2021 Dubai 24 Hour Preview

The first major 24-hour race of the sports car racing year is back, as the Dubai 24 Hour returns for its 16th edition. 

Last year's race was significantly shortened due to rain with only 168 laps being completed in seven hours and 18 minutes of race time. The race was not officially called until after an eight-hour and 48-minute red flag period due to flooding of the circuit. Prior to last year, the fewest laps completed in event history was 504 laps in 2008. 

While this event is scheduled during the middle of the pandemic, we are looking at a reduced grid compared to previous years with 53 total entries. Only 17 cars are entered between the two GT3 classes, but we will look at each entry and get a sense of who will be fighting for the overall victory. 

GT3-PRO

#4 HRT Bilstein Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO 2020

Drivers: Khaled Al Qubaisi, Hubert Haupt, Maro Engel, Patrick Assenheimer, Ryan Ratcliffe

Why this team could win: Last year, Al Qubaisi and Haupt became the first three-time winner of the Dubai 24 Hour along with Jeroen Bleekemolen. Mercedes-AMG is tied with Porsche for most Dubai 24 Hour victories at five. Engel has won the 24 Hours Nürburgring and he was third in ADAC GT Masters last year. Engel and Assenheimer were co-drivers in the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series in 2020. Ratcliffe is coming off being second in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Pro-Am class.

Why this team won't win: No manufacture has won the Dubai 24 Hours in consecutive years since Mercedes-AMG did it in 2012 and 2013. No driver has won this race in consecutive years since 2012 and 2013 when Al Qubaisi, Bleekemolen and Sean Edwards did it. Perhaps last year's rain-shortened race will throw off this trend. This will be a contender for the overall victory.

#7 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 9111 GT3 R (911 II)

Drivers: Roberto Pampanini, Mauro Calamia, Stefano Monaco, Matteo Cairoli

Why this team could win: Cairoli drove for Dinamic in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup last year and they were third in the championship with a victory at the Nürburgring. Monaco and Pampanini won in the 991 class at Pergusa last year. Calamia, Monaco and Pampanini were second overall in the Gulf 12 Hours at Bahrain last week.

Why this team won't win: Though this team had a good result at Bahrain last week, that was a weaker field compared to this race and there were only 12 cars total in the field. I think Cairoli could use some more help in this team and they will not have the muscle to win a 24-hour race. 

#31 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2019

Drivers: Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, Frank Bird, Benjamin Goethe, Louis Machiels

Why this team could win: Van der Linde has been a budding Audi driver over the last few seasons and won a handful of races over GT World Challenge Europe Endurance and Sprint series and ADAC GT Masters. Vanthoor was the 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup champion. Machiels was second in the GT World Challenge Europe Pro-Am championship. WRT has won nearly every major GT3 endurance race, including this one in 2016.

Why this team won't win: When looking at other lineups, I am not sure Bird and Goethe match in quality to the bottom two drivers in some of these other four- and five-driver lineups. 

#36 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (911 II)

Drivers: Axcil Jefferies, Julien Andlauer, Frédéric Fatien, Mathieu Jaminet, Alain Ferté

Why this team could win: Fatien and Jaminet won the Coppa Florio at Pergusa last year. Jefferies was second in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Silver Cup championship. Andlauer picked up two victories in the Michelin Le Mans Cup. Ferté won this race in 2016.

Why this team won't win: It is a pretty good lineup, but it is possible someone else has a better day or this car hits some trouble and loses too much time.

#63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2019

Drivers: Rik Breukers, Adrian Amstutz, Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti

Why this team could win: Amstutz and Ineichen won this race in 2014. Breukers won this race in 2019. Ineichen, Breukers and Bortolotti won the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD class together twice. Grasser is a heavily successful team.

Why this team won't win: A German manufacture has won this race every year. That trend is bound to end eventually, but currently that fact is not on this team's side. We have seen plenty of good teams in Lamborghinis or Ferraris or Aston Martins in this race that looked like potential winners. Grasser has the potential. 

#83 Racetivity Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 2020

Drivers: François Perrodo, Charles-Henri Samani, Emmanuel Collard, Matthieu Vaxivière

Why this team could win: Perrodo and Collard won the Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am Drivers last year and it was their second time winning that championship. If they can win in the FIA World Endurance Championship, they can win this race. Vaxivière has been an all-around sports car success story with multiple LMP2 class podium finishes at Le Mans and he even has runner-up finishes at Sebring and Petit Le Mans. Perrodo, Collard and Vaxivière have all raced together before.

Why this team won't win: Samani is the one unknown, but there are not many reasons to doubt this team. Anything can happen in the 24-hour race. This team is not going to struggle. 

#92 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)

Drivers: Klaus Bachler, Jürgen Häring, Sven Müller, Wolfgang Triller, Vincent Kolb

Why this team could win: Häring won two races last year in the GT3-Am class. Müller is a Porsche factory driver. Bachler and Kolb won the 24 Hours Barcelona together in 2019. Triller spent 2020 in the European Le Mans Series LMP3 class, where his best result was sixth.

Why this team won't win: I just don't think this lineup is good enough. It isn't the best Herberth Motorsport entry in this race. It is hard to win when you are only second best in your own team. 

#99 Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2019

Drivers: Markus Winkelhock, Philipp Sager, Christopher Mies, Finlay Hutchison, Alex Aka

Why this team could win: Winkelhock is a three-time 24 Hours Nürburgring winner and he has won the 24 Hours of Spa twice. Mies was a part of one of those Nürburgring victories. Both drivers have won GT World Challenge Europe championships. Hutchison and Sager are experienced in this event. Sager drove in Porsche Supercup last year. Hutchison and Aka were co-drivers in three GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup races last year.

Why this team won't win: I feel like this team will be too dependent on Winkelhock and Mies and there is only so much the two of them can do. Also, Winkelhock is in a bit of a slump, having not won a race in any category since 2018.

GT3-AM

#5 HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 2020

Drivers: Khaled Al Qubaisi, Valentin Pierburg, Patrick Assenheimer, Florain Scholze, Nico Bastian

Why this team could win: We touched upon Al Qubaisi and Assenheimer above. Bastian is a regular champion in the GT World Challenge Europe Silver Cup, including winning it in both Endurance and Sprint Cup in 2019. Scholze was the 2019 GTWC Europe Am Cup champion in the sprint series. 

Why this team won't win: I have a feeling Pierburg, Scholze and Bastian will be spending most of the time in this car with this being Al Qubaisi and Assenheimer's fall back if the #4 Mercedes-AMG hits some trouble. It is the second car in the team, I doubt it will be fighting for the overall victory, but it could be fighting for top honors in GT3-AM. 

#13 Team Zakspeed Dodge SRT Viper GT3-R

Drivers: Manuel Lauck, Hendrik Still, Evegny Kireev, Sergey Stolyarov, Victor Shaytar

Why this team could win: Shaytar formerly was a successful driver in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series. Still has competed mostly in GT3 competition. 

Why this team won't win: I didn't know the Dodge Viper was still an eligible car for GT3 competitions and this lineup does not match well with the rest of the GT3 entries in terms of experience.

#19 MP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 (2019)

Drivers: Daniel de Jong, Henk de Jong, Bert de Heus, Jaap van Lagen

Why this team could win: MP Motorsport won this class last year with this exact same lineup. MP Motorsport is an experienced team in this event. 

Why this team won't win: An overall victory is a stretch, but they could successfully defend the GT3-AM race victory. There will be a few challengers up to the task.

#34 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2019

Drivers: Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff, Gustav Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm, Ingo Vogler, Max Edelhoff

Why this team could win: This is a regular entry in the Dubai 24 Hour and the 24H Series. This lineup won at Circuit of the Americas in the GT3-AM class in 2019. Car Collection Motorsport did win overall in this race two years ago.

Why this team won't win: That team that won overall two years ago featured Christopher Haase, Rik Breukers, Frédéric Vervisch and Dimitri Parhfoer. If enough teams run into trouble, the #34 Audi could be in position to capitalize. 

#72 Inception Racing by Optimum McLaren 720S GT3

Drivers: Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy, Nick Moss, Joe Osborne

Why this team could win: Millroy is a veteran of Asian Le Mans Series. Osborne is a British GT race winner. This lineup has some experience together. Iribe, Moss and Millroy ran the 2019 Gulf 12 Hours together. Iribe and Millroy ran one British GT round last year, finishing seventh at Silverstone.

Why this team won't win: This will be the first McLaren entry in a GT3 in the history of the Dubai 24 Hour. While McLaren has found moderate success in GT3 racing, it does not have a lot of endurance race success. I can't think of a 24-hour race McLaren has won or at least been in contention. That could be the one thing that brings this team down. Car aside, Iribe and Moss don't have enough experience to compete for a class victory let alone an overall victory. 

#85 CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 2020

Drivers: Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster, Shane Lewis

Why this team could win: This team has won the last three 24H Series races in the GT3-AM class. They are regular race winners in this series. 

Why this team won't win: Something always seems to catch them out in Dubai. Plus, with the depth of the field, I think an overall victory is out of reach, but a class victory is absolutely possible.

#88 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2019

Drivers: Kim Holmgaard, Tim Müller, Milan Dontje, Martin Lechmann

Why this team could win: Dontje previously was a GT4 European Series Silver Cup champion. Holmgaard has spent run Dubai in a variety of class, including TCR and the 997 class. Lechmann won a race in the Lamborghini Cup class of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe series last year.

Why this team won't win: Too many drivers getting their first crack in the GT3 class.

#91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)

Drivers: Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer

Why this team could win: These four drivers won two 24H Series races last year in the GT3-Pro class with Bohn, Allemann and Robert Renauer winning three races together. They also won this race in 2017 with Brendon Hartley.

Why this team won't win: It doesn't have Brendon Hartley. In all seriousness though, it is a good combination, but I feel like there are a handful of cars that are a tad stronger, as is usual with the Dubai 24 Hour.

#93 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)

Drivers: Antares Au, Steffen Görig, Daniel Lloyd, John Loggie

Why this team could win: Görig made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut last year in the GTE-Am class, but that race lasted only 80 laps, but this is a pretty amateur lineup with the other three drivers not being regular competitors in any other championship.

Why this team won't win: It is the third of three Herberth entries.

The race record for most laps completed was 628 in 2012 when Al Qubaisi, Bleekemolen, Edwards and Thomas Jäger won the race. However, the next most laps completed in a Dubai 24 Hour was 608 in 2010.

Not only have German manufactures dominated winning Dubai overall, they have dominated the podium with non-German manufactures finishing on the podium only six times in the first 15 years of this race. Only twice has a non-German make been the runner-up finisher. On both occasions, it was a Ferrari in 2011 and 2013. 

