2016 Sepang 12 Hours Preview

This weekend's Sepang 12 Hours marks the 17th running of the endurance race and this year's edition marks the third and final round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Thirteen of the twenty-car cars entered for the race belong to the GT3 class. Audi won last year's race with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and this year Audi is represented by two Team Phoenix entries. Laurens Vanthoor is the only returning driver from last year's winning driver combination and he will head the #15 Audi with Christopher Haase and Robin Frijns joining him as co-drivers. Haase won the 2010 Sepang 12 Hours with Peter Kox and Tunku Hamman in the Arrows Racing Lamborghini. Vanthoor also leads the drivers' championship with 33 points and looks to bookend his 2016 season with another endurance race victory after winning the Dubai 24 Hour in January. This will be Laurens Vanthoor's final race with Audi as he will move to Porsche for its IMSA GTLM program in 2017.

René Rast, Markus Winkelhock and Pierre Kaffer will drive the #16 Audi. Rast started his season with a victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD class with Magnus Racing and he is coming off his first class victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship after he won in LMP2 at Bahrain with G-Drive Racing. Winkelhock and Kaffer both haven't won since 2014. Winkelhock's most recent victory was the 2014 24 Hours of Spa with Vanthoor and Rast as co-drivers. Kaffer's most recent victory was at Virginia International Raceway in GTLM was Risi Competizione Ferrari. 

Bentley leads the Intercontinental GT Challenge manufactures' championship with 51 points; two over Mercedes-Benz but Bentley has not entered a car for the finale. The lone Mercedes-Benz entered for Sepang is the #52 SAITAMA TOYOPET Green Bravo SLS AMG with former IndyCar driver Naoki Hattori leading the PRO-AM line-up with Taku Bamba, Takayuki Hiranuma and Shogo Matsuyama. With Mercedes as the de facto leader in manufactures' championship, Audi trails the fellow German mark by four points and McLaren is 15 points behind Mercedes-Benz. 

K-PAX Racing will be the lone McLaren on the grid and the #9 650 S GT3 will feature Pirelli World Challenge champion Álvaro Parente; Supercars and Blancpain Endurance Series champion Shane Van Gisbergen and Blancpain Endurance Series champion Côme Ledogar. Parente and Van Gisbergen won the Bathurst 12 Hour with Jonathon Webb, the first round of the International GT Challenge in February. Van Gisbergen trails Vanthoor by six points in the drivers' championship. 

Five Ferraris are entered at Sepang with the #50 Spirit of Race 488 GT3 of Michele Rugolo, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Pasin Lathouras leading the prancing horses and is the only all-pro line-up. Asian Le Mans Series regular Nexus Infinity will have Adrian Henry D'Silva, two-time Sepang 12 Hours winner Dominic Ang Ding Xiong and Garnett Patterson in the #27 458 GT3. Carlo van Dam, Frank Yu, Piti Bhirom Bhakti and Tanart Sathienthirakul will drive the #11 Singha Motorsports Team Ferrari 488 GT3. Super GT driver Hiroki Yoshimoto leads the #35 HubAuto Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 with Morris Chen, Shinya Hosokawa and Hiroki Yoshida rounding out the line-up. The only AM entry in GT3 is the #75 T2 Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 of Gregory Teo Bee Tat, David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo. 

Manthey Racing comes with two Porsche 911 GT3Rs. Le Mans winners and future full-time Porsche LMP1 drivers Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber join Patrick Pilet in the #911 Porsche. Frédéric Makowiecki, Richard Leitz and Michael Chistensen will drive the #912 Porsche. Porsche leads all manufactures with four victories in the Sepang 12 Hours but has not won the event since 2008. 

The final two GT3 entries are full-time Super GT entries in the GT300 class. JLOC entered the #88 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 for Manabu Orido, Kazuki Hiramine and Adrian Zaugg. The final entry is the #30 APR Toyota Prius for Koki Saga, Kota Sasaki and Hiroaki Nagai. APR won once in Super GT this season and Saga finished second in the GT300 championship with co-driver Yuichi Nakayama 

The remainder of the Sepang 12 Hours entry list is composed of three GT4 entries, four GTC, four touring cars and two MARC Focus V8s.

The Sepang 12 Hours will begin at 11:00 p.m. ET on Friday December 9th. 

Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 3.5 retirements at the Sepang 12 Hours?

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: Michael Caruso scored 129 points at Homebush.
2. Over: Two LMP3 cars finished on the lead lap in class at Fuji.
3. Over: 33 drivers completed 600 laps or more at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill.
4. Under: Three Americans were mentioned in the Racer.com story on the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout.

Predictions
1. The #30 APR Toyota Prius finishes in the top eight overall.

Last Week's Predictions 
1. Someone other than Shane Van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup will win at Homebush (Wrong. Whincup won race one from Homebush and Van Gisbergen won race two).
2. There will be at least four European drivers represented in the three class winners (Correct. Nine European drivers were represented across LMP2, LMP3 and GT at Fuji.).
3. The Ryno Racing Ginetta finishes in the top five overall (Correct. Both Ryno Racing Ginetta finished in the top five overall).
4. A driver between the ages of 18 and 19 win the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout (Correct. Nineteen-year-old Oliver Askew won the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout).
Last Week: 3/4 Overall: 28.5/53

Twin 12-Hour Endurance Race Weekend Preview

There are two, 12-hour endurance races that feature GT3 stacked grids this weekend and not only does it test the strength and global reach of the GT3 regulations but it gives us a wonderful last hooray to the 2015 motorsports season in the middle of December.

Gulf 12 Hours
The fifth edition of the unique Gulf 12 Hours will be run on Friday from the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Nineteen cars are entered, 12 in the GT3-class, five in the 991 Cup class, one Renault RS01 and one Wolf GB08.

Three-quarters of the GT3 field are Ferrari 458 Italias and last year's winners, AF Corse return with three of them. The #50 Ferrari will be driven by Francisco Guedes, Alexander Moiseev and Ricardo Ragazzi. Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellachi and Andrea Rizzoli will make up the #51 Ferrari. Marco Cioci returns and will be joined by Jack Gerber and Ilya Melnikov in the #55 Ferrari.

Davide Rigon won last year's race driving for AF Corse with Stephan Wyatt and Michele Rugolo. Rigon will be in one of three Ferraris entered by Kessel Racing and his co-drivers will be Giacomo Piccini and Michel Broniszewski in the #11 Ferrari. Loris Capirossi makes his Gulf 12 Hours debut driving for Kessel Racing. Nicola Cadei and Alexis De Bernardi will be the MotoGP champions' co-drivers in the #65 Ferrari. Marco Zanuttini, Michael Lyons and Vadim Gitlin will be in the #99 Kessel Racing entry.

Black Pearl Racing by Rinaldi's #38 Ferrari will be driven by Pierre Kaffer, Steve Parrow and Alexander Volz.

Johnny Mowlem, Charlie Hollings and Ivor Dunbar will drive the #25 FF Corse Ferrari.

The #88 Ferrari has been entered by Dragon Racing and their three drivers are Frédéric Fatien, John Harsthorne and Alex Kapadia.

Black Falcon entered two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Maro Engel and Khaled Al Qubaisi sharing the #1 Mercedes and Hubert Haupt, Yelmer Buurman and Abdulaziz Al Faisal in the #2 Mercedes. Haubt, Buurman and Al Faisal won the Dubai 24 Hour back in January with Oliver Webb.

The lone Aston Martin in the race will be #44 Motorbase Performance Oman Racing Team Vantage GT3 of Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Ahmad Al Harthy.

Two of the 991 Cup class cars features American drivers. The #20 MRS GT-Racing Porsche features Charles Espenlaub and Charles Putman and Dutch driver Xavier Maassen. The #67 GDL Racing entry will see Jim Michaelian partner with Bashar Mardini and Roberto Rayneri. The Wolf GB08 of Avelon Formula will be driven by Angelo Negro, Philipp Protte, Amro Al Hamad and Sam Taheri.

The Gulf 12 Hours has retained its unique two 6-hour race format. The first half of the event will start at 9:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET) and run six hours. A two-hour and fifteen-minute intermission will take place with the final six-hour leg beginning at 5:45 p.m. local time. (8:45 a.m. ET).

Sepang 12 Hours
On Saturday, the 16th running of the Sepang 12 Hours will take place at the Sepang International Circuit. Two-dozen cars are entered, 13 of which are in the GT3 class and unlike the Gulf 12 Hours, there are six manufactures represented in the class.

