Gearing up for its 19th edition on 26-27-28 January,a date delayed by logistical issues incurred by the prevailing security situation in the region, the 2024 Hankook 24H DUBAI is set to feature a grid of 57 cars, including former outright winners, reigning and established 24H SERIES powered by Hankook champions, representation from Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG, Lotus and Bentley (among many other notable brands) and even from the world of Formula 1.
This year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI is also the final round of, what has so far been, a closely-fought 2023/2024 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy campaign. Organized by CREVENTIC for the second year in a row, the three-round UAE program (with one Kuwait flyaway) has provided 24H SERIES competitors with plenty of endurance racing action during the European off-season, and, as in 2022/2023, is set to feature a grandstand finale, across all classes, during the 26-27-28 January weekend.
Part 2 of this preview reviewing the non-GT3 classes can be found here >>
GT3
Two former outright winners of the Hankook 24H DUBAI headline a 23-car GT3 class for the 2024 edition.
Herberth Motorsport (#91), which won the event outright in 2017, was the overall runner-up in 2023 in the event’s closest finish to-date. Driving the team’s 992-generation Porsche GT3 R, team principals Alfred and Robert Renauer, Ralf Bohn and Daniel Allemann will hope to repeat their 2017 win, seven years on.
In a fitting send-off, the 2024 Hankook 24H DUBAI will be Daniel Allemann’s final race. Car Collection Motorsport (#96) will also want to secure a second win in 2024.
Interestingly, the 2019 race winner has also confirmed a Porsche 992 GT3 R, which took a top five finish on its series debut in Barcelona last year, for Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall, who make their 24H SERIES returns at the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI.
The pair will be joined by Sebastian Gorga and Fuad Sawaya on their maiden series outing in Dubai, and Mark Wallenwein, who makes his third start in Dubai this year in a third different category.
Two other potential frontrunners in Dubai, Haas RT and Saintéloc Junior Team, both took their first outright wins in the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook in 2023.
Haas RT, which won the Hankook 12H MUGELLO outright, finished an impressive 5th overall at its first (ever) race in Dubai, and even led the event outright on multiple occasions. The Antiguan team has entered two Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO IIs for the event, the first of which (#21) will be driven by Stanislav Minsky, Thomas Kiefer, Miika Panu (rejoining Haas RT after two rounds in Monza and Barcelona last year), 2023 Hankook 12H ESTORIL winner Torsten Kratz, and team prodigy Mathieu Detry.
Series debutant Liang Jiatong has also registered to compete alongside the returning Morris Schuring, and Tim Müller (A6-Am winner in 2018) in a second Haas RT Audi (#20). Notably, Müller is set to compete at the Hankook 24H DUBAI for an eighth time in 2024.
Saintéloc Junior Team meanwhile, which took its first outright win at Spa-Francorchamps in 2023, has also entered two Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO IIs for Dubai.
The first (#26) will be driven by Wilfried, Mattéo and Thomas Merafina. The second, tellingly, (#18) reunites Michael Doppelmayr, Pierre Kaffer and Elia Erhart, who secured the 24H SERIES’ GT European Trophy with Phoenix Racing in 2022, with Swen Herberger for their first race with the French team.
15 years on from its first participation, Attempto Racing (#99) has also registered an Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II for Dylan Pereira and Andrey Mukovoz (teammates at the last four editions), Alex Arkin Aka, DTM race winner Ricardo Feller (who finished in the overall top six on both of his previous outings in 2018 and 2019) and the debuting Sergey Titarenko. The German team will be looking to secure its first overall podium at the event in 2024.
Grove Racing (#10) finished an impressive 4th overall on its event debut last year. The New Zealand outfit, which will once again be supported by the eponymous team of two-time Le Mans winner Earl Bamber, brings Stephen and Brenton Grove to partner Jordan Love, Australian Supercars race winner Matthew Payne, and 2020 GTX class winner Phil Keen in a brand-new Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo following the team’s switch from Porsche.
Also running a Mercedes, The Heart of Racing Team (#27) took a GT3-Am class podium at last year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI as well as two further class wins in Mugello and Spa-Francorchamps. The American outfit continues its collaboration with former Dubai class winner SPS automotive performance into 2024, and has confirmed Gray Newell will be joined by Pierre Kleinubing, Daniel Mancinelli, and three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Darren Turner in the UAE.
GT3 Category newcomers and returnees
Notably, the Hankook 24H DUBAI welcomes several strong international GT3 competitors to the 24H SERIES for the first time in 2024.
Team Parker Racing (#31) returns Bentley to the 24H SERIES with its Continental GT3, the luxury British marque having last graced a CREVENTIC grid at Spa-Francorchamps in 2022. Team Parker Racing, a multi-time Porsche Carrera Cup UK champion, has confirmed Shaun and Max Lynn, and Joe Wheeler will be joined by 2012 World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff in the latter’s first GT3 outing in Dubai since 2014.
Germany’s GetSpeed (#9), an official Mercedes-AMG customer and a Nürburgring specialist since its foundation in 2013, has confirmed a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for its 24H SERIES debut in Dubai. Former A6-Am class winners Dominik Baumann (2018) and Martin Konrad (2019) will drive alongside Fabian Schiller, the debuting Anthony Bartone, and Oman’s Al Faisal Al Zubair.
Austria’s Eastalent Racing Team (#54) meanwhile has entered an Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II for Simon Reicher, the debuting Mike Zhou, Audi factory driver Christopher Haase, and former GT1 World Champion Markus Winkelhock. The latter, winner of the Hankook 24H SEBRING in 2021, finished 2 nd overall on his most recent outing in 2020, and 2nd in-class on his first back in 2013.
