The latest entry list for this week’s Gulf 12 Hours (race is on Friday 11 December) now includes most of the drivers currently slated to race.
We have though lost a couple of cars from the provisional entry with the MRS GT Nissan GT-R and the second Dragon Racing Ferrari now not listed.
Notable amongst those that have shown though are Messrs Cioci and Castellacci in AF Corse Ferraris with Kessel Racing fielding Davide Rigon in one of their trio of cars and Loris Capirossi, the three-time MotoGP World Champion making his debut in in international endurance motorsport in another.
Capirossi will thus become the third MotoGP superstar to take the wheel of a Kessel 458 after Valentino Rossi raced twice for the Swiss team in 2012 and Jorge Lorenzo drove in last year´s Gulf 12 Hours.
The FF Corse Ferrari features the Mowlem/ Dunbar duo bound for the new for 2016 Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, Charlie Hollings adds further quality there too.
Beyond that there’s an interesting trio in the sole Dragon Ferrari with ex LMP racers Frederic Fatten and John Harsthorne joined by Alex Kapadia.
In a blast from the DSC past Hartshorne’s long-time British GT Championship racing partner Graeme Mundy also appears on the entry, this time though in a different car, the Brookspeed Cup class Porsche (Here’s the pair’s 2003 British GT TVR Tuscan R!).
And there’s an intriguing potential battle for overall and regional honours with three high quality efforts all featuring a Gulf regional driver:
Abu Dhabi’s Khaled Al Qubaisi is joined by Jeroen Bleekemolen and newly crowned FIA GT3 World Cup Champ Maro ENgel in a Black Falcon Mercedes.
Saudi Arabia’s AbdulAziz Al Faisal has Hubert Haupt and Yelmer Buurman in a similar machine.
Oman’s Ahmad Al Harthy meanwhile debuts the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 at the race and is joined by AMR factory pair Darren Turner and Jonny Adam in the Motorbase run Team Oman car.
“The Gulf 12 hour race is a big event for the Oman Racing Team; it’s like Ahmad’s home Grand Prix;” said team boss Dave Bartrum. “It will be the first time that a Motorbase-run squad has competed in this part of the world and also marks the Aston Martin Vantage GT3’s debut in the race, so expectations are high.
The Gulf 12 hour is evenly split into two, six-hour races separated by a two-hour break in which teams are permitted to work on the cars.
There will be streaming video on the race website featuring full commentary from the Radio Le mans crew with the radio stream also available on www.radiolemans.com
DSC’s Stephen Kilbey will be on hand too with regular news and session updates.
Entry List
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Gerber/Cioci/Melnikov
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Flohr/Rizzoli/Castellacci
AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Guedes/Moiseev/Ragazzi
Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG Al Qubaisi/Blekemoolen/Engel
Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG Al Faisal/Haupt/Buurman
Dragon Racing Ferrari 458 Italia Fatien/Hartshorne/Kapadia
Equipe Verschuur Renault RS01 Pierre/Lequeux/TBA
FF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Dunbar/Mowlem/Hollings
Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia Capirossi/Bernardis/Cadei
Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia Broniszewky/Piccini/Rigon
Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia Gitlyn/Lion/Zanuttini
Motorbase Performance (Oman Racing) Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Al Harthy/Adam/Turner
Black Pearl Racing by Rinaldi Ferrari 458 Italia TBA
Brookspeed Porsche 991 Cup Mundy/Liquorish/TBA
GDL Racing Porsche 991 Cup Michaelian/Mardini/Rayneri
GDL Racing Porsche 991 Cup Cordoni/Selva/Terrail
MRS GT-Racing Porsche 991 Cup Putman/Espenlaub/Maassen
MRS GT-Racing Porsche 991 Cup Chan/Chou/Yokomizo/Lee
Avelon Formula Wolf GB08 TBA
Avelon Formula Wolf GB08 TBA