Only twice has the overall winning team not included at least one German driver, 2008 with Australians Jonathon Webb and Klark Quick, Briton Tony Quinn and New Zealander Craig Baird; and 2016 with Brits Stuart Leonard and Michael Meadows, Belgian Laurens Vanthoor and Frenchman Alain Ferté.

This year's Dubai 24 Hour will begin at 6:00 a.m. ET on Friday January 15. 

2020 Dubai 24 Hour Preview

We have reached the first major endurance race of the year and it is once again the Dubai 24 Hour.

This will be the 15th time this race has taken place and it is again the season opener for the 24H Series season.

This year sees a slight change, as the A6 class will be known as the GT3 class, which is what has made up the class for years. Once again, the top class will be split between professional and amateur entries. This year's race features 11 GT3-PRO entries and nine GT3-AM entries with only four manufactures spread across the 20 entries.

GT3-PRO
#4 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 2019
Drivers: Khaled Al Qubaisi, Hubert Haupt, Ben Barker, Manuel Metzger, Jeroen Bleekemolen
Why this car could win: Al Qubaisi, Haupt and Bleekemolen are three of the eight drivers to have won the Dubai 24 Hour twice. Metzger has won the 24 Hours Nürburgring. Black Falcon has won this race four times, the only other team to win it multiple times is Duller Motorsport, which won the first two editions.
Why this car won't win: Oof... first entry and I am not sure I can come up with a good answer. This will be a race contender. If it doesn't win it is because this is a 24-hour race and there could be two or three cars are just better, this could be the contender that gets caught in an incident that wasn't of its making or this is the car where something breaks, the team loses ten laps fixing it and it just wasn't this entry's year.

#7 MS7 by WRT Audi R8 LMS Evo 2019
Drivers: Mohammed Saud Fahad Al Saud, Michael Vergers, Dries Vanthoor, Christopher Mies
Why this car could win: Mies is a GT3 maverick, with victories in the Bathurst 12 Hour, 24 Hours Nürburgring and championships in the Blancpain Endurance Series and ADAC GT Masters. Vanthoor has won the Bathurst 12 Hour and he has plenty of GT3 success. Vergers won the LMP2 championship in the European Le Mans Series in 2006. WRT is one of the leading GT3 teams in the world and won this race in 2016. This team were runner-up finishers in this race last year.
Why this car won't win: Amazingly, this is one of the races Mies has not won. Add to it WRT is going to run the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, spreading its operation to new races. Audi is coming off winning this race last year. Only twice has a manufacture won this race in consecutive years.

#10 SPS auotmotive performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo2019
Drivers: Valentin Pierburg, Tom Onslow-Cole, Dominik Baumann, Lance David Arnold
Why this car could win: Mercedes-AMG has four Dubai 24 Hour victories. Onslow-Cole and Pierburg have won two consecutive International GT Open Pro-Am championships. Onslow-Cole won the 24H Series A6-Pro championship in 2015. Baumann has won multiple SRO GT3 championships.
Why this car won't win: All four of Mercedes-AMG's Dubai 24 Hour victories have come from Black Falcon. There are some strong entries in this field.

#24 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)
Drivers: Dirk Werner, Julien Andlauer, Stuart Hall, Jordan Grogor, Frédéric Fatien
Why this car could win: Werner is a sports car veteran. Andlauer is one of the most promising and rising Porsche drivers. Hall won the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am drivers in 2013. Hall, Grogor and Fatien have been racing together and know each other. GPX Racing won the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps last year.
Why this car won't win: I am not sure Grogor and Fatien are at a high enough level to compete for an overall victory but I will say this is the best Porsche entered in GT3 and it would not be a surprise if this car takes the checkered flag first overall.

#31 WRT Audi R8 LMS Evo 2019
Drivers: Rolf Ineichen, Mark Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Kevlin van der Linde
Why this car could win: Both the Ineichens won this race in 2014, the Ineichens and Bortolotti have a lot of experience together back at GRT Grasser Racing Team. Rolf Ineichen and Bortolotti have won the GT Daytona class the previous two years at the 24 Hours of Daytona and won the 12 Hours of Sebring in GTD last year. Van der Linde is coming off an ADAC GT Masters championship and he has won the 24 Hours Nürburgring.
Why this car won't win: It is hard to see how this car will not be in contention. This is Bortolotti's first time in an Audi after switching over from Lamborghini. The Ineichens are making the move to Audi as well. This could be a team that is working out the cobwebs this year but next year will be the clear favorite. I don't necessarily think that will be the case. I think this team could do it this year.

#77 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2019
Drivers: Adrian Amstutz, Patrick Kujala, Jordan Witt, Dennis Lind
Why this car could win: Amstutz won this race in 2014. Amstutz, Kujala and Lind ran together last year and won the 24 Hours Barcelona. Lind was a part of the Orange1 FFF Racing Team that won the Blancpain Endurance Cup championship last year but missed the final race due to illness and will not be included in record book as a champion. Witt ran for Barwell Motorsport in the Blancpain Endurance Cup Silver Cup and won the class at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Why this car won't win: This car is a little too amateur to win this race. On top of that, it is the only non-German car between both GT3 classes and German manufactures have won all 14 times this race has been contested.

#84 HTP Winward Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo2019
Drivers: Al Faisal Al Zubair, Maximilian Götz, Maximilian Buhk, Christopher Bruck, Indy Dontje
Why this car could win: Götz and Buhk have plenty of history together in GT3 competition. Götz is a Blancpain Sprint Series champion. Buhk is a Blancpain GT Series champion. Götz and Buhk won the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in 2013. Dontje has had success in the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series.
Why this car won't win: Götz and Buhk cannot win this race alone. Dontje is a good addition. I think Al Zubair and Bruck are too relative unknowns. This is a good line up and it could get a

#88 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS Evo 2019
Drivers: Rik Breukers, Christopher Haase, Mike-David Ortmann, Dimitri Parhofer, Markus Winkelhock
Why this car could win: This car won the race last year. The only difference Frédéric Vervisch is out and Winkelhock and Ortmann are in. Haase has two victories in the 24 Hours Nürburgring. Haase and Winhelhock won the 2017 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Winkelhock has an FIA GT1 World Championship, Intercontinental GT Challenge championship and a Blancpain Sprint Series Pro-Am Cup championship.
Why this car won't win: Repeating is hard to do. It would not be a surprise if this car did. Only Black Falcon and Duller Motorsport have won the Dubai 24 Hour in consecutive years.

#91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)
Drivers: Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer, Sven Müller
Why this car could win: Allemann, Bohn and the Renauers won this race in 2017. Allemann and the Renauers won three more races that year and Bohn returned for a victory in the finale at Austin. Herberth Motorsport won twice in the 2018 24H Series season and in 2019 the team won twice in A6-Am with Allemann, Bohn and Robert Renauer. Müller is a Porsche SuperCup champion and a budding Porsche driver.
Why this car won't win: This team has been successful in 24H Series and Müller is a respectable driver but there feels like four or five better teams and it is difficult to see this car winning on all out pace. This could be a top five finisher.

#99 Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo 2019
Drivers: Duncan Huisman, Nicolas Schöll, Luc Braams, Max Braams
Why this car could win: Huisman and Luc Braams won the GT4 European Series Northern Cup Pro-Am championship in 2017. The Braams and Huisman have experience in this race in the V8 Racing Corvette. Attempto Racing is a regular team in the 24H Series.
Why this car won't win: There are a lot of strong cars and teams. It is hard to see how this car breaks through.

#777 Toksport WRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo2019
Drivers: Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, Philip Ellis, Patrick Assenheimer, Martin Konrad
Why this car could win: Engel and Stolz were vice-champions in the Blancpain Sprint Series championship last year. Engel won the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2016. Assenheimer has a lot of GT3 experience with Black Falcon. Konrad won the A6-Am class last year in the Dubai 24 Hour.
Why this car won't win: Engel and Stolz are not going to be enough.

GT3-AM
#19 MP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo2019
Drivers: Daniël de Jong, Henk de Jong, Bert de Heus, Jaap van Lagen
Why this car could win: This team showed up for last year's race. Daniël de Jong has some single-seater success. Van Lagen is a full-time Porsche SuperCup competitor. The de Jongs and de Heus ran this race the year before that.
Why this car won't win: It is a good but not a great line up for the overall victory. I think it could compete for the class victory.

#26 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo 2019
Drivers: Pierre-Yves Paque, Christian Kelders, Daniel Desbrueres, Michael Blanchemain, Steven Palette
Why this car could win: Sainteloc has a history of winning races and being a competitive team.
Why this car won't win: Too many unknowns with this entry.

#28 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)
Drivers: Roberto Pampanini, Ivan Jacoma, Mauro Calamia, Stefano Monaco, Mikkel Overgaard Pedersen
Why this car could win: You got me... I have no clue how this car could win other than it makes zero mistakes and everyone else does.
Why this car won't win: That is the easy one, as it is the third best Dinamic Motorsport cars and I am not sure it can beat those two let alone the rest of the cars in the GT3 field.

#29 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)
Drivers: Philipp Sager, Helmut Rödig, Bashar Mardini, Christopher Zochling
Why this car could win: Zochling has been around the block before.
Why this car won't win: There are too many good cars in this field for this entry to come out on top either in class or overall.

#34 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 Evo 2019
Drivers: Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff, Gustav Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm, Ingo Vogler
Why this car could win: Because this team won the A6-Am class in last year's season finale at Austin and its sister car could be an overall winner for the second consecutive year.
Why this car won't win: The Dubai 24 Hour is the deepest race of the 24H Series season and just because you can win other races does not mean you can win this one.

#69 Team Hong Kong Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo2019
Drivers: Jonathan Hui, Antares Au, Frank Yu, Kevin Tse
Why this car could win: Craft-Bamboo Racing is a known name in the racing world and it has been having success in the GT World Challenge Asia series. This team did finish tenth overall last year and fourth in the A6-Am class.
Why this car won't win: It was 15 laps down to the overall winner last year. It was only three laps down to the A6-Am class winner last year so many it could be a surprise class winner but I think even the GT3-AM class is too far out of reach.

#70 Toksport WRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo2019
Drivers: Axcil Jefferies, Alexander Hrachowina, George Kurtz, Martin Konrad, Finlay Hutchison
Why this car could win: Jefferies has been developing as a GT3 driver and ran in the VLN Series last year. Hrachowina was a part of the A6-Am class winners in this race last year. Kurtz has run the World Challenge America Series in the past with some success. Hutchison is a young driver who has spent his time in Blancpain Endurance Series Silver Cup and GT4 European Series.
Why this car won't win: I think this team just will not have the legs for a 24-hour race. This is a line up that is pieced together and doesn't really have a lot of experience with each other.

