Just a few weeks after the twelfth running of the 24H DUBAI as the successful season opener of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook, the focus is shifting towards the next two rounds of the season that will take teams and drivers to central Europe.

Next up is the  12H MUGELLO (17-18 March) in Italy’s beautiful Tuscany region, followed by the first event of the year at a venue that is new for CREVENTIC’s series: the 12H RED BULL RING (7-8 April) at the eponymous Grand Prix circuit in Spielberg, Austria. Both races are split up into two parts, with four hours of racing on the Friday and the remaining eight hours on the Saturday, giving all team members the possibility to have some time off in between the action. Entries for both rounds are still open, with the second early entry for the Hankook 12H RED BULL RING closing on 10 February.

A new addition to the event programme for both races is the GT Retro Series, a series for GT cars built before 2015. All races will have live streaming in HD quality on the series’ website with commentary by Radiolemans.com as well as live broadcasts on Motor Trend.

Held for the first time in 2014, the 12H MUGELLO has become a regular fixture on the calendar of the 24H SERIES. The challenging circuit that is the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello is a popular venue among drivers and teams, with the many benefits Italy and Tuscany have to offer.

Last year’s race saw Dutch team, V8 Racing, taking victory in the race with its Renault RS01 FGT3, driven by father-and-son pairing Luc and Max Braams, Miguel Ramos and Nicky Pastorelli. The V8 Racing team succeeded after the Optimum Motorsport Audi, that had led the race for most of the time, retired with gearbox failure with less than 90 minutes remaining. A total of 63 cars took the start of the race at Mugello last year and a similarly-sized grid is expected for this year’s event. Teams wanting to take part in the race can still submit their entries.

24H SERIES continues endurance racing tradition in Austria

Austria will be host country for the third round of the season, the inaugural 12H RED BULL RING. Originally built as the Österreichring, the race circuit in the rolling hills of Styria was opened in 1969. The track was the venue of the Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix from 1970 till 1987 and, after it was shortened, again from 1997 till 2003.

After another reconstruction, the track was re-opened in 2011 and Formula 1 returned there in 2014. From 1969 till 1976, the Österreichring 1000km race was a round of the world sportscar championship, so in a way, the 12H RED BULL RING revives the tradition of endurance racing at the circuit. For this race, teams can enter as well, with a reduced early entry fee still applicable until the second early entry closes on 10 February.

GT Retro Series as a new support class

Starting with the race at Mugello, the GT Retro Series will be joining the 24H SERIES event package as a new support class. The series is open for GT cars built to GT2 and GT3 regulations as well as Specials built before 2015. After Mugello, the GT Retro Series will also be present at the 24H SERIES rounds at the Red Bull Ring, Circuit Paul Ricard, Imola and Portimao.

At 14.00 hrs local time, a total of 92 cars took the start at Dubai Autodrome to get the twelfth running of the Hankook 24H DUBAI underway.

Numerous visitors, fans and friends of the teams enjoyed the pre-race activities on the packed starting grid before the field got underway for the two formation laps, following by the traditional rolling start for the season opener of the 2017 24H SERIES powered by Hankook.

As the lights went out, pole-sitter Jeroen Bleekemolen led the field into the first corner with the Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#2, Khaled Al Qubaisi/Jeroen Bleekemolen/Patrick Assenheimer/Manuel Metzger), followed by Mirko Bortolotti in the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini (#963, Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart/Rik Breukers/Rolf Ineichen/Mark Ineichen). A charging Sven Müller brought the Manthey Porsche (#12, Otto Klohs/Sven Müller/Matteo Cairoli/Jochen Krumbach) quickly up into third place, but the team dropped back to tenth following an early pit stop during a code-60 neutralisation after the ZRT Motorsport Honda Integra (#48, Jonathan Mullan/Umair Khan/Graham Davidson/Chris Yarwood) had stopped on track with a technical issue.