Clearwater Racing has won two consecutive Sepang 12 Hours and driver Mok Weng Sun will try to make it three consecutive Sepang 12 Hours victories and he could set the record for most Sepang 12 Hours victories if he get his fourth. Gianmaria Bruni returns to Sepang looking for his second consecutive victory in the event. James Calado and Matt Griffin have been called in to round out the line-up in the #1 Ferrari 458 Italia.

There are three other Ferraris entered. The #11 Singha Motorsport Team entry will be shared by Davide Rizzo, Piti Bhirom Bhakdi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Carlo van Dam. Naza Nexus Racing has entered the #27 Ferrari and Adrian Henry D Silva, Joshua Lee Hunt and Dominic Ang Ding Xiong are the drivers. The French Sport Garage will have Georges Cabanne, Jean Paul Buffin, Romain Brandela and Gerald Tan Wee Jun pilot the #42 Ferrari.

Bentley has entered two factory cars. The #8 Continental GT3 will features 2015 Blancpain Sprint Series champions Maximilian Buhk, Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet. Steven Kane, Guy Smith and the other half of the 2015 BSS championship winning pair, Vincent Abril are the drivers for the #9 Bentley.

Audi has entered four R8 LMSs. The #15 Audi Hong Kong Powered by Phoneix Racing Asia entry has Marchy Lee, Shaun Thong and Alex Yoong listed as their drivers. Phoenix Racing has also entered the #16 Audi for Niki Mayr-Meinhof, Nicki Thiim and Markus Winkelhock. The Blancpain GT Series regular Belgian Audi Club Team WRT has two cars entered. The #17 features Stéphane Ortelli, Laurens Vanthoors, who is returning to competition for the first time since suffering injuries in the penultimate round of the BSS at Misano. Stuart Leonard rounds out the #17's driver line-up. The #150 Audi will be driven by Enzo Ide, Christopher Mies and Christopher Haase.

Asian Le Mans Series regulars Team AAI has entered a Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3. Han Chen Chen, Hirki Yoshimoto, Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Tanigawa will pilot the #35 Mercedes.

AMAC Motorsport has entered the #51 Porsche 997 GT3 R for Warren Luff, James Winslow and Andrew MacPherson.

Hiroshi Hamaguchi, Andrew Watson, Andrea Caldarelli and Álvaro Parente will drive the #55 McLaren 650s GT3 for FFF Racing Team by ACM.

Seven entries make up the GTC class. Notable entries are the #23 Giti/Top Speed Lamborghini Super Trofeo Huracán of Yuan Bo, James Munro, Afriq Yazid and Martin Rump, the #26 B-Quick Racing Audi R8 LMS Cup V10 of Henk Kiks, Daniel Bilski and Peter Kox, the #33 CPK Racing Porsche 911 Carrera Cup of William Wang Wooi Meng, YS Lim and John Martin and the #777 Team NZ Motorsports Porsche 997 Cup will be driven by Will Bamber, John Curran, Graeme Dowsett and Alif Mohamed Hamden.

Every single winner of the Sepang 12 Hours has featured an Asian driver. Porsche has the most victories in the event with four. Audi, Bentley and McLaren have all yet to win the Sepang 12 Hours.

The race begins at noon local time on Saturday (11:00 p.m. ET Friday) and ends when the clock strikes midnight on Sunday morning (11:00 a.m. ET Saturday).

Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 3.5 Ferraris in the top five at the end of the first half of the Gulf 12 Hours?
2. Over or Under: 6.5 cars completing 300 laps in the Sepang 12 Hours?

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: Mark Winterbottom won the V8 Supercars championship by 238 points over Craig Lowndes.
2. Under: Only one of the Ginetta LMP3 cars raced and it completed only 163 of 690 laps.

Predictions
1. AF Corse gets one car on the Gulf 12 Hours podium but does not win the race.
2. Two Audis finish on the overall podium at Sepang.

Last Week's Predictions
1. A manufacture that isn't Holden or Ford wins at least one race at Homebush (Wrong. Holden swept the weekend).
2. Rain will prevent the winner of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill from completing 700 laps (Correct. The #45 Flying Lizard Motorsport Audi completed 690 laps and it did rain).
Overall: 1/2 Running Tally: 36.5/68