#85 CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo2019
Drivers: Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Mike Hedlund, Shane Lewis, Joe Foster
Why this car could win: Putman, Espenlaub and Foster have plenty of experience in this series and this race. Hedlund is coming off an excellent season in the World Challenge America Series. Lewis has plenty of endurance race experience.
Why this car won't win: This car is one of the favorites for the class but an overall victory is a lot to ask for in this race.

#95 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (991 II)
Drivers: Eric Lux, Gerard Lopez, Tim Müller, Jürgen Härin, Will Bamber
Why this car could win: Earl Bamber Motorsport won last year's Bathurst 12 Hour in the team's first attempt.
Why this car won't win: Lightning does not typically strike twice and there are better line ups in this class.

Last year's victory for Audi gave the manufacture its second Dubai 24 Hour victory. Audi is still fourth all-time with Porsche sitting on five victories, Mercedes-AMG on four and BMW with three victories.

Seven of the previous 14 editions of the Dubai 24 Hour have seen the overall winner complete 600 laps or more. The record for laps completed is 628 laps set in 2012 with the Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG that Jeroen Bleekemolen, Sean Edwards, Thomas Jäger and Khaled Al Qubaisi drove.

The 15th Dubai 24 Hour will begin at 6:00 a.m. ET on Friday January 10th.

2019 Dubai 24 Hour Preview

For the 14th time the Dubai 24 Hour takes place at the crack of a New Year and breaks the slumber of winter. This twice-around-the-clock endurance race features a variety of automobiles but this preview will focus on the top class of GT3 machinery, split between A6-PRO and A6-AM. Seventeen previous overall winners are in the top class for this year's race. Between A6-PRO and A6-AM there are 23 cars representing seven manufactures.

A6-PRO
#2 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Hubert Haupt, Yelmer Buurman, Saud Al Faisal, Adam Christodoulou
Why this car could win: This team won last year! Albeit it Saud Al Faisal replaces Gabriele Piana in the lineup. Al Faisal, Haupt and Buurman won this race together in 2015 and also had a third place finish in this race in 2017. Black Falcon has won this race four times in the last seven years. Chrisodoulou is a late addition to his car and he won four races last year in the A6-AM class running with Charlie Putman, Charles Espenlaub and Joe Foster.
Why this car won't win: Repeating is hard to do and while it has occurred twice in the short history of this event, including once with Black Falcon, it is easier said than done and there are plenty of equal competition, including its sister car.

#3 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Luca Stolz, Khlaed Al Qubaisi, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating, Manuel Metzger
Why this car could win: See above. It is Black Falcon. This team has won this race before. It seems likely one of these two cars will end up on the podium. This team has had a car on the overall podium in this race for eight consecutive years. Al Qubaisi and Bleekemolen have won this race twice. Bleekemolen, Keating and Stolz are all familiar with one another from the IMSA North American Endurance Championship races. Stolz also won the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup championship in 2018.
Why this car won't win: Its sister car. A few other cars could top this one but I think this is one of the top contenders for the overall victory.

#7 WRT Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Mohammed Saud Fahad Al Saud, Michael Vergers, Christopher Mies, Dries Vanthoor
Why this car could win: This team has won this race before. Mies has won many endurance races before. He is a two-time 24 Hours Nürburgring winner and a two-time Bathurst 12 Hour winner. Mies and Vanthoor were co-drivers in the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup last year.
Why this car won't win: It might be too top heavy with Mies and Vanthoor and I am not sure those two can carry the load.

#9 BWT Mücke Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Markus Winkelhock, Mike-David Ortmann, Andreas Weishaupt, Stefan Mücke, Ricardo Feller
Why this car could win: Winkelhock has won the Spa 24 Hours twice and the 24 Hours Nürburgring three times. Mücke has plenty of success with the factory Aston Martin and factory Ford program.
Why this car won't win: It is a good lineup but not a great lineup.

#11 Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3
Drivers: Jirí Písarík, Josef Kral, Matteo Malucelli
Why this car could win: On paper, none of these drivers standout to you but Scuderia Praha won three 24H Series races in 2017 and three in 2018. The team has skipped the Dubai 24 Hours the last two years.
Why this car won't win: It would not be a surprise at all if this car won the race. It is a deep class.

#18 V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1
Drivers: Luc Braams, Wolf Nathan, Duncan Huisman, Nicky Pastorelli, Finlay Hutchison
Why this car could win: A pretty stable lineup that we see year in and year out with the same automobile.
Why this car won't win: This team has not had much success at Dubai and the Corvette just cannot compete with the German cars.

#23 KCMG Nissian GT-R Nismo GT3
Drivers: Alexandre Imperatori, Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Liberati, Philipp Wlazik
Why this car could win: A semi-impressive driver lineup with endurance race tested Imperatori and Jarvis. Jarvis has won at Le Mans in the LMP2 class, he was an Audi factory driver and he won the Suzuka 1000km.
Why this car won't win: A semi-unknown driver lineup with Liberati and Wlazik. Liberati won the GT Asia championship in 2016 but he does not have much endurance race experience. Wlazik has had success in Lamborghini Super Trofeo but this is another animal.

#24 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R
Drivers: Frederic Fatien, Jean-Pierre Valentini, Jordan Grogor, Nicky Pastorelli, Stuart Hall
Why this car could win: All of these drivers are 24H Series experienced drivers and have run Dubai before. Hall has experience with the factory Aston Martin driver.
Why this car won't win: The competition is too strong. This car was re-classified from an A6-AM. I am not sure it would finish ahead of the top five A6-AM finishers.

#35 KCMG Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3
Drivers: Katsumasa Chiyo, Tsugio Matsuda, Joshua Burdon, Shaun Thong, Andrea Gagliardini
Why this car could win: Matsuda is a Super GT champion, Super Formula champion and he has won in an LMP2 car in the WEC for KCMG. Chiyo has won the Bathurst 12 Hour and he was a Blancpain Endurance Cup champion. Burdon won in the Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 class with KCMG.
Why this car won't win: Similar to the other KCMG entry, half the driver lineup you are impressed with and the other half is unknown and you are not sure what to expect. Thong did win a GT Asia GT3 Pro-Am title but like Liberati, his endurance racing experience is limited.

#63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3
Drivers: Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart, Rolf Ineichen, Mark Ineichen
Why this car could win: GRT Grasser Racing Team has had plenty of endurance racing success. Bortolotti and Engelhart won the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup title in 2017 and Bortolotti and Rolf Ineichen won the GTD class last year at the 24 Hours of Daytona and last year this combination of drivers finished third overall at Dubai. Engelhart and the Ineichens won this race in 2014 driving for Stadler Motorsport.
Why this car won't win: A German manufacture has won every edition of the Dubai 24 Hour. This team could win the race. It is one of the favorites.

#66 Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Patrick Kujala, Adrian Amstutz, Kelvin van der Linde, Mattia Drudi, Stanislav Minsky
Why this car could win: Van der Linde is a rising young Audi driver with a 24 Hours Nürburgring victory and an ADAC GT Masters championship. Amstutz won the Dubai 24 Hour in 2014 with Stadler Motorsport and he and Kujala were champions together in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe's Pro-AM class.
Why this car won't win: It is a missing a veteran. If Christopher Haase or Christopher Mies was in this car or if Audi brought René Rast or Robin Frijns and put either in this car it would be a contender for the overall victory. I think it will be up there but would not be surprised if it fell just shy.

#88 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Dimitri Parhofer, Christopher Haase, Frédéric Vervisch, Rik Breukers
Why this car could win: Haase is one of Audi's best GT3 drivers and is coming off a victory in the California 8 Hours. He has two victories in the 24 Hours Nürburgring, a victory in the Spa 24 Hours and a victory in the Sepang 12 Hours. Vervisch has been good in GT3 competition but not great. He and Haase have experience together as co-drivers.
Why this car won't win: This isn't even the best Audi with a driver named Christopher.

#99 Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Stanislav Minsky, Klaus Bachler, Nicholas Foster, Steijn Schothorst, Marvin Dienst
Why this car could win: This is a young but successful team. Foster won the Australian Porsche Carrera Cup championship in 2015, has raced in the WEC and he is still only 25 years old. Dienst won twice last season in the WEC. Schothorst finished third in his first season of Blancpain GT Sprint Cup competition and he won at Zolder. Bachler has raced in the WEC and Porsche Supercup regularly.
Why this car won't win: This team is good on paper but I think it lacks the chemistry needed to win a 24-hour race.

A6-AM
#10 Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Michael Kroll, Chantal Prinz, Alexander Prinz, Kenneth Heyer, Christiaan Frankenhout
Why this car could win: Hofor-Racing is a perennial 24H Series AM class race winner. It has won plenty of races. It has won its class at Dubai before.
Why this car won't win: The Pro class is too deep to win overall but it would not be surprising if this car ended up in the top five overall and won the A6-AM class.

#12 Target Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3
Drivers: Dennis Lind, Giacomo Altoé, Timur Boguslavskiy, Stefano Costantini, Alex Autumn
Why this car could win: Lamborghini has produced a lot of successful GT3 entries.
Why this car won't win: This is a team of relative unknowns and it will not finish in the top five of the A6-AM class let alone on the top step of the overall podium.

#19 MP Motorpsort Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Daniël de Jong, Bert de Heus, Henk de Jong
Why this car could win: It is a Mercedes-AMG, which has success at Dubai. Daniël de Jong had minor success in single-seaters.
Why this car won't win: It isn't a deep lineup compared to the rest of the grid.

#25 HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Alexander Hrachowina, Martin Konrad, Bernd Schneider, Indy Dontje, Brice Bosi
Why this car could win: Schneider has won this race overall and he has won in almost everything he has drive. Dontje has been a quick, young driver for some time. HTP Motorsport has won in many different series across GT3 racing. Hrachowina and Konrad ran together in the International GT Open.
Why this car won't win: Hrachowina and Konrad are an amateur pair without much success against a grid of this capability.

#26 SAINTELOC Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Christian Kelders, Pierre-Yves Paque, Daniel Desbrueres, Nyls Stivenart, Simon Gachet
Why this car could win: Stivenart won the Blancpain GT Series Pro-Am title with Markus Winkelhock last year and Gachet finished 11th in the overall Blancpain GT Series with Christopher Haase as his co-driver for every race but the Spa 24 Hours.
Why this car won't win: Mostly amateurs that have not had success on their own.

