When you hear someone talking about the first 24-hour race of the year in January in a warm climate to escape the chill of winter, you would probably be thinking of the famed 24 Hours of Daytona which has seen the likes of Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Lloyd Ruby, Vic Elford, Mark Donohue, Pedro Rodríguez, Mario Andretti, Peter Gregg, Hurley Haywood, Rolf Stommelen, Bobby Rahal, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Henri Pescarolo, Scott Pruett, Wayne Taylor, Andy Wallace, Arie Luyendyk, Ron Fellows, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Buddy Rice and Mike Rockenfeller claim victory.
But I am not talking about the kickoff event to Speedweeks at Daytona. I am talking about a race that isn't even a decade old and is halfway across the globe from Daytona: the Dubai 24 Hours.
The #1 Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 has won the past two years and looks to complete the hat trick this year along with drivers Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi. It would be a shame if I did not mention the late Sean Edwards had been apart of the last two winning teams besides Bleekemolen and Al Quabaisi. Bernd Schneider returns to that team for the second consecutive year. This race was the start of an impressive 2013 for Schneider who won five endurance races last season. Swedish driver Andreas Simonsen is the fourth driver of the #1 this year. Simonsen won the Pro-Am championship with Russian driver Sergey Afanasyev in the FIA GT Series last year.
The #2 Black Falcon Mercedes consists of Bleekemolen, Al Qubaisi, Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, Hubert Haupt and 2009 Star Mazda champion Adam Christodoulou.
The #4 Fach Tech Auto Porsche 997 GT3 R features one of the few Americans in the field, Porsche Junior driver and 2009 Skip Barber National Champion Connor de Philippi. He is joined by Germans Otto Klohs and Sebastian Asch and Austrian Martin Ragginger. Asch won the 2012 ADAC GT Mastes championship with Maximilian Götz. Ragginger won the 2010 Spa 24 Hours along side Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Romain Dumas.
The defending FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers winner Gianmaria Bruni teams with fellow AF Corse Ferrari driver Toni Vilander and Belorussians Alexander Talkanitsa, Sr. and Alexander Talkanitsa, Jr. in the #5 Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.
Aston Martin factory drivers Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner team with former DTM driver Darryl O'Young, Hong Kong driver Frank Yu and Japanese driver Tomonobu Fujii in the #7 Craft Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Two other Americans in the field are Bill Auberlen and Dane Cameron will be driving the #76 BMW Z4 GT3 for SX Team Schubert alongside Paul Dalla Lana, Dirk Werner and Claudia Hürtgen. Werner and Hürtgen are past winners of the Dubai 24 Hours with Werner winning in 2007 and Hürtgen in 2010.
Ram Racing features a talented driver line-up with ELMS GT Drivers' champions Johnny Mowlem and Matt Griffin, four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jan Magnussen and Indian businessman Cheerag Arya in the #30 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.
The surprise of Thursday qualifying was the all-Dutch #21 V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6-R of former ChampCar driver Nicky Pastorelli, Wolf Nathan, Danny Werkman, Rick Abresch and Alex van 't Hoff taking pole position over the defending race winning #1 Mercedes-Benz of Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon by 0.163 seconds. The #4 Fach Tech Auto Porsche qualified third ahead of the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz. The #76 SX Team Schubert BMW is fifth ahead of the #30 Ram Racing Ferrari and the #17 and #7 Craft Racing Aston Martins. The #27 Walkenhosrt Motorsport BMW qualified ninth with the #5 Spirit of Race Ferrari rounding out the top ten.
A German manufacture has won every edition of the Dubai 24 Hours with Porsche and BMW tied for the all-time lead at three apiece and Mercedes-Benz having won the last two. At least one German driver has been apart of all but one winning team of the Dubai 24 Hours. The 2008 winners were the only German-less driver lineup which saw V8 Supercars drivers Australian Jonathon Webb and New Zealander Craig Baird alongside Australian Klark Quinn and British driver Tony Quinn take the victory.
The 2014 Dubai 24 Hours starts at 5:00 a.m. ET tomorrow and will conclude 5:00 a.m. ET on Saturday.
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