Facu Regalia finished 11th at the 24 hours of Dubai

Facu Regalia and his team, Austria´s MSG Motorsport, were able to finish the season opener to 24H Series: the 24 hours of Dubai. Regalia came 11th in class.

In his second start in endurance racing, Argentina´s Facu Regalia crossed the finish line at the 24 hours of Dubai, first event of the 2016 24H Series. Driving a MSG Motorsport-entered Porsche 991 Cup and teaming up with Daniel Cammish, Martin Konrad, Luca Rettenbacher and Freddy Nordström, Regalia came 11th in 991 class and 44th overall. Ferté, Meadows, Leonardo and Vanthoor took race win today with their Audi R8 LMS (A6 Pro) and local team Lechner Racing Middle East took 991 class honors with Al Mehairi, Mardini, Müller, Al Maktoum and Van Lagen at the wheel of the Porsche.

Regalia made the opening stint when the race got underway yesterday at 14.00. From 6th on the grid, Argentinian racer moved up to second place with a solid pace during his 2-hour period on track. Unfortunately, with ten hours into the race the power steering failed on his Porsche and the car was extremely demanding to handle. Regalia made a superhuman effort to keep leading 991 class but then he was hit by a rival. Although MSG Motorsport was successfully able to fix the car, their chances to win were gone.

Facu made his final stint at dawn today, again setting competitive lap times and performing pretty well under difficult conditions. Nordström brought home an 11th finish after completing 503 laps.

Facu Regalia: “After crash, MSG Motorsport put a huge effort in to repair the car. Again on track, we were gaining a lot of places, from 55th to 45th and 8th in class. Our pace was good but then Martin, through the middle of his stint experienced gearbox problems. So, we forced to pit for a long time again and frustrating our recovering drive. But we fixed it once again. My last stint was at 7AM, when the day was dawning in Dubai. I´m happy with my performance because my team told me I was lapping quicker than anyone else and almost set fastest lap. We gained a lot of time during my stint. Daniel was delivering another good stint but struggled with power steering problems again. Anyway, at least we made it to the finish. It was such a pity that another car hit me when I was leading. After ten hours, we were leading despite strong opposition coming from two Porsche-backed teams. So, my team and I are happy. After being forced into retirement at Paul Ricard, it was a great experience to finish this time.”