#33 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Simon Reicher, Murad Sultanov, Martin Berry, Klaus Koch, Philipp Sager
Why this car could win: It is a team that has 24H Series experience.
Why this car won't win: Here...

#34 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff, Gustav Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm, Ingo Vogler
Why this car could win: Edelhoff, Grimm and Vogler won twice in the A6-Am class during the 2018 season.
Why this car won't win: The field is too deep for this entry to win.

#85 CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster, Shane Lewis
Why this car could win: Putman, Espenlaub and Foster have had success in many different classes across the 24H Series. Those three won four races last year in the A6-AM class. Lewis is the one change from the line-up, in for Adam Christodoulou.
Why this car won't win: It would not be crazy if this car won in class. If this entry does not win the class it is because there are three or four better cars in this given race.

#91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R
Drivers: Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer
Why this car could win: This team won at Dubai in 2017 and that year it won four of seven 24H Series races. Last year, the team took a slight step back and only won two of eight 24H Series races.
Why this car won't win: It doesn't have Brendon Hartley like it did in 2017.

#92 Team Porsche Centre Hong Kong Porsche 911 GT3 R
Drivers: Frank Yu, Jonathan Hui, Antares Au, Kevin Wing Kin Tse
Why this car could win: It is on the grid and there is a chance all the other cars break down.
Why this car won't win: There are 22 other cars on the entry list.

Porsche leads all manufactures with five victories in this event. Last year was Mercedes-Benz's fourth victory. BMW has three victories but does not have a car entered in the A6 class this year. BMW has not won this event since 2011. Audi's only victory was in 2016.

Last year's race saw the winning Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG complete 606 laps, the third most in the history of the event. Second most was done in 2010 when IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche completed 608 laps. Black Falcon set the record for most laps completed in 2012 with 628.

Fifteen different nationalities have won this event overall. No driver has won this race more than twice. Al Faisal, Haupt, Buurman, Al Qubaisi and Bleekemolen are all two-time winners entered in this year's race and all drive for Black Falcon.

The 14th Dubai 24 Hour starts at 6:00 a.m. ET on Friday January 11th.

2018 Dubai 24 Hour Preview: Part II (Everybody Else)

Last week, we took a look at all A6 class entries for the 2018 Dubai 24 Hour. Today, we are going to highlight some of the other entries from the other eight classes. Four of these eight classes, the first four to be specific, belong to the 24H GT Series while the other four classes, the bottom, are apart of the Touring Car Endurance Series. Each class description will be included below and here are another 23 cars to keep an eye on.

SPX: Special cars which are not accepted in any other class (e.g. GT-, Silhouette), Weight/HP-ratio: approx. 2.5-2.9 Kg/HP

#10 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo
Drivers: Oliver Webb, Lim Keong Wee, Melvin Moh, Aleksander Schjerpen, Tadas Volbikas
Why you should watch this car: Webb has won the Dubai 24 Hour overall previously. Schjerpen won in the SP3 class in 2016.

#60 LAMERA-CUP Lamera Cup
Drivers: Wilfried Merafina, Pierre Couasnon, Christophe Bouchet, Philippe Marie
Why you should watch this car: I had no knowledge of what a Lamera Cup car was prior to looking at the entry list. Apparently, if my translation is accurate, this is an entry-level series for aspiring endurance racing drivers. I am still not sure what the car is or what it is capable of but this is one of three in the race and the other two are in the SP3 class. This car has the most notable name and that is Christophe Bouchet, who can be interesting at times.

#87 GDL Racing Middle East Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo 
Drivers: Frank Pelle, Vic Rice, Massimo Vignali, Rory Penttinen
Why you should watch this car: This team won in this class last year with all the drivers above but Vignali.

#88 Speed Lover Porsche 991 Cup MR I
Drivers: Pierre-Yves Paque, Jean-Michael Gerome, Christian Kelders, Daniel Disburser
Why you should watch this car: The SPX class was only contested in three 24H Series rounds in 2017 and two of those were non-championship races. Speed Lover won both the non-championship races that were apart of the 2x5H Spa-Francorchamps. Paque is the only carry over driver from Spa-Francorchamps.

Class 991: Porsche 991 Cup Cars (Type 991-I and 991-II) (* - AM entry)

#62 FACH AUTO TECH Porsche 991-II Cup
Drivers: Matt Campbell, Julien Andlauer, Thomas Preining, Jens Richter
Why you should watch this car: Campbell is a name to keep an eye on. At 22 years old, he has won Australian Porsche Carrera Cup championship, he finished second overall at the Bathurst 12 Hour last year and he finished third in the 2017 Porsche Supercup championship but ended the season with three consecutive victories.

#63 race:pro motorsport 991-II Cup
Drivers: Stanislav Minsky, Murad Sultanov, Klaus Bachler, David Jahn, Nicholas Foster
Why you should watch this car: Bachler has been done a good job in a number of Porsches across FIA World Endurance Championship and Porsche Supercup.

#82 RScar Motorsport Porsche 991-I Cup
Drivers: Artem Soloviev, Vadim Meshcheriakov, Denis Gromov
Why you should watch this car: There are only three 991-PRO entries so if neither of the first two cars win than here is your winner.

#26 MRS GT-Racing Porsche 991-II Cup
Drivers: Stephen Grove, Bertram Hornung, Matthias Jeserich
Why you should watch this car: Speaking of Australian Porsche Carrera Cup, Grove won the 2017 Australian Porsche Carrera Cup Challenge class championship. He also won the B class at the 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour.

#67 race:pro motorsport Porsche 991-II Cup
Drivers: James Thorpe, Sean McInerney, Phil Quaife, Claudio Cappelli
Why you should watch this car: Quaife has run for Duel Racing in recent years and even won the TCR class championship in 2016 but he has now moved on.

#95 Duel Racing Porsche 991-I Cup
Drivers: Ramzi Moutran, Nabil Moutran, Sami Moutran, Jules Westwood
Why you should watch this car: This team with the three Moutrans won three of six TCR races on the way to the class championship in 2016. It made only one start in 2017 and that was at Dubai in the 991 class.

SP2: Special cars which are not accepted in any other class (e.g. GT-, Silhouette), Weight/HP-ratio: approx. 3.0-3.4 Kg/HP

#58 VDS Racing Adventures MARC Focus V8
Drivers: Raphaël van der Straten, Karim Al Azhari, Grégory Paisse, Wolfgang Haugg, José Close
Why you should watch this car: Normally we see the MARC cars at the Bathurst 12 Hour but those cars are seeing the world. It had cars at the California 8 Hours and 24H COTA. It will be interesting to see how it does in Dubai.

#246 KTM MMotorsport Australia KTM X-BOW
Drivers: Justin McMillan, Glen Wood, Nico Pronk, Peter Kox
Why you should watch this car: You should always keep an eye on a KTM and the team has drafted in Kox, a driver with lots of sports car experience.

GT4: GT4 Homologated cars

#40 Brookspeed International Motorsport Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR
Drivers: James McGuire, Ian James, Matt Bell, John Schauerman
Why you should watch this car: The team ended 2017 with a victory at Circuit of the Americas. This is a completely different driver line-up but James had a tremendous 2017 season in Pirelli World Challenge's GTS class and Matt Bell isn't a shabby driver either.

#84 Team RACE SCOUT by Winward / HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT R SP-X
Drivers: Russell Ward, Bryce Ward, Christian Gebhardt, Bernd Schneider, Norberto Fontana
Why you should watch this car: This car had a good showing at Austin and while Russell Ward is the only hold over, it will have Schneider getting into the car I guess when he isn't better with the A6 entry for HTP Motorsport and a former Formula One driver in Fontana. It isn't the sexiest name but anytime there is a Formula One experienced driver in the field you are interested.

#241 ALFAB Racing McLaren 570S GT4
Drivers: Erik Behrens, Daniel Ros, Fredrik Ros, Anders Levin
Why you should watch this car: I know nothing about any of these drivers but I do know it is the only McLaren at Dubai and it is resembles the Swedish flag. You can't miss it.

#248 Phoenix Racing: Audi R8 LMS GT 
Drivers: Adderly Fong, Marchy Lee, Shaun Thong, Darryl O'Young, Charles Kwan
Why you should watch this car: Phoenix Racing is a top Audi team and this all-Hong Kongese line-up has two respectable drivers in Fong and O'Young. Lee won the Audi R8 LMS Cup title in 2012. Thong won the GT Asia Pro-Am title in 2016. It wouldn't be surprising if this car won the class.

TCR: TCR-certified Cars (Touring cars, Supercharged)

#130 Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR SEQ
Drivers: Luca Engstler, Florian Thoma, Benjamin Leuchter, Jean-Karl Vernay
Why you should watch this car: Vernay won the 2017 TCR International Series championship and Engstler finished 12th in the ADAC TCR Germany Touring Car Championship at 17 years old, two positions behind Thoma while Leucter won the TCR class championship in the VLN.

#216 Modena Motorsports SEAT León TCR V3 SEQ
Drivers: Wayne Shen, John Shen, Francis Tjia, Benny Simonsen, Mathias Beche
Why you should watch this car: This team won at Circuit Paul Ricard last year and it has brought in prototype expert Beche back in for a second consecutive year.

#308 Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup
Drivers: Guillaume Roman, Oliver Baron, Michael Carlsen, Kim Holmgaard
Why you should watch this car: This car closed out the 2017 season by winning the final two TCR races and Team Altran Peugeot won three of six races. Holmgaard and Roman each had two victories while Carlsen won once.

#908 Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup
Drivers: Lionel Amrouche, Cyril Calmon, Henrik Sørensen, Aram Martoussian
Why you should watch this car: Like I said, Team Altran Peugeot won three of six races in 2017. Sørensen won twice in 2017 in the A2 class.

SP3: Special Cars which are not accepted in any other class (mainly Touring Cars), Weight/HP-ratio: approx. 3.5-4.0 Kg/HP

#229 Century Motorsport Ginetta G55
Drivers: Nathan Freke, Jon Barnes, Mark Farmer, Dominic Paul
Why you should watch this car: Century Motorsport won this class in 2016 with Freke as one of its drivers.

CUP1: BMW M235i Racing Cup: 3000cc Twin Turbo

#154 QSR Racingschool BMW M235i Racing Cup
Driver: Jimmy de Breucker, Mario Timmers, Rodrigue Gillion, Tom Boonen, Simon Kiemund
Why you should watch this car: QSR won the CUP1 class at Dubai in 2016 and de Breucker and Timmers were two of the drivers of that entry.

