24H Dubai: Strong Swiss faction 🎥
SEASON START Around two dozen Swiss drivers will start at the Dubai 24 Hours on Friday/Saturday. Some have chances of overall victory, others are aiming for class wins. Held for the 14th time, the 24 Hours of Dubai is the traditional kick-off to the 24H Series, the most popular intercontinental endurance championship for touring cars and GT vehicles. The overall victory is contested by several strong [...]
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The 24th Dubai 24 Hours, held for the 14th time, is the traditional prelude to the 24H Series, the most popular intercontinental endurance championship for touring cars and GT vehicles. The overall victory will be contested by several strong and renowned GT3 privateer teams. Six sports cars will be driven by Swiss drivers.
Five Swiss in fast GT3 cars
Daniel Allemann already won this race once in 2017 with Herberth Motorsport in a Porsche 911 GT3 R. Last year, Grasser Motorsport's Lamborghini Huracan with Rolf and Mark Ineichen from Lucerne started from pole position. After tire failures, only third place overall resulted. They will all try again in 2019 with an unchanged lineup.
At Mücke Motorsport, Ricardo Feller, who is only 18 years old, made his endurance debut a year ago, which he finished with flying colors in fifth place overall and second-best Swiss. His goal is also to top this result with his four strong German teammates (including factory drivers Markus Winkelhock and Stefan Mücke) on a new Audi R8.
At KCMG from Hong Kong, Alexandre Imperatori competes with three strong teammates in a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. They have more than just outsider chances.
The highlights of the 2018 race are shown in the following video:
With father and husband
Hofor Racing is aiming for a podium in the A6-Am class with its Mercedes. Lady Champion Chantal Prinz-Kroll now has not only her father Michael as one of the four teammates, but also her German husband Alexander Prinz for the first time.
Adrian Amstutz wants to build on his successes in the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup with a new Audi R8 from Attempto Racing. The Lucerne industrialist won this classification in 2018 with a British Lamborghini team in the Am category.
Lucas Mauron and Manuel Nicolaidis are competing in the 991 class on two different Porsche 991 II GT3 Cup cars. Not participating this time is the team Fach Auto Tech, which has always been strong with its Porsches in recent years.
Swiss duel in the TCR class
There could also be a Swiss duel in the TCR touring cars. The newly formed Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing team, which emerged from Tanner & Stanco Motorsport, will be taking to the big stage for the first time.
Team boss and one of the four Swiss drivers is initiator Stefan Tanner from Autorama. With Adrian Wolf as technical director and VLN GT4 champion Yannick Mettler, Fabian Danz, Jerome Ogay and Marlon Menden (D) as drivers, he can count on experienced partners.
Stefan Tanner: "We have never been so well positioned and prepared. At the rollout with our new VW Golf GTI TCR on Monday in Dubai, we already came very close to last year's TCR best time."
One of the many class opponents will be a Cupra TCR from Bas Koeten Racing. This will be driven by Ronny Jost, winner of the 24 Hours of Cota last November, and Julien Apothéloz, among others. For the winner of the 2018 Young Driver Challenge, Dubai is only the second race ever and a good preparation for the ADAC TCR Germany.
New challenge for overall winner Martin Kroll
Martin Kroll, the overall winner of the 2018 24H Series in the touring cars, will also be making a debut. Hofor Racing powered by Bonk Motorsport will start in 2019 with a new BMW M4 in GT4. This class also has a strong line-up and even a podium can be considered a success.
As a purely Swiss team, the Amag First Centrum Porsche Ticino is entering a Cayman GT4 Clubsport in the SP2 class. Spearheading the Ticino driver quartet is VLN record winner Ivan Jacoma. Finally, Mathias Beche from Geneva, who otherwise drives for Rebellion in LMP1, will be driving a KTM X-Bow GT4 in the SP2 class.
The whole race in livestream
Test drives will be held on Wednesday, January 9. On Thursday, free practice and qualifying will be for best times. The start of the 24-hour race is on Friday, January 11, at 3 p.m. local time (12 p.m. Swiss time).
The qualifying and the whole race can be followed on the homepage of the 24H Series and Autorama AG from Wetzikon as well as on Facebook in a livestream.