The class leaders after one hour are the V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 (#18, Wolf Nathan/Rick Abresch/Luc Braams/Duncan Huisman/Alex van ‘t Hoff) in A6-Am, the Fach Auto Tech Porsche 991 Cup MR (#51, Thomas Fleischer/Peter Joos/Marcel Wagner/Heinz Bruder/Martin Ragginger) in SPX, the race:pro motorsport Porsche 991 Cup (#63, Stanislav Minsky/Murad Sultanov/Klaus Bachler/Carlos Rivas/Mark Wallenwein) in 991, the Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silversting (#207, Wolfgang Kaufmann/Kalman Bodis/Jaap van Lagen/Heino Bo Fredriksen) in SP2, the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan 370Z GT4 (#123, Jann Mardenborough/Ricardo Sanchez/Romain Sarazin/Johnny Guindi) in SP3-GT4, the Modena Motorsports SEAT Leon TCR (#216, Wayne Shen/John Shen/Francis Tjia/Mathias Beche) in TCR, the Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 208 GTi (#308, Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard/Michael Carlsen) in A3, the Sorg Rennsport BMW M235i Racing Cup (#152, Ahmed Al Melaihi/Jesus Diez/José Manuel de los Milagros/George Richardson/Shawn Peh) in Cup1 and the Team Eva Solo/K-Rejser Peugeot TCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Thomas Sørensen/Jens Mølgaard/Henrik Sørensen) in A2.

Prior to the start of the Hankook 24H DUBAI, Gulf region motorsport history was written with the first two races of the new TCR Middle East touring car series. 16-year-old German Luca Engstler, the son of seasoned touring car racer Franz Engstler, came out on top in the first race, which was the first-ever touring car race for the single-seater convert. American driver Brian Gdovic, the only driver racing in the prototype series, the TCR series and the Hankook 24H DUBAI this week, took the spoils in race two, making it two wins in a row for the Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagens.

With its Porsche 991 GT3 R, German team Herberth Motorsport has won the Hankook 24H DUBAI. In the twelfth running of the event, drivers Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer and Brendon Hartley racked up a total of 578 laps of the 5.399 kilometres long Dubai Autodrome.

“It was an awesome experience! My first race with a GT car, my first race in a 911, and my first victory in a 24-hour race. A great car, great team-mates and a great performance,” Hartley commented. “We have had some good success in the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook last year, but this certainly is our biggest success so far,” said Robert Renauer, who drove the winning car across the finish line. For Porsche, it was the fifth victory in the Hankook 24H DUBAI after earlier wins in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014.

This time, it was even a 1-2 for the German manufacturer as the Manthey Racing Porsche (#12, Otto Klohs/Sven Müller/Matteo Cairoli/Jochen Krumbach) finished second, two laps down on the winning entry. A three times’ Dubai race winner, the Black Falcon team saw its Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#3, Abdulaziz Al Faisal/Hubert Haupt/Yelmer Buurman/Michal Broniszewski/Maro Engel) finish third. Buurman posted the fastest lap time of the race.

Between them, the Manthey and Herberth Motorsport Porsche teams spent more than three quarters of the race in the lead of the field. Driving the Manthey car around 5.30 hrs, Otto Klohs became involved in a collision with another vehicle, after which some repair on the left front side of the Porsche was required. That gave the Herberth team a slight advantage to which it held on for the final eight hours of the race. In total, the Herberth Motorsport Porsche led the field for 380 laps. The two Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 both were in contention for a podium finish, running in the top four until well after sunrise, but then local hero Khaled Al Qubaisi, driving the #2 car, spun and collected the #963 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini (Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart/Rik Breukers/Rolf Ineichen/Mark Ineichen). Both cars retired after the accident. Earlier in the race, the Austrian team’s #964 car (Mirko Bortolotti/Christian Engelhart/Ezequiel Companc/Rolf Ineichen/Adrian Amstutz) had already retired following a collision while the HB Racing Lamborghini (#7, Herbert Handlos/Norbert Siedler/Sam Tordoff/Florian Spengler/Andrea Amici) was out early in the race following a burst tyre that damaged the fuel line and led to a fire. Polish ex-Formula 1 racer Robert Kubica didn’t make it to the finish either in his first-ever 24h race as the car on which he was entered, the Forch Racing powered by Olimp (#29, Robert Lukas/Marcin Jedlinski/Wolf Henzler/Santiago Creel/Robert Kubica) retired with technical issues.