A2: Petrol Touring Cars up to 2000cc & Supercharged up to 1650cc, Diesel up to 2000cc

#171 Jönsson Consulting Peugeot RCZ
Drivers: Søren Jönsson, Lars Mogensen, Niels Nyboe, Christian Hansen, Kasper Bruun
Why you should watch this car: The team won three of four A2 races in 2017.

The Dubai 24 Hours will start at 5:00 a.m. ET on Friday January 12th.

2018 Dubai 24 Hour Preview: Part I (A6 Class)

The season of previews continues and we have the first endurance race of the season on the cards. The January jewel in the Persian Gulf, the Dubai 24 Hour returns for the 13th consecutive year. The race is still a week away but there is so much to cover that the race has to be previewed now. Once again, this event has an impressive entry list of drivers and for the second consecutive year this preview has to be broken into two parts.

This part features the A6 class, both PRO entries and AM entries. The A6 class is predominantly filled with GT3 entries and it is the class that will likely take the overall victory. Twenty-five cars are entered in the A6 class for the 2018 race with 11 PRO entries and 15 AM entries. This preview will look at each entry; give you the drivers entered for each car, a reason why that car could win the Dubai 24 Hour and a reason why that car won't win the Dubai 24 Hour. We will start with the Pro entries.

Note that this is using the entry list of Friday January 5th and could be changed in the coming week.

A6-PRO
#2 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Hubert Haput, Yelmer Buurman, Gabriele Paiani
Why this car could win: Black Falcon has won this race three times and Al Faisal, Haupt and Buurman won in 2015 with Oliver Webb. This team also finished third last year, the top Mercedes.
Why this car won't win: Mercedes-AMG has not won the last two years at Dubai and the manufacture didn't win a 24H Series race overall in 2017. Plus, the #2 Mercedes has a very tough teammate.

#3 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Khaled Al Qubaisi, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Luca Stolz, Manuel Metzger
Why this car could win: Al Qubaisi and Bleekemolen won the 2012 and 2013 Dubai 24 Hour. Bleekemolen is one of the more underrated GT drivers in the world. Metzger won the 2016 24 Hours Nürburgring with Black Falcon
Why this car won't win: Stolz is the young driver in the group and I don't want to say he is the weakest link. This could be his breakout race.

#5 Ram Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Remon Leonard Vos, Tom Onslow-Cole, Euan Hankey
Why this car could win: Tom Onslow-Cole won the 2015 24H Series A6 class champion and Euan Hankey finished second in the 2017 European Le Mans Series GT championship. Leonard Vos and Onslow-Cole finished fourth last year in the 12H Mugello and third in the 12H Imola.
Why this car won't win: The Dubai 24 Hour has only been won by a team of three drivers once and that was 2010. A British team has never won the Dubai 24 Hour.

#8 Lambda Performance Ford GT Lambda
Drivers: Nico Verdonck, Frank Kechele, Csaba Walter, Daniel Keilwitz
Why this car could win: Keilwitz finished second in the 2017 ADAC GT Masters championship and this could be a breakout year for the soon-to-be Pirelli World Challenge driver. Nico Verdonck has sports car experience. Verdonck and Kechele drove this car to a seventh and second-place finish in the 2015 ADAC GT Masters season finale at Hockenheim.
Why this car won't win: I don't know about this car. Lambda ran this car sporadically in ADAC GT Masters from 2012 to 2015. It had some good races but I think it is asking at lot for this to win a 24-hour race.

#9 BWT Mücke Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Markus Winkelhock, Mike-David Ortmann, Andreas Weishaupt, Ricardo Feller, Christer Jöns
Why this car could win: Winkelhock is one of Audi's top drivers. Jöns has won at Bathurst and the Nürburgring. Weishaupt won the ADAC GT Masters Gentleman Class championship in 2015. Feller and Ortmann are two younger drivers with Feller driving for the Audi Sport racing academy and Ortmann having run Formula 4
Why this car won't win: This might be a line-up where, while being balanced between experienced drivers and young drivers, it could lack the depth needed compared to some of the other A6 entries.

#12 Manthey Racing Porsche 991 GT3 R
Drivers: Otto Klohs, Lars Kern, Matheiu Jaminet, Sven Müller
Why this car could win: This is as close to a factory team as you can get. Jaminet and Müller are two of the top young Porsche drivers and this race could be a breakout for both of them. Klohs and Müller finished second in last year's race driving for Manthey.
Why this car won't win: Porsche won last year and the last three Dubai 24 Hours have been won by three different manufactures.

#20 D'station Racing Porsche 991 GT3 R
Drivers: Satoshi Hoshino, Seiji Ara, Tomonobu Fujii, Tsubasa Kondo
Why this car could win: Ara has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Fujii has won multiple 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Ara, Hoshino and Kondo finished third in the 2017 Super Taikyu ST-X championship.
Why this car won't win: This is a big step up for this team and to win this race with the depth of the field is a major task.

#28 GP Extreme Renault RS01 GT3
Drivers: Jean-Pierre Valentini, Axcil Jefferies, Nicky Pastorelli, Alban Varutti
Why this car could win: This might be one of the best looking cars on the grid. The car has won races in the International GT Open. Pastorelli has Dubai 24 Hour experience and ran a handful of Champ Car races in 2006. Jefferies has run Formula Two races and Indy Lights and he has moved onto Lamborghini Super Trofeo. Valentini and Jeffries ran together for GP Extreme at Circuit Paul Ricard and Portimão with Pastorelli joining the team in Portugal.
Why this car won't win: It is an inexperienced line-up plus I don't think the car can beat the German manufactures.

#96 Optimum Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Christopher Haase, Bradley Ellis, Oliver Wilkinson
Why this car could win: Haase is a marvel in endurance races and there aren't many he hasn't won. However, this is one missing from his trophy case and I am sure he will be motivated. Haase and Optimum Motorsport finished fourth last year at Dubai. Ellis won the 2007 British GT Championship. Wilkinson ran in GT4 with Optimum Motorsport at Portimão last year.
Why this car won't win: We have already covered three-drive line-ups and I think Ellis and Wilkinson are at least a year away from being able to win this race.

#777 MS7 by WRT Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Mohammed Bin Saud Al Saud, Michael Vergers, Dries Vanthoor, Christopher Mies
Why this car could win: Like Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies has won his fair share of endurance races and he too has not won the Dubai 24 Hour. Dries Vanthoor had a good season in the Blancpain GT Series last year. Vergers and Al Saud finished sixth in this race last year with Marcel Fässler as one of their co-drivers.
Why this car won't win: This is a good line-up and WRT won the 2016 Dubai 24 Hour. It is hard to come up with a reason why this car won't win. If it doesn't win it is because it is outright beat or something breaks.

#964 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3
Drivers: Mark Ineichen, Rolf Ineichen, Christian Engelhart, Mirko Bortolotti
Why this car could win: This team won last year's Blancpain GT Series champions and the Ineichen won the 2014 Dubai 24 Hour. GRT Grasser Racing Team's Blancpain GT Series title broke a stranglehold German manufactures on the championship.
Why this car won't win: Every Dubai 24 Hour has been won by a German manufacture. The top finishing Lamborghini last year was the SPX-class winning Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo, 18th overall, and the top A6 class Lamborghini was 21st overall.

A6-AM
#1 Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Michael Kroll, Chantal Kroll, Roland Eggimann, Kenneth Heyer, Christiaan Frankenhout
Why this car could win: Hofor-Racing is the dominant team in 24H Series. It won four of seven A6-AM races last year and the team has won the A6-AM class the last two years.
Why this car won't win: It hasn't be able to beat the Herberth Motorsport Porsche for overall victories and the A6 class grid is much deeper than most 24H Series races.

#7 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Kriton Lendoudis, Rui Águas, Saud Al Faisal, Saeed Al Mouri
Why this car could win: Black Falcon always fields contenders and Águas has been a successful GT driver.
Why this car won't win: It is an inexperienced line-up and will struggle to beat its teammates.

#16 SPS automotive performance Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Valentin Pierburg, Tim Müller, Lance David Arnold, Dominik Baumann
Why this car could win: Arnold, Müller and Pierburg have been regular Dubai 24 Hour competitors.
Why this car won't win: This car isn't even in the top five best Mercedes-AMGs.

#18 V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1
Drivers: Luc Braams, Duncan Huisman, Alex van t'Hoff, Rick Abresch, Finlay Hutchison
Why this car could win: V8 Racing always brings a Corvette and it always runs well for part of the Dubai 24 Hour.
Why this car won't win: It hasn't run well for the entire Dubai 24 Hour and it is outnumbered by German cars.

#19 MP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Daniel de Jong, Henk de Jong, Bert de Heus
Why this car could win: Daniel de Jong has had success in junior formula racing and MP Motorsport has fielded some good junior formula programs.
Why this car won't win: Three drivers and this is an all-Dutch line-up and no Dubai 24 Hour overall winner has had all its drivers hail from the same country.

#24 SPS automotive performance Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Alexandre Coigny, Iradj Alexander, Richard Feller, Antonin Borga
Why this car could win: It is another Dubai 24 Hour regular.
Why this car won't win: See its teammate plus it is an all-Swiss line-up and what did we say with the MP Motorsport entry?

#25 HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Alexander Hrachowina, Indy Dontje, Bernd Schneider, Martin Konrad, Brice Bosi
Why this car could win: Schneider has won this race prior and Dontje is an up-and-coming driver. HTP Motorsport has been a successful team in GT3 endurance racing.
Why this car won't win: I don't think the line-up is going to beat some of the big boys.

#27 GP Extreme Renault RS01 GT3
Drivers: Frédéric Fatien, Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall, Jordon Grogor
Why this car could win: Hall and Goethe have been Aston Martin factory drivers and won the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship GTE-AM championship. Fatien and Grogor have been regular 24H Series competitors.
Why this car won't win: I will say this team is a sleeper but, as with its sister car, it has a mighty task to top the German manufactures.

#33 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Dirg Parhofer, Dimitri Parhofer, Rémi Terrail, Ali Çapan, Frank Stippler
Why this car could win: The car also won in A6-AM at Imola and Dimitri Parhofer was one of the drivers to win at Imola. Car Collection Motorsport did win in A6-AM at Circuit of the Americas in November.
Why this car won't win: The field is really deep and this is a driver line-up that hasn't spent a lot of time together.

#34 Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS
Drivers: Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff, Gustav Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm, Ingo Vogler, Wiggo Dalmo
Why this car could win: This is the team that won at Circuit of the Americas with the exception being Dalmo in for Max Edelhoff. This is an experienced group of drivers.
Why this car won't win: The field is a lot deeper that it was in Texas.

