BMW And Team WRT Add 6H ABU DHABI Success To 24H DUBAI Win

BMW M4 GT3 EVO power once again proved victorious in the 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy, during today’s breath-taking Michelin 6H ABU DHABI at Yas Marina Circuit, with The Bend Team WRT taking a well-crafted win with Charles Weerts, Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin.

For Team WRT and BMW, of course, the result marked an outstanding couple of weeks in the United Arab Emirates after earning success in the Michelin 24H DUBAI last Sunday with the squad’s AlManar Racing entry.

Absolutely packed with drama, today’s race built to a fantastic crescendo with the No.32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO taking the win by two seconds. Winward Racing, which is provisionally crowned the GT3 and GT3 Pro-Am Champion team, took second with the No.16 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Sergey Stolyarov and Victor Shaytar, the Pro-Am Drivers’ Champions, Sergei Borisov and Gabriele Piana.

“I’m very happy, this was mainly preparation for Timur and Yasser”, said Abu Dhabi race winner Weerts, “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, there is a good level and we had to have a good race to be up there – which is what we did. Also, a big thank you to Timur and Yasser and also to Team WRT for this great race, and I think it’s quite a good success for BMW with two wins in two weeks!”

Nobody was prepared for the spectacular drama of the final couple of laps, contact between the No.33 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 EVO and the No.80 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) at multiple corners ending with third for the McLaren and sixth, and significant damage, for the Porsche.

Fifth overall were GT3-Am class winners, and provisional Driver and Team class champions, HOFOR Racing with the No.11 Mercedes-AMG GT3 piloted by husband and wife Alexander and Chantal Prinz, Michael Kroll and Timo Rumpfkeil. Chantal Prinz is also the Ladies Cup Champion.

GTX was won by Saalocin by Kox Racing’s KTM X-BOW GT2 of Nicolas Pronk, Dennis Retera and Peter Kox, but the title goes to 111 Racing. In the 992 class, the No.918 Muhlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) of Martin Rump and Valters Zviedris was victorious from new 992 and Am Champions QMMF by HRT – Abdulla Ali AL Khelaifi, Ghanim Al Ali, Ibrahim Al Abdulghani and Julian Hanses.

Simpson Motorsport’s No. 438 BMW M4 GT4 (G82), with Takashi Hata, Taiyo Ida and Kenji Suzuki, won GT4 and the title after fuel pressure problems for the No.496 Continental TTR Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO. In TCE-TCX, CHAZEL Technologie Course won with the No.110 Alpine A110 of Felix Crepet, Guillaume Masset, Stephane Lipp and Michel Abattu. AsBest Racing, though, win the crown.

GT3:
Rinat Salikhov in the No.87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO made a decent launch from pole, but it was the No.7 Mercedes-AMG from SMP Racing which grabbed the lead on the outside into Turn One in the hands of a very fast-starting Sergey Sirotkin.

Salikhov slipped to fourth and was ultimately bundled down to sixth through the first few corners, with the Optimum McLaren 720S, in the hands of Michael Porter, taking second, Alex Arkin Aka third in the No.99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, Louis Prette fourth in the Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO and Joel Sturm fifth in the No.80 Herberth Porsche.

The top three ran in close company initially, but Sirotkin began to stretch the legs of his Mercedes-AMG. The first Code 60 of the race came just ahead of the 25-minute mark and many teams opted to make stops. Sirotkin remained on track, with Prette moving into second and Jake Hill into third in the No.81 Era Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3.

Early in hour two Sirotkin pitted for fuel and tyres, Prette having pitted shortly before, and so Hill assumed the lead from the No.5 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Levente Revesz. Due to the differing pit strategies the true order hadn’t fully settled before the second Code 60 of the race, resulting when the No.2 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO stopped with an electrical problem.

Racing resumed at one third distance with Chantal Prinz leading overall and GT3 Am in the No.11 HOFOR Racing Mercedes-AMG, following a superb first stint from her spouse Alexander, but within a handful of laps the No.7 SMP Racing car was back on top with Denis Remenyako driving.

Halfway through hour three another Code 60 was required, due to the No.701 Vortex 2.0 stopping on track with a driveshaft issue, and Remenyako immediately pitted for fuel. Charles Weerts moved into the overall lead as a result in the No.32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO but he soon pitted. Remenyako took the lead again, before Loek Hartog hit the front in the Herberth Motorsport Porsche.

After a multitude of pit-stops another Code 60 was required, then high drama for SMP Racing when the Mercedes-AMG came to a halt before being recovered. Into the fifth hour, the No.32 BMW M4 was being challenged by the Optimum McLaren and Gabriele Piana was making his presence felt too.