Reigning 24H SERIES teams’ champions, Hofor Racing, won the A6-Am class on the first competitive outing with its new Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll/Chantal Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout) after a largely trouble-free run. GP Extreme finished second in class with its Renault RS01 FGT3 (#27, Frédéric Fatien/Tiziano Carugati/Nicky Pastorelli/Stuart Hall), followed by Car Collection Motorsport’s Audi R8 LMS (#34, Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff/Gustav Edelhoff/Max Edelhoff/Elmar Grimm/Ingo Vogler).

Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo cars scored a 1-2 in the SPX class with victory for GDL Racing Middle East (#87, Franck Pelle/Rory Penttinen/Vic Rice/Pierre Ehret), followed by Leipert Motorsport (#10, Oliver Webb/Jake Rattenbury/Jean-Charles Perrin/Harald Schlotter), a fine performance by the team that started from the back of the grid due to a chassis change following an incident in practice. The Fach Auto Tech Porsche (#51, Thomas Fleischer/Peter Joos/Marcel Wagner/Heinz Bruder/Martin Ragginger) came third in class.

The Black Falcon Team TMD Friction won the Porsche 991 Cup class with its #68 car (Saud Al Faisal/Saeed Al Mouri/Anders Fjordbach/Alexander Toril), from Prosport Performance (#85, Charles Putman/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster/Andy Pilgrim) and race:pro motorsport (#63, Stanislav Minsky/Murad Sultanov/Klaus Bachler/Carlos Rivas/Mark Wallenwein).

The SP2 class saw the Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silversting (#207, Wolfgang Kaufmann/Kalman Bodis/Jaap van Lagen/Heino Bo Fredriksen) come out on top from the Reiter Engineering KTM X-BPW (#247, Anthony Mantella/Dore Chaponick jr./Brett Sandberg/Benjamin Mazatis) and the VDS Racing Adventures MARC Focus V8 (#58, Raphaël van der Straten/Joël Vanloocke/Grégory Paisse/Pierre Dupont/José Close).

British sports car brand Ginetta scored a 1-2 in the SP3-GT4 class. Optimum Motorsport (#231, Stewart Linn/Ade Barwick/Dan O’Brien/William More) won by a comfortable margin from Century Motorsport (#229, Nathan Freke/Aiden Moffat/Jack Mitchell/Ben Green). The GDL Racing Team Asia Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR (#267, Jonathan Hui/Frank Yu/Antares Au/Kevin Tse) came third.

Making its competition debut in Dubai this weekend, the Audi RS3 LMS scored a class win in the TCR category with the Cadspeed Racing with Atech entry (#108, James Kaye/Julian Griffin/Erik Holstein/Finlay Hutchison). A long-time class leader, the Modena Motorsport SEAT Leon TCR (#216, Wayne Shen/John Shen/Francis Tjia/Mathias Beche) came second, with the Zest Racecar Engineering SEAT (#105, Philippe Ulivieri/Gosia Rdest/John Allen/JT Coupal/John Weisberg) third.

A3 touring class honours went to the Team Altran Peugeot with the victory for the #308 Peugeot 208 GTi (Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard/Michael Carlsen) and second for the #908 sister car (Yusif Bassil/Thierry Boyer/Gonzalo Martin de Andres/Loïc Dupont). The PB Racing Lotus Elise Cup (#133, Stefano D’Aste/Stefano Pasotti/Lorenzo Pegoraro/Immanuel Vinke/Michele Bartyan) came third.