#66 Attempto Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3
Drivers: 
Why this car could win: Without any drivers I am not sure I can find a reason why it could.
Why this car won't win: It is hard to win without any drivers.

#85 PROsport Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3
Drivers: Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster, Adam Christodoulou
Why this car could win: Putman, Espenlaub and Foster are making the step up after winning the 2017 24H Series 991 class championship. Christodoulou finished on the Dubai 24 Hour A6-PRO podium twice and he has class victories in the 24 Hours Nürburgring.
Why this car won't win: It is a big step up from 991 class to A6 however I would not be surprised if this car does well because the drivers take care of it and doesn't put it in a position it shouldn't be in.

#911 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R
Drivers: Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer, Dennis Olsen
Why this car could win: This is the defending Dubai 24 Hour winner and outside of Brendon Hartley exiting for Dennis Olsen, it is the same line-up. Olsen finished second in the 2017 Porsche Supercup and he won three races. This team won four 24H Series races last year.
Why this car won't win: Repeating is difficult and only twice has a team successfully defended a Dubai 24 Hour victory.

#963 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3
Drivers: Mark Ineichen, Roberto Pampanini, Christoph Lenz, Mauro Calamia, Rik Breukers
Why this car could win: Ineichen has won the Dubai 24 Hour before. Breukers is making a step up and GRT Grasser Racing Team is a top team.
Why this car won't win: It is the second-best of the Grasser Lamborghinis.

#991 Gulf Racing Japan Porsche 911 GT3 R
Drivers: John Wartique, Nicolas Saelens, Philipp Sager, Hisashi Kunie, Kimihiro Yashiro
Why this car could win: Gulf Racing Japan finished eighth in the Super GT Series GT300 championship. Plus, the car is in the famous Gulf Racing livery. That has to given them an extra couple tenths of a second.
Why this car won't win: Not the most experienced line-up and a livery can only do so much.

Coming next week we will be a look at a handful of other interesting Dubai 24 Hour entries from the other eight classes.

2017 Dubai 24 Hour Preview: Part II (Everybody Else)

Part one of the 2017 Dubai 24 Hour Preview featured the top class in the race, the A6 class, and part two will look at selected entries across the other eight classes that will be on the grid.

In the SPX class, four entries to keep an eye on are the #10 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo, the #19 Eurotrac (by Bas Koeten) Dodge Viper, the #24 GPC Motorsport Vortex 1.0 and the #401 Schubert Motorsport BMW. Oliver Webb won overall in 2015 with Black Falcon and he will led the #10 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini effort with Jake Rattenbury, Jean-Charles Perrin and Harald Schlotter. Alexandre Colgny, Gino Forgone, Iradj Alexander and Tom Dyer won at the 24H Barcelona last September in the A6-Am class and will be driving the #24 Vortex 1.0. Eurotrac (by Bas Koesten) features an all-Dutch line-up as Daniel de Jong, Ivo Breuker, Bert de Heus and Leon Rijnbeek will drive the #19 Dodge Viper. BMW debuts its M4 GT4 this weekend with the #401 Schubert Motorsport BMW of Jens Klingmann, Jörg Müller and Ricky Collard. Klingmann raced last year with Turner Motorsports in the IMSA GT Daytona class while Müller contested in Super GT's GT300 class with Team Studie. Collard finished second in the 2016 BRDC Formula 3 Championship.

There are four entries in the 991 class to keep an eye on. Along with its two Mercedes in the A6 class, Black Falcon has entered two Porsches in this class. Anders Fjordbach and Saud Al Faisal won the 997 class in the 2015 race and they will lead the #68 Black Falcon Porsche with Saeed Al Mouri and Alexander Toril rounding out the line-up. Burkard Kaiser, Sören Spreng, Miguel Toril and Bandar Alesayi will drive the #69 Black Falcon Porsche.

Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster and Andy Pilgrim are all notable names in American sports car racing and the four drivers split the #85 PROsport Performance Porsche. Putman, Espenlaub and Foster won the 991 class at the 12H Mugello last year.

Memac Oglivy Duel Racing won the TCR class last year at Dubai and the team steps up to the 991 class with the #95 Porsche with last year's winning combination of Phil Quaife, Ramzi Moutran, Nail Moutran and Sami Moutran all returning.

In the SP2 class, the #247 Reiter Engineering KTM features a driver line-up that is very familiar for Pirelli World Challenge fans. Antony Mantella, Dore Chaponick, Jr, Brett Sandberg and Benjamin Mazatia share the KTM. Sandberg is coming off winning the PWC GTS championship in an ANSA Motorsports KTM after three victories. Mantella had one victory last year in GTS while Chaponick, Jr. had six top ten finishes in ten starts.

Next to A6, the largest class is the SP3-GT4 class, which features 18 entries. Jann Mardenborough leads the #123 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan effort with fellow Nissan GT Academy drivers Ricardo Sanchez, Romain Sarazin and Johnny Guindi rounding out the line-up. Manthey Racing has entered a Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport with Heinz Schmersal, Friedhelm Mihm, Markus von Oeynhausen, Wolfgang Kemper and Sebastian Kemper as the drivers in the #242 Porsche. Reiter Engineering has a KTM X-BOW GT4 entered in this class with an all-female driver line-up. Caitlin Wood, Anna Rathe, Naomi Schiff and Marylin Niederhauser are entered in the #246 KTM.

NASCAR driver and 2015 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America amateur champion Brandon Gdovic will drive the #178 CWS Ginetta with Colin White, Tom Hibbert and Mike Simpson. The #249 Newbridge Motorsport - OCC Lasik Racing Porsche has an all-American driver line-up with Derek Welch, Jeffrey Stammer and Mathew Keegan. The #250 Rotek Racing Porsche has two American drivers, James Maguire and John Schauerman as well as American sports car racing regulars Nico Rondet and Ian James as well as Argentine Roy Block.

Two TCR entries to keep an eye on are the #100 Team Bleekemolen SEAT and #216 Modena Motorsports SEAT. Michael Bleekemolen returns with his son Sebastian and fellow Dutch drivers Dennis de Borst and Aart-Jan Ringelberg. Rebellion Racing's Mathias Beche joins the #216 SEAT line-up with Canadians Wayne and John Shen and Dutchman Francis Tjia.

Team Altran Peugeot won five of seven times in the A3 class last year in the 24H Series including at Dubai and the team has entered two Peugeot 208 GTis. Thierry Blaise, Guillaume Roman and Kim Holmgaard look for their second consecutive Dubai class victory with Michael Carlsen joining them in the #308 Peugeot. Yusif Bassil, Thierry Boyer, Gonzalo Martin de Andres and Loïc Dupont will drive the #908 Peugeot.

In the CUP1 class, the Belgian #154 QSR BMW returns defending its class victory with Jimmy de Breaker and Mario Timmers returning alongside new co-drivers Rodrigue Gillion and Kevin Kenis making it an all-Belgian driver line-up.

Team Clio Cup France presents the top three from the 2016 Renault Clio Cup France championship with Eric Tremoulet, Jimmy Clairet and Teddy Clairet as well as Jeremy Sarhy and Pascal Arellano in the #165 Renault Clio Cup IV. There are two other Renault Clio Cup IVs entered in the A2 class, the #112 Stanco&Tanner Motorsport Renault for Stefan Tanner, Luigi Stanco, Ralf Henggeler, Andy Mollison and Nicklas Oscarsson and the #172 Team Cooksport Renault for Alex Sedgwick, Shane Deegan, Oliver Cook, Jonathan Maybin and Josh Cook.

The 2017 Dubai 24 Hours will start at 5:00 a.m. ET on Friday January 13th.

2017 Dubai 24 Hour Preview: Part I (A6 Class)

This weekend marks the 12th running of the Dubai 24 Hour from the Dubai Autodrome. Ninety-eight cars are entered across nine classes. Part one of the 2017 Dubai 24 Hour preview will focus on the A6 class, which features 24 entries.

Belgian Audi Club WRT won last year's race and Stuart Leonard is the only returning of the four drivers that were apart of last year's victories team. Joining Leonard in the #4 Audi will be the defending Blancpain GT Sprint Series champion Enzo Ide, 2015 Blancpain GT Series champion and current Andretti Autosport Formula E driver Robin Frijns, defending ADAC GT Masters Series champion Christopher Mies and Ruben Maes. Last year's victory was the first for Audi in the Dubai 24 Hour. The team has also entered the #5 Audi for Marcel Fässler, Michael Vergers, Mohammed Bin Saud Al Saud and Mohammed Bin Faisal Al Saud.

Black Falcon has won three of the previous five Dubai 24 Hours. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi won in consecutive years in 2012 and 2013 and will pilot the #2 Mercedes alongside Patrick Assenheimer and Manuel Metzger. Yelmer Buurman, Abdulaziz Al Faisal and Hubert Haupt were all apart of the 2015 winning effort for Black Falcon and will drive the #3 Mercedes with Maro Engel and Michal Broniszewski.

Grasser Racing Team has entered two Lamborghinis and has four former Dubai 24 Hour winners in its stable. Christian Engelhart, Adrian Amstutz, Rolf Ineichen and Mark Ineichen all won the race in 2014 with Stadler Motorsports. Engelhart and the Ineichens are entered in the #963 Lamborghini while Engelhart and Rolf Ineichen are also entered in the #964 Lamborghini along side Amstutz and Ezequiel Companc. Mirko Bortolotti and Rik Breakers round out the #963 line-up.

Two-time Dubai 24 Hour winner Bernd Schneider returns in the #25 Mercedes for HTP Motorsport with 2009 winner Carsten Tilke, Wim de Pundert and Alexander Hrachowina rounding out the driver line-up. IMSA Performance won the 2010 edition of the Dubai 24 Hour and returns with the #76 Porsche. Raymond Narac is the only holdover from that 2010 victory with Thierry Cornac, Maxime Jousse and Mathieu Jaminet rounding out the all-French line-up.

Manthey Racing has entered the #12 Porsche for Sven Müller, Otto Klohs, Matteo Cairoli and Jochen Krumbach. Müller is the defending Porsche Supercup champion and defeated Cairoli by 12 points for the title. Müller won the 991 class in last year's Dubai 24 Hour. Porsche LMP1 driver Brendon Hartley will make his Dubai 24 Hour debut in the #911 Herberth Motorsport Porsche with co-drivers Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer and Alfred Renauer.

