Van der Zande’s monster travel diary

Renger van der Zande has been racking up some serious air miles this year. Looking to put a disappointing Dubai 24 Hours behind him, the Dutchman will share the no. 8 Starworks FLM09 with Alex Popow, Chris Cumming and Jack Hawksworth at this weekend’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, before tackling the Bathurst 12 Hour race the following weekend in a Car Collection Mercedes SLS.  

van der Zande has a busy week ahead of him! (Renger van der Zande).

As one might expect, back-to-back races across opposite sides of the world pose unique logistical complexities. The distance between the Daytona International Speedway and the Mount Panorama circuit is a mammoth 9,457 miles, or to put it another way, an astonishing 733 laps of the Nürburgring Nordschelife (the record distance completed in the Nürburgring 24H, set in 2014, is a mere 159 laps.)

Two hours after the drop of the chequered flag on Sunday afternoon, van der Zande will fly to his native Amsterdam, arriving on Monday morning. But before he can get too comfortable, it’s back in the air for another 7 hours to the layover at Abu Dhabi and then 14 hours non-stop to Sydney, finally arriving Down Under on Wednesday evening.

At least van der Zande won’t be the only one feeling jet-lagged, with fellow Mercedes GT ace Maro Engel, Ferrari's Toni Vilander, Audi stars Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Rene Rast and V8 Supercar fan-favourite Shane van Gisbergen, who will campaign an Alex Job Racing Porsche, all making the same arduous journey, not to mention much of the international media corps.

Who said motorsport was all glitz and glamour? 

Jonny Adam's Daytona Blog

2015 is a year Jonny Adam looks back on with great fondness. Not only did he win the British GT championship with Andrew Howard and make five appearances as part of Aston Martin’s GTE Pro line-up in the World Endurance Championship, but the 31-year-old Scot also saw off Alexander Sims to win the Sunoco Challenge and with it, a plumb ride in the no. 31 Action Express Chevrolet DP at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.  Here, Adam gives The Motorsport Journal the lowdown on his preparations.

Racing the Corvette DP poses a very different
challenge to an Aston Martin GT car (JonnyAdam.com)

I first did the Rolex 24 two years ago with a customer Aston Martin team. I went there not knowing what the American style was to go racing and absolutely loved it! I wanted to do it again, but looking at the DP cars then, I thought it would be so cool to get an opportunity to drive one. I knew of the Sunoco Challenge and kept a close eye on it, especially on how well Phil Keen did last year, so last year when I was in the running for it, as much as I wanted to win the British championship with Andrew, I was quite selfish in that I wanted to win this as well! Eventually I was told I’d received the prize and it was mega – I got the go ahead from John Gaw to go and do it, I jumped in the car and loved every moment of it.

It is different and it is a step up, but like everything else in racing, you give yourself three or four laps and you actually want more. Initially pulling out of the pits I remember thinking ‘this has got a fair bit of poke’, and you begin to realise it even more when you go past the GT cars. I know from experience how nice and how quick they are, but you’re flying by them on the straights – I think it was around 193-194mph coming into turn one. Yet looking at the data and then experiencing it in the car, it doesn’t feel as though you’re doing that type of speed. The brakes are probably the highlight of the car, I’d say. There’s a good balance, with the power it’s got it’s not trying to kill you all of the time!

The team were very good at making me feel comfortable in the car. Even just the little things like doing pitstop practice which can make a big difference in a long race, because for me it’s so different sliding yourself into an Aston than it is into this DP car which is quite awkward to get in and out of, but we got slicker the more practice we did. All three team-mates, Dane Cameron, Eric Curran and Simon Pagenaud were very welcoming and by the end of day three, we were all within a window of a few tenths of each other. I think it will be a big benefit come the race to have four drivers that you can stick in at any point and know everyone is around the same sort of pace.

Everybody knows the sister car is quick, they’ve got massive experience and a quick driver in Filipe Albuquerque who looked very good in the test, so we just have to knuckle down and see what we can do. It’s an open team so we can share data and setup information from all eight drivers, so it was nice to bounce ideas off each other. I didn’t want to give too much information on the car because I’m new to it, but the other three have driven it a lot more, especially Dane and Eric, so for me it was all about taking it all in and getting seat time as I could get in different situations – warm tyres with low fuel and cold tyres with full fuel at the end of the day. You can get in the car at 2 or 3 in the morning and ambient temperature can drop to around 6 degrees, so you have to be wary of these types of situations.

If I could race a car every day of the week I would, it’s so nice to get straight back in a seat so soon after the New Year and get going again. It’s such a well-structured team, it’s not like they’ve thrown me in a team that will be in the midfield with a car that’s going to fail or team-mates that are going to have moments, so it’s extra pressure because we’re going for the win really. Let’s hope for a good result!

Q&A with Graham Rahal - The IndyCar ringer at Team RLL

When the name Graham Rahal comes up in conversation, his victory at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in 2011 is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. Best known for his exploits in the IndyCar Series with his father Bobby’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing outfit, Rahal enjoyed something of a breakout year in 2015, taking wins at Fontana and on home turf at Mid-Ohio in a title challenge that went down to the final round at Sonoma.

