Dubai-based Dragon Racing once again have plans for an extensive winter of GT racing with their pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s.
Team Principal Brad Fincham has confirmed to DSC that the first two campaigns are locked in with the team set to again contest the UAE back-to-back double-headers in the Asian Le Mans Series as additional entries in February with both Ferraris, and are set too to field two cars at the Gulf 12. Hours next month.
“There’s more to come too with the 24H Series races in the New Year,” Brad said. “We’ll be there too for sure.”
Asian LMS
Amongst the headline news in the Asian LMS are the appearance in the #8 Ferrari of IMSA Rising Star Aaron Telitz, the 2016 Mazda Pro Champion is already a GTD race winner in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship aboard a Vasser Sullivan Lexus (above). He’ll share the Ferrari with Todd Coleman, who partnered Telitz for the full 2024 Michelin Pilot Challenge season in an Archangel Motorsports-run Aston Martin GT4, the pair scoring a race win at Mid Ohio en route to a top ten finish in the Series. The team will complete the line-up with a Silver ranked driver.
The sister #88 Ferrari will see an all-Italian trio.
Giacomo Altoè holds an unusual record with one-make titles for both Ferrari (Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Pro 2024) and Lamborghini (Super Trofeo Europe and World Champion 2018). He was GT Open Champion in 2019 and assisted Dragon with their initial testing in 2023 when the cars were delivered.
He’s joined by a pair of Dragon’s 2024 Asian LMS drivers, Nicola Marinangeli who has experience in GT Open, Ferrari Challenge and GTWC Europe Driver, Marinangeli raced Formula Regional with Dragon too.
Finally double GT Open Pro-Am Champion Marco Pulcini returns too looking to add Asian LMS success to his 2022 and 2023 GT Open and 2022 Ferrari Challenge Pirelli AM Championships.
Gulf 12 Hours
The 2024 Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours takes place in 2 weeks time on 15 December and Dragon will field a pair of very different crews:
The #77 Ferrari sees four drivers from three continents.
Anchoring the effort is UAE-based Zimbabwean Axcil Jeffries, a double winner of the Dubai 24 Hours and current reigning ELMS LM GT3 Champion. Those three wins were taken in three different GT3 platforms (Dubai in Porsche (GPX) and Audi (MS7 by WRT) with the ELMS title taken in an Iron Lynx-run Lamborghini.
Jeffries is joined by South African racer Xollie Letlaka (know to all as ‘XO’– Founder of Into Africa Racing and a South African GT Series Champion in a Lamborghini GT3.
Canadian racer Ramez Azzam is another man with experience of both Ferrari and Lamborghini machinery. He contested the GT Open & Gulf 12H with Racing One Ferrari, he is also a past Lamborghini Super Trofeo Middle East Pro Champion.
GT3 rookie, but Ferrari Club Challenge and Ferrari Challenge Winter Series Race Winner Khaled Al Marzouq from Kuwait completes the line-up.
Finally (for now!) the #88 Ferrari sees some names familiar to DSC readers:
Matt Bell returns to the sites of his 2022 ALMS LMP2 Championship win with Nielsen Racing. He’ll be joined by another GT3 rookie – Wayne Boyd! The long-time LMP3 racer (including the 2021 Asian LMS Class Champion) will be looking forward to something new and different.
He’ll be sharing the new experience with another GT3 first timer, John Schauerman, who raced with Wayne (seen below with Steve ‘Doc’ Bunkhall) in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, the pair taking a win in their (then!) final race together in 2023.
John and Wayne tested a Kessel Racing 296 GT3 in the post season ELMS test at Portimao last month.