German team Sorg Rennsport scored a 1-2 in the CUP1 class with its #151 BMW M235i Racing Cup Car (Stephan Epp/Christian Andreas Franz/Michael Hollerweger/Heiko Eichenberg/Oskar Sandberg) in first and the #152 sister car (Ahmed Al Melaihi/Jesus Diez/José Manuel de los Milagros/George Richardson/Shawn Peh) in second, followed by the Bonk Motorsport entry (#146, Hermann Bock/Rainer Partl/Max Partl).

Danish Team Eva Solo/K-Rejser won the A2 class with its Peugeot RCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Thomas Sørensen/Jens Mølgaard/Henrik Sørensen) from the Team Cooksport Renault Clio Cup IV (#172, Alex Sedgwick/Shayne Deegan/Oliver Cook/Jonathan Maybin/Josh Cook) and the Team Sally Racing 1 Renault Clio Cup III (#52, Martin Sally Pedersen/Peter Obel/Steffan Jusjong/Sune Marcussen/Mads Christensen).

A lap time of 1m57.705s for Dutch driver Jeroen Bleekemolen secured pole position for the Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#2, Khaled Al Qubaisi/Jeroen Bleekemolen/Patrick Assenheimer/Manuel Metzger) in qualifying for the Hankook 24H Dubai.

“After our good performance in free practice, I was really confident already. The handling of the car was great and although I had some traffic in qualifying, it was enough to be on pole,” Bleekemolen commented.

It was his second pole for the Hankook 24H DUBAI after 2013. The fastest of the two GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghinis (#963, Mirko Bortolotti/Chrtistian Engelhart/Rik Breukers/Rolf Ineichen/Mark Ineichen) qualified second from the Herberth Motorsport Porsche (#911, Daniel Allemann/Ralf Bohn/Robert Renauer/Alfred Renauer/Brendon Hartley).

With the Optimum Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#14, Joe Osborne/Flick Haigh/Ryan Ratcliffe/Christopher Haase) in fourth, four different brands will be represented on the first two rows of the grid for the race that will start tomorrow at 14.00 hrs local time.

Some ten minutes into the session, Jeroen Bleekemolen was the first driver to post a lap time under 1m58s and with that time, he remained on top of the time sheets. “It got pretty close in the end, because Mirko Bortolotti was quite quick with the Lamborghini. I went out for another attempt and I was faster, but then I had my time disallowed because there were said to be yellow flags, although they were gone by the time I got past. In the end, it didn’t matter anyway because my initial lap time was enough fir pole,” Bleekemolen said.

Fastest car in the A6-Am class was the IDEC Sport Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#17, Patrice Lafargue/Paul Lafargue/Nicolas Minassian/Alban Varutti) with a time of 2m02.268s set by Paul Lafargue, followed by the Belgian Audi Club WRT Audi (#5, Mohammed Bin Saud Al Saud/Mohammed Bin Faisal Al Saud/Marcel Fässler/Michael Vergers) and the V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 (#18, Wolf Nathan/Rick Abresch/Luc Braams/Duncan Huisman/Alex van ‘t Hoff).

Arnaud Gomez claimed pole position in the SPX class with the Vortex V8 Vortex (#204, Lionel Amrouche/Cyril Calmon/Olivier Gomez/Arnaud Gomez), with the COOL Racing by GPC Motorsport Vortex (#24, Alexandre Coigny/Gino Forgione/David Iradj Alexander/Tom Dyer) second and the Eurotrac by Bas Koeten Dodge Viper (#19, Bert de Heus/Daniel de Jong/Ivo Breukers/Leon Rijnbeek) third.