Hoping to continue his good form into 2016, 27-year-old Rahal returns to Daytona this weekend as the fourth driver in BMW Team RLL’s brand-new M6 GTLM, sharing the no. 100 car with full-season entrants John Edwards and Lucas Luhr, with Kuno Wittmer joining the roster for North American Endurance Cup events.

The Motorsport Journal spoke to Rahal to get the lowdown on the improvements from the old Z4, the different mindset required for GT racing and the age old driver ratings debate…

Rahal will share the no. 100 M6 GTLM with Edwards, Luhr and Wittmer (IMSA).

Q. A lot of people may have forgotten or plain won’t know that you won Daytona outright for Chip Ganassi Racing with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Joey Hand. Where does it rank in your career achievements?

A. Winning Daytona was a great achievement, perhaps in my top three moments ever behind my Mid-Ohio IndyCar win and maybe my first IndyCar win in St. Petersburg. However it was probably the next year that I was most proud of. We had a massively ill-handling car, and I drove for nearly half of the race myself. That was a tough year as we were in the top three until an hour to go, only for the gearbox to fail, but it was fun!

Q. Although you’re best known for IndyCar, you’ve been racing sportscars since Sebring 2007 - does it still take some getting used to the different styles of racing?

A. Yes it is very different, because I’m used to pushing 100 percent of the time and always maximizing it for myself. In sportscars you are a puzzle piece and you have to work well together with the rest of the puzzle. I do enjoy that, but it is very different. Car-wise and driving-wise, the BMW, or any sportscar for that matter is very different than the IndyCar, but truthfully I love driving them all.

Q. RLL run teams in IndyCar and IMSA, but is there any crossover in terms of personnel and do they work in the same way?

A. There is very little – we try to keep the two teams separate. However, that does change when we run two cars at Indianapolis for the 500 or other events, then the IMSA team will come over and run that when they have downtime on the sportscar side. The engineers in IMSA all have IndyCar experience, as do all of the mechanics, so it’s normally a seamless transition.

Q. Even if you’re not in the same class, do the Indycar rivalries carry over to Daytona?

A. Not really. I would say maybe the guys that are in my class directly, but the rest no.

Q. For the last two years in a row, BMW has finished second in GTLM, so will the new car help change that?

A. I think the new car is an improvement in the sense it's much more comfortable to drive, has a great power-band, and hopefully is a bit more aerodynamic on those long straights. The biggest key is staying out of trouble and not having any mechanical errors – that was our strength before and we need to do that again.

Q. And finally, what do you make of the driver ratings situation? Do you think that as an Indycar race winner, you should be gold rated?

A. I don't see why an IndyCar race winner isn't [platinum]. I truly feel that to win an IndyCar race is one of the most difficult things to do in racing; just ask guys like Rubens Barrichello, it's not easy. IndyCar is full of top tier drivers and teams, and the competition is far greater than that of F1, but then again, I don't make the rules, I just abide by them!

Priaulx feels at home straight away with Ford

Andy Priaulx says Chip Ganassi Racing have immediately made him feel at home since moving across from BMW. 

The 42-year-old will race a full-season campaign with Ford in the World Endurance Championship after thirteen years at BMW, during which he won the European Touring Car Championship and three consecutive World Touring Car Championships. 

Although he will have to wait to sample the all-new Ford GT in race conditions, Priaulx will at least get a chance to become further acquainted with the Ganassi team at this weekend’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, where he will share the Ford Ecoboost-powered Riley Mk XXVI DP with Brendon Hartley, Alex Wurz and Lance Stroll.  

Priaulx is enjoying life at Ford so far, but will have
to wait his turn to race the new GT (Ford Performance).

“It was obviously a big decision going to Ford, but it was definitely the right one,” Priaulx said at the Autosport Show. “In terms of experience and expertise, you can’t get much higher than Chip Ganassi - they have an unbelievable setup, so I haven’t woken up at any point and thought ‘that was the wrong thing to do.’

“The team have welcomed me like I’ve been there for 13 years, I immediately felt very at home with them. I’ve worked for Rahal previously so I’m familiar with how American teams work and I’ve driven with [new Ford signings] Dirk Muller and Joey Hand before, so honestly I’ve had no real issues in the transition at all.”

After several years racing GT class BMWs – enjoying success at the Sebring 12 Hours in 2011 – Priaulx admits that going for overall honours at Daytona will require some readjusting, but is confident that with the driving talent Ganassi has assembled, the 01 car will be in contention come Sunday afternoon.

“It’s actually nicer because you can just focus one way and that’s forward,” says Priaulx of the DP. “In a GT car it’s how you manage the traffic and how you manage being overtaken in the traffic, whereas in a prototype it’s all about timing and moving forwards.

“I wouldn’t say there’s more pressure on you, because driving for BMW for 13 years as a factory driver the pressure's on every day, but for me it’s a dream that I can really go for the outright win. I lost Daytona by one second two years ago when we were runners up, so there’s definitely some unfinished business there.