The top positions continued to change and the intensity built, with Weerts leading with half an hour to run. Experiencing all sorts of angst through traffic, he managed to stay ahead and after a very late Code 60 with minutes to go he took the win. Behind the BMW and the No.16 Mercedes-AMG in second, the battle over third became quite robust – to say the least.

Optimum’s McLaren, with Thomas Ikin at the wheel, and Sturm’s No.80 Herberth Porsche made contact multiple times with the McLaren taking the flag third. The Porsche, meanwhile, finished sixth in the pits with immense damage to bodywork front and rear, as well as two punctures.

992:
From the outset the closest 6H ABU DHABI action came courtesy of the 992 class, a busy opening lap seeing the pole-qualifying No.909 Red Camel-Jordans.nl Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) car, in the hands of Rik Breukers, bundled back to fifth. Paul Meijer took the lead in the Am class No.888 SebLajoux Racing machine but he was soon passed by the No.918 Muhlner Motorsport car of Martin Rump.

Breukers was one of the first to pit at the initial Code 60, but after the resumption – and only 40 minutes into the race – the No.909 had to slow due to a failure of the right-rear suspension upright. After a lengthy delay of around a quarter of an hour for repairs, they would end the race 11th.

Meijer and Rump had remained pretty much nose-to-tail through the first hour, roughly a second between them, until pit strategies intervened and the Am class No.911 TFT Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) took over at the front. After the race’s second Code 60, Patrick Charlaix was at the wheel of the TFT Racing car and led 992 into hour three. He then pitted half an hour later during a Code 60.

Still leading when the order shook out, when he pitted for his next stop just before halfway the No.918 car with Valters Zviedris aboard moved into the lead. Then, early in hour four, drama arrived for the No.911 of Charlaix when he spun and went into the barriers – triggering the fourth Code 60.

Within minutes another Code 60 was required and when the order eventually levelled off with just under two hours to go, Rump in the No.918 led by the thick end of a minute from the Am leading No.974 QMMF by HRT car with Abdulla Ali Al Khelaifi. Zviedris was in the Muhlner car for the final stint, winning 992 by a minute and a half from QMMF’s car, in the hands of Julian Hanses.

GT4, GTX and TCE/TCX:
WS Racing’s BMW M4 GT4 (G82) made the initial running in GT4, with Jeroen Bleekemolen at the wheel, but the pole-starting Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO of Stanislav Novikov moved back into the lead after a few laps. With little to choose between the pair, the first hour proved very close with Bleekemolen moving back through and able to begin gapping Novikov.

As hour two concluded, and racing resumed after the second Code 60 of the race, Tudor Tudurachi led GT4 by five seconds in the No.470 WS Racing BMW from Ilia Sidorov in the Toyota, both comfortably clear of the rest, but Sidorov soon came through to lead and stamp some authority.

With just over 90 minutes to go, though, the Toyota slowed with fuel pressure issues and this was also compounded by problems with the ship-to-shore radio. Able to crawl back to the refueling area, the team then had to push the car up pitlane. Due to the loss of time, the lead was easily taken by the No.438 BMW M4 and Taiyo Ida eventually took the win by over five laps.

Mikkel Mac scorched away at the start of the race from the GTX pole, in the Scott Sport Lamborghini Super Trofeo EVO, and looked unbeatable. On lap 11, though, a nasty right-rear blow out at speed on the back straight shredded the car’s bodywork and led to early retirement. Following the ensuing Code 60 period, the No. 748 Saalocin by Kox Racing KTM moved into the lead.

Positions changed through the pit-stops and at the halfway point the No.111 IRC GT car, in the hands of Grant Donaldson, had a comfortable advantage. During the second part of the race, though, the KTM began to dominate and won by eight laps from the IRC GT – which had a late issue but did claim the GTX title with Donaldson, Darren Currie and Jake Camilleri.

Johny Khazzoum delivered a good opening for the No.102 AsBest Racing Seat Leon Cup Racer, leading well from the twin Alpine A110 Cup cars of CHAZEL Technologie Course. Positions fluctuated during the stops but, just before the half distance mark, an error in not visiting the refueling area before the pit-box meant another unplanned stop was needed.

Added in to mechanical issues as well, AsBest’s challenge in the race was ruined but the team does still win the TCE-TCX title. The No.193 Alpine looked set for victory, but with 50 minutes to go a right-rear puncture and a problem with the ABS sensor handed the win to the No.110 sister car.

With the 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy now complete for another year, the teams and drivers begin preparations for the main 24H European Series which begins in Italy with the Michelin 12H MUGELLO over the weekend 22/23 March.