Christopher Zöchling was fastest in the 991 class for a long time, but it was Klaus Bachler who eventually put the race:pro motorsport Porsche 911 Cup (#63, Stanislav Minsky/Murad Sultanov/Klaus Bachler/Carlos Rivas/Mark Wallenwein) on pole in class with a lap time of 2m03.556s. The fastest of the two MSG Motorsport cars (#92, Philipp Sager/Alex Autumn/Christopher Zöchling/Nico Rindlisbacher/Stephan Kuhs) ended up second with the Black Falcon TMD Friction Porsche (#69, Burkhard Kaiser/Sören Spreng/Miguel Toril/Bandar Alesayi) third.

Top SP2 car was the Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silversting (#207, Wolfgang Kaufmann/Kalman Bodis/Jaap van Lagen/Heino Bo Fredriksen) with a time of 2m04.571s set by Van Lagen. The Vortex V8 GC Automobile (#203, Günther Deutsch/Marco Deutsch/Mathieu Pontais/Kurt Thiel) qualified second, followed by the Speed Lover Porsche 991 Cup (#78, Guy Verheyen/Pierre-Yves Paque/Jean-Michel Gerome/Pieder Decurtins/Richard Verburg).

British driver Mike Simpson secured pole position in the SP3-GT4 class with the CWS Ginetta G55 GT4 (#178, Colin White/Tom Hibbert/Mike Simopson/Brandon Gdovic). Simpson posted his time of 2m08.835s fairly early in the session and then remained on top. Jann Mardenborough was second fastest with the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan (#123, Jann Mardenborough/Ricardo Sanchez/Romain Sarazin/Johnny Guindi), followed by the Century Motorsport Ginetta (#229, Nathan Freke/Alden Moffat/Jack Mitchell/Ben Green) thanks to a last-gasp effort by Freke.

In TCR, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen was the early pace-setter with the Team Bleekemolen SEAT Leon TCR (#100, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen/Michael Bleekemolen/Dennis de Borst/Aart-Jan Ringelberg), but he eventually had to make do with second place in class as versatile Swiss racer Mathias Beche claimed class pole with the Modena Motorsports SEAT Leon TCR (#216, Wayne Shen/John Shen/Francis Tjia/Mathias Beche) with a time of 2m11.319s. Third place in class went to the brand-new Cadspeed Racing with Atech Audi RS3 LMS (#108, James Kaye/Julian Griffin/Erik Holstein/Finlay Hutchinson) on the endurance racing debut of the car.

CUP1 qualifying honours were taken by Oskar Sandberg in the Sorg Rennsport BMW (#151, Stephan Epp/Christian Andreas Franz/Michael Hollerweger/Heiko Eichenberg/Oskar Sandberg) with a time of 2m18.099s. The fastest of the two Bonk Motorsport cars (#146, Hermann Bock/Rainer Partl/Max Partl) was second, followed by the second Sorg Rennsport car (#152, Ahmed Al Melaihi/Jesus Diez/José Manuel de los Milagros/George Richardson/Shawn Peh).

Team Altran Peugeot locked out the first two positions in the A3 class, with Gonzalo Martin de Andres putting the number 908 Peugeot 308 (#908, Yusif Bassil/Thierry Boyer/Gonzalo Martin de Andres/Loïc Dupont) on pole with a time of 2m16.141s, followed by the sister car (#308, Guillaume Roman/Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard/Michael Carlsen). The Cor Euser Racing BMW (#71, Sam Allpass/Richard Verburg/Cor Euser/Klaus-Dieter Frommer/Michael Nielsen) was third.

There were three different brands on the first three places in the A2 class, with the Team Eva Solo/K-Rejser Peugeot RCZ (#171, Jacob Kristensen/Jan Engelbrecht/Thomas Sørensen/Jens Mølgaard/Henrik Sørensen) claiming pole with 2m19.819s set by Kristensen. The Team Cooksport Renault Clio (#172, Alex Sedgwick/Shayne Deegan/Oliver Cook/Jonathan Maybin/Josh Cook) was second while local team Lap57 Motorsport had its Honda Integra DC5 (#570, Junichi Unemoto/Kouich Okumura/Teruhiko Hamano/Peter Jürgen/Ashan Silva) third.