Isaac Tutumlu gets last-minute call-up for Dubai 24h

The Spaniard will drive a Car Collection Motorsport-entered Audi R8 LMS at the Dubai 24 hours event to start tomorrow. Tutumlu clocked the second fastest lap time during night practice and will join Çapan, Stippler, Parhofer and Terrail for the mammoth 24-hour race.

Isaac Tutumlu will take part in the 24 hours of Dubai once again this year, as the race in the Middle East has become almost a mandatory event for him, highlighting his third place overall two years ago. Tutumlu, just live in the past two seasons, will drive a Car Collection Motorsport-run Audi R8 LMS in the A6-Am class. Tutumlu, who is a seasoned GT3 driver, got a last-minute call to join Aly Çapan, Frank Stippler, Dimitri Parhofer and Rémi Terrail.

Despite he didn’t complete a single lap during the private testing or the free practice sessions, Tutumlu made a display of pure talent after his mandatory two-lap stint in qualifying. At night, the driver born in Barcelona secured the second fastest time on the timesheets despite almost 100 cars are entered. Audi factory driver Christopher Mies and Tutumlu himself managed to put sub-2 minutes laps with Isaac posting a personal best of 1:59.987.

“At first, I arrived in Dubai to work as a coach driver for Aly, whose main goal is to put experience under his belt at this event. But then Car Collection told me to also drive this weekend. These 24 hours are particularly demanding as there is a huge grid and night time is even more challenging due to poor lighting. You need plenty of experience to avoid incidents and it was the reason I got his call”, explains Tutumlu. He also underlines: “I made my debut straight into qualifying and completed two laps taking no risks. Later I pushed harder during night practice. After four laps I emerged second fastest and made an improvement of around five tenths of a second in comparison with Stippler’s lap time. Our car works perfectly and I’m looking forward to beginning the race from 11th on the grid and fifth in A6-Am class. In my opinion we have excellent prospects to achieve a good result.”

The 24 hours of Dubai will start tomorrow at 11.00 (CET).