24H Dubai: Kick-off with explosive starting position 🎥

The official teaser for the 24H Dubai 2022 and the field of participants once again lead us to expect a lot of action on and around the race track.

The Gulf 12H Abu Dhabi already took place on January 8. But the two-part half marathon was quantitatively weakly occupied and counted to no championship.

With second place overall and class victory for a Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Christoph Lenz, among others, and third place for the Ferrari 488 GTE entered by Kessel Racing, there were at least two successes with Swiss participation.

Strong season opener
The starting position is different and more difficult this week for the Swiss teams and drivers at the 24 Hours of Dubai. Since 2006, the endurance race in the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the popular 24H Series organized by the Dutch agency Creventic, has been the traditional international season opener with massive participation by teams and drivers from all over the world.

This year, on Friday, around 80 GT and touring car teams (see provisional start list of January 11) will be at the start. Around 20 pilots and two teams come from Switzerland.

Two Swiss Dubai overall winners there
A good two dozen GT3 teams with strong drivers are in the running for the overall victory, with a number of Swiss drivers in the field. Daniel Allemann from Solothurn, for example, last finished second overall at the inaugural 24H Sebring in Florida in November with his trusted German teammates in a Porsche 911 GT3 R and won in Dubai five years ago.

Rolf Ineichen also knows how to do it. But since the sensational coup of the Swiss Porsche club racers with Stadler Motorsport eight years ago, the Lucerne native has been chasing another Dubai triumph. With canton colleague Adrian Amstutz and two professionals as partners (with whom he has already won at the 24H Daytona) on a Lamborghini Huracán from England, the probably fastest GT3 gentleman racer from Europe may have justified hopes.

Among the topshots is Raffaele Marciello from Ticino in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, who has held an ASS license since 2020 but continues to appear as an Italian according to the entry list.

The Italo-Swiss quartet of Mauro Calamia, Stefano Monaco, Roberto Pampanini and works driver Matteo Cairoli also have an outside chance in their Italian-driven Porsche.

Common cause of the Porsche Juniors
Keyword Porsche. With two of its own 992 GT3 Cup cars of the latest counter-ration, which were used for the first time last time, Fach Auto Tech from Sattel is back in the game after an absence of several years. At the last appearance in 2018, the team from Schwyz managed a class win, which is also the case now.

The all-Swiss driver quintet of Alexander Fach, Dominik Fischli, Peter Hegglin, Jan Klingelnberg and Marcel Wagner will attempt this in the 992-Am class, while five customers from Brazil will strive for this in the 992-Pro class.

For the two official Porsche juniors Fach and Fischli, it is a joint premiere at a 24-hour race (see Report from December 2, 2021) after battling each other for the title in the Swiss GT3 Cup over the past two years.

A world champion at Autorama
The Swiss contingent in the touring cars, which are no less strong, is also sensational and explosive. Last year's 24H Dubai ended with a sensational triple victory by TOPCAR sport and Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing. While last year's winners from Uetendorf will not be on the grid this time, the Zurich-based team supported by the Schwyz technicians will be fielding three TCR cars.

In the champion car with starting number #111, Jasmin Preisig and Fabian Danz take turns with 24H TCR champion Constantin Kletzer (A) and newcomer Paul Siljes (NL). In the second VW Golf GTI TCR, Gustavo Xavier, another Swiss with Brazilian roots, will make an appearance.

A novelty is the use of a brand-new Audi RS3 LMS Gen2 for German customers. They will receive professional driving support from the Briton Rob Huff. Huffy" is none other than the 2012 World Champion and 29-time WTCC/WTCR race winner, whose immense experience will help with rapid vehicle set-up.

Switch to the opponents
One of the toughest opponents of the three-time 24H overall winners from Wetzikon is the Audi from AC Motorsport, which recently won at Sebring. What is now explosive is that with Yannick Mettler and Miklas Born, two of Autorama's best drivers to date are making common cause with the Belgians.

Finally, another Swiss pairing is made up of dad and son Patrick and Steve Zacchia on a Ligier JS2 R in the GTX class.

Live on the Internet
The race will take place on Thursday, January 13. Both free practice and qualifying will then take place. The starting signal for the 24-hour race will be given on Friday at 3 p.m. local time (12 noon CET).

The entire event will be shown in the race series livestream on the YouTube- and Facebook channel will be broadcast live. Likewise, there is a livetiming.

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