24h Dubai: Swiss triumph in the Emirate

The starting position for a few of the two dozen or so Swiss drivers at the start of the Dubai 24 Hours was ideal - and Daniel Allemann was able to take advantage of it with the German Precote Herberth Motorsport team. For a long time, the quintet consisting of the driver from Solothurn, the Germans Ralf Bohn, Robert and Alfred Renauer and the works driver Brendon Hartley from New Zealand (2015 LMP1 World Champion), who was brought in as a reinforcement, battled for the lead with their brand colleagues from Manthey Racing. They suffered a minor accident early in the morning, which put them behind the Herberth team. The latter never relinquished the lead and won by two laps after 578 laps of the 5.4 km Dubai Autodrome. Although Allemann had already won three of the 24H Series endurance races with the East German team last year, this is the biggest success to date for the businessman and gentleman racer from Breitenbach SO.

Rolf Ineichen started the twelfth race in the Arab Emirate with two Lamborghini Huracan GT3s, but retired early with both cars. This meant that the race was also over for his brother Mark Ineichen and Adrian Amstutz, who each drove a Lambo team.

Another class victory for Hofor Racing
The race went according to plan for Hofor Racing with the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. Starting from 35th position in the mammoth field of 92 cars, which was explained by the chosen tactics (lap time limited to 2'05 minutes), they gradually worked their way into the top ten. Thanks to regular and accident-free driving, Chantal Kroll and her father Michael, Roland Eggimann and the professionals Kenneth Heyer (D) and Christiaan Frankenhout (NL) finished seventh overall. This meant class victory with a five-lap lead over a Renault RS01 GT3, where another Swiss driver, Tiziano Carugati, finished on the podium.

Initially also classified in the Pro-Am class, the Belgian WRT Audi R8 LMS with Marcel Fässler had to start as the strongest of the four drivers in the premier class A6-Pro. Sixth place overall with two Saudi Arabians and a Belgian is therefore also a respectable result for the professional from Schwyz. Like Rolf Ineichen, his next outing will be in the middle of next week at the 24 Hours of Daytona, but in Fässler's case with Corvette Racing.

After a total loss of the Cayman GT4, Fach Auto Tech only had the Porsche 911 GT3 MR in the SPX class. Thomas Fleischer, Peter Joos, Heinz Bruder and Marcel Wagner did a good job with the support of Martin Ragginger from Austria and brought the car from Schwyz home safely in third position in its class and 20th overall. In fourth place in a Porsche 991 Cup from a German team, Nico Rindlisbacher narrowly missed out on his first class podium in a 24-hour race.

Swiss Renault team shows perseverance
In terms of lap times, the KTM X Bow GT4 was the second-fastest car in its large class behind a factory-supported Nissan 370Z. However, GT newcomer Marilyn Niederhauser and her Reiter Engineering team colleagues had to settle for 16th place in class after numerous problems. Mathias Beche took pole position in the TCR touring car class (two-liter turbo front-wheel drive cars). However, his Chinese team-mates from Hong Kong were unable to match his speed in the race. However, second place behind an equally successful Audi RS3 LMS TCR from an English team at its international race premiere can certainly be seen as a success.

The Zurich-based team Tanner & Stanco Motorsport put in a great team performance in the A2 class. They changed the gearbox on the hot Renault Clio IV in just one hour, and even a crash with major rear-end damage that was not their fault could not break their will to persevere. In the end, Stefan Tanner, Luigi Stanco and Ralf Henggeler, together with Andy Mollison and Nicklas Oscarsson, were delighted with fourth place and the fastest race lap in the class.

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