DUBAI As many as three cars with Swiss crews will start today from the first two rows in the 24 Hours of Dubai. The popular race in the Arab Emirate can be followed in the livestream. More than 90 cars will start today at 14 local time (11 a.m. Swiss time) for the 24 Hours of Dubai. The marathon in the middle of the [...]
More than 90 cars will start today at 2 p.m. local time (11 a.m. Swiss time) for the 24 Hours of Dubai. The marathon in the middle of the desert metropolis is being held for the eleventh time and is the early season opener for the 24H Series organized by the Dutch agency Creventic with FIA status.
A total of 20 cars with more or less strong Swiss lineups are at the start of this race, which is extremely popular with private teams and fast gentleman drivers. On pole position is the AMG-Mercedes GT3 of the German team Black Falcon, where the Swiss-by-choice Manuel Metzger is driving. The German-born driver won last year's 24 Hours of Nürburging. Thanks to the second-best time of Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti, brothers Rolf and Mark Ineichen are next to them on the front row. Rolf Ineichen even has double chances of success, as he will be racing a second Huracán GT3 from Grasser Motorsport with Mirko Bortolotti (I) and Christian Engelhart (D). Reigning Lamborghini amateur champion Adrian Amstutz will also be racing on this car, which is positioned on grid position 7.
Last season's most successful GT3 car starts in third place. In the German Precote Herberth Motorsport team, Daniel Allemann from Solothurn won three endurance races in the 24H Series in 2016. To reinforce the team, Porsche LMP1-Wers driver Brendon Hartley from New Zealand, who was World Endurance Champion in 2015, is driving here. A former Formula 1 winner is also on the grid in 10th place: Pole Robert Kubica - winner of the 2008 Canadian GP with BMW-Sauber - is contesting his first 24-hour race in a Polish Porsche team.
Hofor Racing: Reaching the finish line faster with slower lap times
As the most successful Swiss endurance driver ever, Marcel Fässler is competing in Dubai for the first time. The man from Schwyz takes turns at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS of the Belgian team WRT with a Belgian and two Saudi Arabians, with which they take second place on the grid in the GT3-Amateure class (A6-Am) and 19th in this giant field. Next to him is the Porsche 991 Cup MR of Fach Auto Tech, shared by the four Swiss Thomas Fleischer, Peter Joos, Marcel Wagner and Heinz Bruder with the Austrian professional Martin Ragginger.
The new AMG Mercedes GT3 of Hofor Racing/Widberg Motorsport is only 35th on the grid and 7th in the A6-Am class. However, the reigning GT championship team with Michael and Chantal Kroll, Roland Eggimann and the professionals Christiaan Frankenhout (NL) and Kenneth Heyer (D) consciously accepted this. They start in the A6-Am class and are therefore allowed to unload 50 kg and refuel with 20 liters more fuel. With top times for the A6-Pro cars of well under two minutes, they are not allowed to drive faster than 2'05 min. per lap (only a few joker laps are allowed without penalty). This strategy helped the quintet to class victory and 4th place overall last year.
Sports car driver Mathis Beche set the fastest practice time in the popular TCR class in a Seat Leon V2 with sequential transmission. Making her long track debut is Marilyn Niederhauser, who is moving from Formula 4 to GT4 in 2017 and will be driving a KTM X Bow for Reiter Engineering.
Live broadcast of the entire race on the Internet
The entire race can be followed on the Internet as a livestream in HD quality with commentary from Radiolemans.com. Regular updates are also available on Facebook (24H Series), Twitter (@24HSeries) and Instagram (24H Series).
