Thursday, Jan 12, 2006
Dubai: Dubai will move alongside names like Le Mans, Daytona and Nurburgring when it plays host to the first-ever Toyo Tires 24-hour Dubai Touring and GT Cars Endurance race this afternoon.
Action will get under way at the imposing Dubai Autodrome from 2pm with more than 70 cars lining up for honours in the eight classes of competition.
Of these, six classes will be for petrol engine cars while the remaining two are for diesel engines.
The 70-odd field of cars consists of some of the top brands Ford, BMW, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, SEAT, Renault, Honda, Subaru and Mazda, among others.
Teams have arrived from all across Europe with three teams from Australia and one from hosts UAE spicing up things over the weekend.
The 24-hour endurance race is considered one of the toughest challenges to both man and machine. There are just a handful of such races conducted around the world - the most prominent one at Le Mans (France), Nurburgring (Germany) and Daytona (USA).
As per race regulations, each car will have between three to five drivers through the 24 hours of the competition. Each of the drivers is allowed to race for a maximum of two hours.
With most of the top car manufacturers represented at this race, one of the top officials feels it will be a two-way battle between Porsche and BMW.
"Going by past performances, I expect the fight to be between the BMW Red Bull and Porsche cars," stated Eric Mulder, representative from promoters Creventic BV from The Netherlands.
Leading the Porsche charge will be the Autoracing Club Bratislava from Slovakia with Miro Konopka, Gene Sigal, Matthew Alhadeff and Jirko Malcharek in their 3.6 litre GT3 car.
The BMW team from Austria representing Duller Motorsport 1 in the A5 Class seem to be the toughest to beat on paper. Leading the driving quartet is Dieter Quester, Hans Joachim Stuck, Philipp Peter and Toto Wolff.
Cars start from the A1 Class (up to 1.6 litre engines) till the maximum A6 Class with 4 litre engines. The diesel engines will compete in two classes - the D1 (up to 2 litres) and the D2 (3 litre engines).
"This race is not just about driving the car. The drivers will also have to ensure that they do not damage the car at the end of 24 hours," Mulder stated.
Gulf News 2006. All rights reserved.