Hartley's former Formula Renault 3.5 rival Jean-Éric Vergne will also be making his Dubai 24 Hour debut as the former Toro Rosso and current Techeetah Formula E driver will be in the #28 GP Extreme Renault RS01 with defending Formula V8 3.5 vice-champion Louis Delétraz, former IndyCar driver Nicky Pastorelli and Jordan Grogor. Frédéric Fatien, Tiziano Carugati, Josh Webster and Stuart Hall make up the other line-up for GP Extreme's #27 Renault RS01.

Two other Lamborghinis are also entered by Austrian teams. The #7 HB Racing Lamborghini features Norbert Siedler, Sam Tordoff, Florian Spengler, Andrea Amici and Herbert Handlos. Konrad Motorsport has entered the #21 Lamborghini for Marc Basseng, Marco Mapelli, Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz and Franz Konrad.

Christopher Haase leads the driver line-up for the #14 Optimum Motorsport Audi. Joe Osbourne, Flick Haigh and Ryan Ratcliffe join the German in the car. SPS automotive-performance has entered the #16 Mercedes, which features Tom Onslow-Cole, Tim Müller, Lance-David Arnold and Valentin Pierburg.

Hofor-Racing won the 2016 24H Series A6 championship and in the #1 Mercedes for Dubai will be Michael Kroll, Chantal Kroll, Roland Eggimann, Kenneth Heyer and Christiaan Frankenhout. This exact line-up won last year's A6-Am class in the Dubai 24 Hour. Car Collection Motorsport finished third to Hofor-Racing in the 2016 championship and Gustav Edelhoff, Max Edelhoff, Elmar Grimm, Ingo Vogler and Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff will drive the team's #34 Audi. Car Collection Motorsport has also entered the #33 Audi for Daniel Diaz Varela, Toni Forné, Dimitri Parhofer, Peter Schmidt and Issac Tutumlu. The #17 IDEC Sport Racing Mercedes is another full-time 24H Series front-runner and features Patrice Lafargue, Paul Lafargue, Nicolas Minassian and Alban Varutti behind the wheel.

Wolf Henzler joins the class-winning Forch Racing powered by Olimp in the #29 Porsche with Polish drivers Robert Lukas and Marcin Jedlinski and Mexican driver Santiago Creel. Former Formula One driver Robert Kubica announced that he would also be in the #29 Porsche at Dubai. V8 Racing returns with the #18 Corvette for the all-Dutch line-up of Loris Hezemans, Wolf Nathan and Rick Abresch.

Rounding out the A6 entries are the #22 Gravity Racing International Mercedes for Vincent Radermecker, Gerard Lopez, Christian Kelders and Jarek Janis and the #66 Attempto Racing Porsche for Jürgen Häring, Mike Hansch, Dieter Ulrich, Peter Terting and Philipp Wlazik.

The Dubai 24 Hour will start at 5:00 a.m. ET on Friday January 13th. Part two of the preview will be posted tomorrow and highlight some of the other notable entries.

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Gives Audi First Dubai 24 Hour Victory

German manufacture dominance in the United Arab Emirates continues. The #19 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS of Laurens Vanthoor, Stuart Leonard, Michael Meadows and Alain Ferté won the Dubai 24 Hour, Audi's first victory in the event. All eleven editions of the two-around-the-clock endurance race has been won by a German manufacture.

The #19 Audi completed 588 laps and won by five laps over the #16 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Oliver Webb, Adam Christodoulou, Abdulaziz al Faisal, Oliver Morley and Frank Montecalvo. The #16 Mercedes started 98th on the grid after a fire during practice destroyed the team's first car. The team ended up using a show car to compete. The #4 C.ABT Racing Audi of Christer Jöns, Andreas Weishaupt, Issac Tutumlu, Matias Henkola and Daniel Abt rounded out the podium after completing 580 laps.

The #10 Hofor-Racing Mercedes of Michael Kroll, Chantal Kroll, Christiaan Frankenhout, Kenneth Heyer and Roland Eggiman finished fourth, ten laps down. The #10 Mercedes was the top A6-Am class finisher. Rounding out the top five was the #14 Optimum Motorsport Audi of Flick Haigh, Ryan Ratcliffe, Joe Osborne and Frank Stippler, 13 laps down. In sixth was the #22 Preci-Spark Mercedes of David Jones, Godfrey Jones, Morgan Jones, Philip Jones and Gareth Jones. The #34 Car Collection Motorsport Audi of Elmar Grimm, Ingo Vogler, Max Edelhoff, Gustav Edelhoff and Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff finished seventh, 15 laps down.

The first non-German manufacture was the #333 V8 Racing Corvette of Nicky Pastorelli, Alex van t'Hoff, Rich Abresch and Wolf Nathan in eighth after completing 572 laps. Two Lamborghini Huracán GT3s rounded out the top ten. The #7 HB Racing of Robert Renauer, Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn and Alfred Renauer finished ninth, 18 laps down with the #26 Konrad Motorsport entry of Rolf Ineichen, Mark Ineichen, Christian Engelhart, Fabio Babini and Franz Konrad rounding out the top ten, 19 laps down. The #26 Lamborghini had an engine failure while running third with less than a half hour to go.

In the 991 class, the #40 Lechner Racing Middle East Porsche of Jaap van Lagen, Saeed Al Mehairi, Bashar Mardini, Sven Mûller and Hasher Al Maktoum were victorious, finishing 11th overall and completing 568 laps.

The SP2 class winner was the #64 Porsche Lorient Racing Porsche of Frédéric Ancel, Christophe Bourret, Pascal Gibon, Jean-François Demorge and Philippe Polette. The French team finished 16th overall, completing 553 laps.

The #229 Century Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 of Anna Walewska, Nathan Freke, Aleksander Schjerpen and Tim Oliphant finished 24th and won the SP3 class after completing 536 laps.

The #1 Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing Seat León Cup of Ramzi Moutran, Nabil Moutran, Sami Moutran and Phil Quaife won the TCR class in 32nd, completing 524 laps.

In 34th, completing 521 laps, was the A3 class winning #208 Team Altran Peugeot of Kim Holmgaard, Guillaume Roman, Thierry Blaise and Stéphane Ventaja.

In A2 class, the #57 LAP57 Racing Team Honda Integra of Mohammed Al Owais, Abdullah Al Hammadi, Nadir Zuhour, Junichi Umemoto and Rupesh Channake won after completing 511 laps, 39th overall.

Finally, the #148 QSR BMW M235i of Pieter Vanneste, Jimmy de Breucker, Mario Timmers, Luc Moortgat and Dylan Derdaele won the Cup1 class, finishing 43rd and completed 505 laps.

The #19 Audi lead 279 laps. Vanthoor becomes the first Belgian to win the Dubai 24 Hour. Ferté became the first French driver to win the event since Patrick Pilet and Raymond Narac won in 2010 with Marco Holzer. Vanthoor and Leonard won the Dubai 24 Hour less than a month after winning Audi's first Sepang 12 Hours.

2016 Dubai 24 Hour Preview

The first major endurance race of 2016 takes place this weekend. The 11th Dubai 24 Hour starts on Friday and will run through Saturday. One hundred cars are entered for the opening round of the 2016 24H Series season. Twenty-nine cars are entered in the premier, GT3-spec A6 class, 12 are consider Pro cars.

Black Falcon Racing returns with three Mercedes to defend it's victory. The #2 Mercedes will be split by two-time Dubai 24 Hour winners Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled al Qubaisi, last year's winner Hubert Haupt, Maro Engel and Indy Dontje. The #3 Mercedes will feature Haupt and two of his co-drivers from last year's winning team, Abdulaziz Al Faisal and Yelmer Buurman as well as 2013 winner Bernd Schneider and Michal Broniszewski. The #16 Mercedes will be lead by the fourth driver from last year's winner team, Oliver Webb. Adam Christodoulou, Patrick Assenheimer, Oliver Morley and American Frankie Montecalvo will be the other driver in the #16 Mercedes.

The other American in the A6 class is Connor De Phillippi. The former Road to Indy driver will be in the #28 Land-Motorsport GmbH Audi R8 with Marc Basseng, Christopher Mies and 2009 winner Carsten Tilke. Car Collection Motorsport has entered two Audis of their own. The #33 Audi will feature Markus Winkelhock, 2011 winner Claudia Hürtgen, Heinz Schmersal, Pierre Ehret and Peter Schmidt. The #34 Audi will be driven by Ingo Volger, Elmar Grimm, Max Edelhoff, Gustav Edelhoff and Dr. Johannes Kirchoff. C.Abt Racing has entered the #4 Audi for Daniel Abt, Isaac Tutmulu, Matias Henkola, Andreas Weishaupt and Christer Jöns. Frank Stippler leads the #14 Optimum Motorsport Audi driver line-up with Flick Haigh, Ryan Ratcliffe and Joe Osborne as his co-drivers. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT has entered an Audi R8. The #19 Audi will be driven by Laurens Vanthoor, Michael Meadows, Stuart Leonard and Alain Ferté.

Three Porsche's are entered. Artthea Sport has entered a Porsche 911 GT America. The #45 will be shared by Jens Feucht, Klaus Werner and Martin Gøtsche and Nanna Gøtsche. Attempto Racing has entered two Porsche 997 GT3 Rs. The #66 will be driven by Sven Heyrowsky, Arkin Aka, Hans Wehrmann, Jürgen Häring and Edward Lewis Brauner and the #999 will be split by Dirk Vorländer, Dimitri Parhofer, Dirg Parhofer, Daniel Zampieri and Andreas Liehm.

Besides the three Black Falcon entries, there are eight other Mercedes in the A6 class this year. IDEC Sport Racing has entered the #17 for Frederic Yearly, Gabriel Abergel and Paul and Patrice Lafargue. Alex and Tim Müller will share the #27 SPS automotive-performance Mercedes with Lance-David Arnold and Valentin Pierburg. Gravity Racing International will have Vincent Radermercker, Christian Kelders, Gerard Lopez and Eric Lux drive the #6 Mercedes. The #10 Hofor-Racing Mercedes will be split by Christiaan Frankenhout, Kenneth Heyer, Roland Eggimann and Chantal and Michael Kroll.

V8 Racing has two cars entered but only one is a Mercedes. Duncan Huisman, Max and Luc Braams, Nick de Brujn and Pun JunJin will drive the #18 V8 Racing Mercedes. Preci-Spark's #22 Mercedes will be an all-English line-up with five Joneses: David, Godfrey, Morgan, Philip and Gareth. Ram Racing will have Paul White, Tom Onslow-Cole, 2012 winner Thomas Jäger, Stuart Hall and Roald Goethe in the #30 Mercedes. GDL Racing will have an all-Dutch line-up in the #67 Mercedes. Ivo and Rik Breakers, Renger van der Zande and Daniel de Jong will drive the GDL Racing entry.