Two-time Le Mans Series champion Proton Huber Competition (#83) rounds out the event’s GT3 newcomers, and has registered a Porsche 992 GT3 R for the debuting Razmik Arayan and Spartak Barsegyan, Vigen Shikhanyan, and Sven Müller, the latter of whom finished 2nd overall at the event in 2018.
Last year’s 992-Am class winner Huber Motorsport (#50) has confirmed a standalone Porsche 992 GT3 R, which will be driven by Hans Wehrmann (impressively, a class winner on both of his two most recent 24H SERIES outings), Jason Hart, and newcomer Scott Noble.
2019 and 2020 class winner MRS GT-Racing (#17) returns to GT3 at the Hankook 24H DUBAI for the first time since 2013. The German team has entered a Porsche 992 GT3 R for James Winslow, John Corbett and George King (TCX podium finishers in 2021), and Alexander Bukhanstov, who partnered with Winslow and King in GT4 in 2022.
Similarly, five-time Hankook 24H DUBAI class winner Dragon Racing (#88) steps up to the GT3 class for the first time in more than a decade with its new Ferrari 296 GT3. The Emirati team joins forces with ROFGO Collection founder Roald Goethe and his sons Benjamin and Oliver (the father-sons trio won in GT4 last year), four-time class winner Jordan Grogor, and LMGTE-Am World Endurance Champion Stuart Hall.
racing one (#6), back for its first 24H SERIES outing since Mugello in 2021, has also registered a Ferrari 296 GT3 for Steffen Görig and Stefan Aust, both 992-Am class winners last year, and series newcomer Luca Ludwig.
2019 Overall GT Teams’ ‘Continents’ champion Leipert Motorsport (#63) makes its Dubai return in the GT3 class with a new EVO2 version of its Lamborghini Huracán.
Gabriele Rindone (victorious in 992-Am in 2023), debutant Marco Mapelli and Alban Varutti (back for his fifth consecutive Hankook 24H DUBAI) will be joined by Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe champion, Brendon Leitch.
Also set to race in Abu Dhabi the previous weekend, Saalocin by Kox Racing (#48) will start its second Hankook 24H DUBAI in 2024 with its Porsche 992 GT3 R, and will run an almost unchanged driver line-up, including team namesake Peter Kox, his daughter Stéphane Kox, Nico Pronk, Dennis Retera, and Tour de France stage winner (and Dubai’s TCE winner in 2020) Tom Boonen.
7TSIX (#76) guarantees that Woking will be represented on the Hankook 24H DUBAIcgrid, as the British team has entered a McLaren 720S GT3 for George Nakas and Fraser Ross for its second run at the event.
GT3 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy contenders
Alongside the overall win at the Hankook 24H DUBAI, at least three teams will be battling for the 2023/2024 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy GT3 Teams’ title as well.
CP Racing (#85), which could secure its third consecutive GT3-Am class win in Dubai on 26-27 January, started its Middle East campaign strongly with outright victory in Kuwait. The American team will no doubt hope for a similarly strong performance from 2018 Overall GT Drivers’ champions Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub and Joe Foster, reigning GT3-Am Drivers’ champion Shane Lewis, and 2009 Daytona 24 Hours winner Darren Law in Dubai. This year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI will be Law’s first race since 2019, also with Putman, Espenlaub and Foster, and also as part of the 24H SERIES!
Kuwait runner-up Manamauri Energy by Ebimotors (#95), a former Teams’ champion in both ‘991’ and ‘992,’ is just four points behind CP Racing heading into this year’s Hankook 6H ABU DHABI, having finished a staggeringly slim half a second behind the American team in Kuwait. The Romanian-Italian outfit retains its Kuwait and Abu Dhabi line-up, as reigning 992 Drivers’ champions Sabino de Castro and Sergiu Nicolae will partner 2021 991 Drivers’ champion Fabrizio Broggi and Cosimo Papi at the Dubai Autodrome.
Century Motorsport meanwhile is just four further points behind Ebimotors in the GT3 Teams’ standings, and has confirmed two BMW M4 GT3s for the 2024 Hankook 24H DUBAI.
Looking to return the team to the top step in Dubai for the first time since 2016, Carl Cavers, Lewis Plato and Jack Barlow will be joined by Jake Rattenbury in the first BMW M4 GT3 (#22), while Michael Johnston and Chris Salkeld (who finished 3rd in GT4 last year with Century, Cavers and Plato) will race in the second BMW (#14) with Darren Leung and Sean Gelael. The Indonesian driver finished 3rd overall at last year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI with Team WRT.
Following CREVENTIC’s track days on both the Tuesday and the Wednesday, plus private test sessions on the Thursday, the 19th Hankook 24H DUBAI kicks properly into gear with official Free Practice on Friday 26th January at 10.00 hrs local time.
This will be followed by an unprecedented NINE qualifying sessions, incorporating TCE and GT4, GTX and 992, and GT3 respectively, between 14.40 hrs and 17.45 hrs.
Night Practice between 19.15 hrs and 20.45 hrs brings a full day of track activity to a close.
After a 30-minute morning warm-up session between 09.30 hrs and 10.00 hrs, the green flag for the Hankook 24H DUBAI itself is scheduled to fly at 13.00 hrs local time on Saturday 27 January, with the race running uninterrupted until 13.00 hrs on Sunday 28 January.
