By Dean Reagan: Dubai Autodrome kicked off the weekend (14th & 15th Jan) and New Year with a brilliantly organised 24 hour marathon for some of the hottest supercars and best racing teams on the planet. With more than 80 cars competing over a 24 hour period, the scene was set for a hair-raising spectacular event, and it didn’t disappoint. There were entries from Aston Martin, KTM (pictured above) Porsche, Mercedes, Lamborghini, Audi, Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, BMW and more.
It’s the first time I’ve been to a proper race (I watched some banger racing when I was a kid), and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the night time section. I’m sure they weren’t, but it seemed as though the cars were way faster in the dark. The only thing I couldn’t understand, was why the grandstand wasn’t full, when it was a free event. Bonkers!
There were 13 classes of car taking part: A1 is the subcompact cars with a max 1,300cc engine, A2 Super 1,600 or 2ltr, which are usually the hatchback type such as Honda Civic and VW Golf, A3T, and are up to 2.5ltr and turbo charged, A4, mid-sized such as the BMW 3, 4 & 5, Porsche Carerra, A5, genuine FIA-GT4, usually with a 3.5ltr V8, A6, which is the top class motors with between 3.5 and 4ltr engines.
Then there’s the 991 and 997 Porsche class (there were plenty of these in competition) , and then we move on to the diesel section.
D1 is for up to 2ltr hatchback types, D2 is over 2ltr and usually saloons.
Then there’s the SP1, often known as the silhouette due to the car bearing only a resemblance of the production car with big changes to chassis and body. SP2 category is for cars over 4ltr, and commonly known as GT3A. I’ll leave the rest of the categories out from hereon in, and throw a few images of the races for you to salivate over.
The rules for all entries are simple enough: drive for 24 hours and see which car goes the furthest in that time. There are between four and five drivers to a team, and the least qualified (amateur driver) must drive for at least 2 hours, and the most qualified may only drive for ten (yep, ten) hours.
Congratulations to the WRT Audi R8 team and number 7 car driven by Axcil Jefferies, Christopher Mies, Thomas Neubauer, Mohammed Saud Fahad Al Saud and Dries Vanthoor.
When the clock stopped and the order was announced, I was very surprised. The one car I’d witnessed passing more than any other was the yellow and blue Customer Racing Team HRT Bilstein AMG Mercedes. That car was a monster, and in the 9 hours of the 24 I watched it was this car that ate up the tarmac and most of the other contenders. AFter chasing another AMG for three early laps, one it got by there wasn’t a lap that car went past me that it wasn’t overtaking. So much so that I thought rather than the third place, the team of Khaled Al Qubaisi (UAE), Patrick Assenheimer, Maro Engel, Hubert Haupt (all GER) and Ryan Ratcliffe (GBR) would have won the top spot. I guess I missed the important bits of the race!
Here’s a bonus photo for you. The Lamborghini, while not my favourite make of car, as I think they look a little like cockroaches, without a shred of doubt, sounded like howling banshees being tortured, and it was beautiful. The Lambo in the pic took the fastest lap time, and would surely have ended on the podium had it not been for technical issues.