A German manufacture has won all ten previous runnings of the Dubai 24 Hour.

Konrad Motorsport has entered a Lamborghini Huracán. The #26 features three winners from 2014: Christen Engelhart and Mark and Rolf Ineichen. Fabio Babini and Franz Konrad will also drive the #26. HB Racing has also entered a Huracán. The #4 Lamborghini will be driven by Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn and Robert and Alfred Renauer. The other Lamborghini in class is the #12 Huracán Trofeo, which belongs to Leipert Motorsport and will be driven by Mikhail Spiridonov, Frank Leone-Provost, Jean-Charles Perrin and Shahin Nouri.

Three Ferraris are entered for this year's race. The #11 Scuderia Praha Ferrari will be driven by Matteo Malucelli, Matteo Cressoni, Jiri Pisarik and Peter Kox. Dragon Racing has entered two Ferraris. Rob Barff, Jordan Grogor, Tiziano Carugati, Gino Forgone and Frederic Fatien will be in the #88. Matt Griffin, Alex Kapadia, John Hartshorne and Khaled Al Mudhaf will share the #888.

MRS GT-Racing has entered the #25 Nissan GT-R to be driven by Ahmed Bin Khanen, Bassam Kronfli, Ilya Melnikov and Tomonobu Fujii.

V8 Racing's second entry is the #333 Corvette that will be driven by Nicky Pastroelli, Alex van t'Hoff, Rick Abresch, Wolf Nathan and Miguel Ramos.

Boutsen Ginion Racing has entered the #8 Renault RS01 to be driven by Eric Vaissiere, Andre-Aain Corbel, Christophe de Fierlant and Daniel Waszczinski.

A few 991 class entries to watch for:

MRS GT-Racing has entered two Porsche 991 Cup cars. The #78 Porsche features Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Xavier Maasen and Joe Foster. Pitman, Espenlaub and Maassen won their class at the Gulf 12 Hours last month. Their other entry is the #46 Porsche, which will be driven by Guy Cosmo, Mauricio Hernandez, Yutaka Matsushima and Tomoyuki Takizawa.

Once Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Alex Tagliani will drive the #72 HRT Performance Porsche alongside José Luis Talermann, Kim André Hauschild, Jean-Frederic Laberge and Harald Hennes.

Former DTM and V8 Supercar driver Alexandre Prémat will drive the #35 B2F compétition Porsche with Bruno and Benoit Fretin and Michel Mitieus.

Porsche factory driver Sven Müller will be one of five drivers in the #40 Lechner Racing Middle East Porsche. Dutchman Jaap van Lagen and Emirati drivers Saeed Al Mehairi, Bashar Mardini and Hasher Al Maktoum will be Müller's co-drivers.

Black Falcon also has two cars entered in the 911 class. The #60 Porsche will be driven by Klaus Bachler, Burked Kaiser, Sören Spreng, Stanislav Minsky and Mark Wallenwein. The #61 will be shared by Anders Fjordbach, Saud Al Faisal, Manuel Metzger, Gerwin Schuring and Saaed Al Mouri.

The #63 MSG Motorsport Porsche will be driven by Dan Cammish, Luca Rettenbacher, Martin Konrad and Facu Regalia.

Nine of the previous ten Dubai 24 Hours have featured at least one German driver winning overall. The lone year a German was not on the top step of the podium was in 2008 when Australians Klark Quinn, Jonathon Webb, New Zealander Craig Baird and Briton Tony Quinn won in a Porsche.

While a German manufacture has won all ten editions, Audi has never won the event. Mercedes has won three of the past four years. Porsche has four victories, most recently in 2014 and BMW won three, most recently in 2011. Tommy Milner, the only American to win the event, was on that 2011 winning team with Hürtgen, Augusto Farfus and Edward Sandström.

Never has a Dubai 24 Hour winning team featured drivers all from the same country.

The 11th Dubai 24 Hour will begin at 5:00 a.m. ET Friday.

Black Falcon Obliterates Field in 2015 Dubai 24 Hour

The 10th anniversary Dubai 24 Hour was no contest as the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Yelmer Buurman, Oliver Webb, Hubert Haupt and Abdulaziz Al-Faisal led 550 of 604 on their way to victory, a record-setting third Dubai 24 Hour victory for the team. The #2 Mercedes led the final 329 laps as the German manufacture picked up their third Dubai 24 Hour victory, matching BMW and trailing only Porsche, which has won the Middle East endurance race four times.

Ram Racing made it a Mercedes 1-2 with the #30 Mercedes of Adam Christoudoulou, Tom Onslow-Cole, Thomas Jäger and Cheerag Ayra after completing 600 laps. The #88 Dragon Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Jordan Grogor, Matt Griffin, Rob Barff and Mohammad Jawa rounded out the podium, finishing nearly a minute and ten seconds behind the Ram Racing Mercedes.

The #28 KPM Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Paul White, Stefan Mücke and Jonathan Adam ran at the front all race, including leading 18 laps and finished fourth, eight laps down. Mücke set the fastest lap running a 1:59.545 on lap 419. The Nissan GT Academy Team RJN #23 Nissan GTR GT3 rounded out the top five, 13 laps down with Florian Strauss, Ricardo Sanchez, Ahmed Bin Khanen, Gaetien Paletou and Nick Hanmmann, the only American in the A6 class.

The #4 Scuderia Praha Ferrari of Jírí Písarík, Jaromír Jarik, Matteo Malucelli and Peter Kox finished 18 laps down in sixth with the #99 Attempto Racing Porsche 997 GT3 R of Philipp Wlazik, Bernd Kleinbach, Andreas Liehm, Bill Barazetti and Arkin Aka finishing two laps behind them in seventh and the #69 Gulf Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 GT3 of Stuart Hall, Jamie Campbell-Walter and Frederic Fatien finishing two laps behind the Porsche in eighth.

Black Falcon had two victories as their #26 Porsche 911 Cup of Andreas Fjordbach, Keita Sawa, Andreas Weishaupt and Saud Al Faisal won the 997 class, completing 580 laps and finishing ninth overall. The #25 Black Flacon Porsche driven by Christian Raubach, Manuel Metzger, Burked Kaiser and Gerwin Schuring finished second in the 997 class, ten overall and ten seconds behind the their teammates. Finishing 11th overall and rounding out the 997 class podium was the #7 Lechner Racing Middle East Porsche of Jaap Van Lagen, Klaus Blacher, Clemens Schmidt and Fahad Algosaibi.

Other class winners:

The #163 Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 of Salih Yoluc, Bradley Ellis, Euan Alers-Hankey and Adrian Barwick finishing 20th overall, winning the SP3 class.

The #76 Racingdivas by Las Moras BMW M235i Racing Cup of Lisette Braams, Sandra Van Der Sloot, Gaby Uljee and Maximilian Partl finished 23rd overall and won the CUP1 class.

Two positions behind the Racingdivas BMW was the A2 class winning #117 VDS Racing Adventures Honda Civic Type-R EP3 of José Close, Raphael van der Straten, Gregory Paisse and Michaël Divoy.

In 27th position was the A3T class winning #95 Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing Seat León Supercopa LR of Phil Quaife, Sami Moutran, Nabi Moutran and Ramzi Moutran.

The #91 MARC Cars Australia MARC Focus V8 of Keith Kassuike, Tony Alford, Leehmhuis Australia, Duvashen Padayachee and Tarek Elgammal won the SP2 class, finishing 33rd overall.

Finally, the #75 Hofor Kuepperracing BMW E46 M3 Coupe of Martin Kroll, Chantal Kroll, Sarah Toniutti, Bernd Küpper and American Hal Prewitt won the A5 class, finishing 34th overall.

This year's Dubai 24 Hour featured 12 lead changes with the #12 FACH Auto Tech Porsche of Martin Ragginger, Otto Klohs, Jens Richter and Sven Müller leading 35 laps but finishing 88th overall. The #3 Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon Mercedes of Khaled Al Qubaisi, Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Andreas Simonsen led one lap and finished 85th, completing only 88 laps.  The race featured 13 code 60s but zero full course cautions. Three hours, 19 minutes and 15 seconds of the 24 hours were run under code 60 conditions. The 89 starters completed a grand total 39,362 laps.

Black Falcon Mercedes Leads at 12 Hour Mark of Dubai 24 Hour

Having completed 298 laps, the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Hubert Haupt leads overall by two laps over Paul White in KPM Racing's #28 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The #2 Mercedes has lead 244 of 298 laps as the #28 Aston Martin has led 18 laps in the first half of the race. There were 12 lead changes in the first 12 hours.

Patrick Assenheimer is third having completed 295 laps in the #33 SPS Automotive-Performance Mercedes with Matt Griffin the #88 Dragon Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 17.744 seconds back of Assenheimer in fourth position. The #30 Ram Racing Mercedes rounds out the top five, four laps down with Adam Christodoulou behind the wheel.

The #23 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GTR GT3 is seven laps down with Gaetan Paletou in sixth with Johannes Waimer just over 17 seconds back in the #67 GDL Racing Mercedes. The top 997 class entry is the #26 Black Falcon Porsche 991 Cup of Keita Sawa in eighth position, eight laps down. Two laps back of the Porsche is Stuart Hall in the #69 Gulf Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 GT3. Rounding out the top ten overall is Bernd Kleinbach in the #99 Attempto Racing Porsche 997 GT3 R.

There were a few notable retirements before the first 100 laps had been completed. The #3 Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon Mercedes with 2013 race winners Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Quaisi and Andreas Simonsen retired after 88 laps while the defending Dubai 24 Hour winning #1 Stadler Motorsport Porsche was knocked out after 61 laps due to suspension failure.

Class leaders at the halfway mark of the Dubai 24 Hours:

The SP3 class leading #163 Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 of Bradley Ellis is 25th overall, having completed 267 laps.

Two laps back of the Ginetta, 26th overall is the SP2 class leading # 92 MARC Cars Australia Focus V8 of Tony Karanfilovski.

Sandra Van Der Sloot leads the CUP1 class in the #76 Racingdivas by Las Moras BMW M235i Racing Cup. The BMW is 30th overall, having completed 262 laps.

Two laps behind the CUP1 leading BMW is the A3T class leading #95 Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing Seat León Supercopa LR of Sami Moutran, 32nd overall.

Gregory Paisse is 34th overall in the A2 class leading #117 VDS Racing Honda Civic Type-R EP3 having completed 259 laps.

Chantal Kroll leads the A5 class, 38th overall in the #75 Hofor-Kuepperracing BMW E46 M3 Coupe having completed 257 laps.