Experience shouldn't be a problem from these three! (Andy Priaulx).

“Brendan is a current World Champion, he’s the benchmark for us because he’s driven the DP before and raced at Daytona last year. He’s a really nice kid and clearly hugely talented.

“Lance is the new kid on the block, he’s got a great future ahead of him in the sport. He’s basically at the beginning and we’re getting towards the end, so there’s no competition there which is nice. He can just learn from us, and go do his stuff – to win at Daytona is a huge opportunity for him.

“What can you say about Wurzy? He’s got lots of experience, is still hugely quick and you can always learn things from someone like him. He’s super motivated and even though he’s not going to drive again after this weekend, his work ethic is really impressive, it’s the only way he knows. You’re only as good as your last race so he’s going to want to make it a good one and I hope we can do it for him because he deserves it.

“This is the beginning of my Ford programme, so I want to start it in the best possible way,” Priaulx added. “I think I’m driving really well at the moment – in terms of experience, my level of driving is as good as it’s ever been, fitness wise I’m feeling great and I’ve got all the experience and confidence to fall back on as well. I’m in a good place and I’ve just signed one of the best programmes of my life, so from that perspective it doesn’t get much better.”

Tandy: Pilet “the fastest guy I’ve ever seen in a 911”

Nick Tandy has described Porsche GT team-mate Patrick Pilet as “possibly the fastest guy I’ve ever seen in a 911” ahead of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

Speaking at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham, Tandy – who will share the no. 911 car with Pilet and new signing Kevin Estre – said the team’s line-up was the strongest in the GTLM class, but reserved special praise for reigning IMSA champion Pilet.

Tandy rates Pilet (pictured) very highly (Jean Michel Le Meur, DPPI).

“I raced with Kevin for two years in Carrera Cup, and he’s been in and around the Porsche family for many years now, so it’s been an easy transition,” said Tandy. “Everybody knows how good he is, he’s a double Carrera Cup champion and probably the strongest driver that McLaren had, so we’re very happy to have him in our car; we’d much rather have him in our car than in somebody else’s!

“Patrick is one of the fastest drivers I’ve ever seen, he’s that good,” Tandy continued. “He’s possibly the fastest guy I’ve ever seen in a 911. It worked out to be a good pairing last year; we were always strong in qualifying, the pit crew was exceptional and we didn’t make mistakes as drivers.

“Obviously I’ve had a bit of success myself as well, so between us and Kevin and the fact that we have a double championship winning team with all the crew and personnel remaining the same, we have a strong potential.”

After a bit-part campaign in GTs alongside Pilet in 2015 that included winning outright at Petit Le Mans, Tandy will back for the full-season this year, albeit with the caveat that he won’t be defending his outright victory at Le Mans after Porsche scaled back to two full-time LMP1 entries.

The Porsche 911 RSR is a proven piece of kit, now
in it's fourth year of competition (Nick Dungan, Adrenal).

Putting his disappointment to one side, with Daytona representing the first chance to see the brand-new machinery from Ferrari, Ford and BMW in action, Tandy predicts that Porsche’s proven 911 RSR GTE will fare well, even if testing proved somewhat inconclusive.

“It’s a 24 hour race, so it’s Porsche territory,” said Tandy, who won on the car’s first outing at Daytona in 2014 alongside Pilet and Richard Lietz. “We’ve got a car that’s based heavily on last year’s model, especially mechanically, so reliability-wise we’re hoping to outlast some of the new cars from other manufacturers.

“We didn’t do qualifying runs, but I don’t think any of the other teams did either. All we know is we were happy with our test and how our car was working. There’s regulations to do with wing angles and wing heights and things like that which have changed since last year and especially at Daytona a little bit this way or a little bit that way can make a huge difference. It looks like some cars are better than others in certain places and then others are better than others in different places.”

Jordan Taylor – A modern day motorsport icon

There’s a revolution taking place. You might have heard of it, and have probably played an active part in it. That’s right, we’re talking about the social media revolution; the ability to broadcast to the world what we think and see in real time, made possible by popular apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Periscope.

Social media is playing an ever-greater role in the way modern-day motorsport is consumed, with fans now able to tune into drivers and team’s official feeds for unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to their heroes. You’ll know the score by now, but when it comes to acing social media, few have hit the Holy Grail in quite the same way as Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor.

Part 2 of this mornings #JTFacial. Finally found out what she was dreaming about. (Photo cred: @fishsticks81)

A photo posted by Jordan Taylor (@jordan10taylor) on May 21, 2015 at 3:32pm PDT

In many respects, the Orlando 24 year-old is everything the modern generation’s racing driver should be, marrying success on track with a dedicated social media following off it. From raising over $13,000 for kids summer camps by cutting off his 18-month old mullet, amusing his Instagram followers by making up stories about his many travel companions using #JTFacial, starring in music videos and taking requests on Snapchat for popular music to lip-sync, Taylor has perfected the art of engaging with fans in a manner that helps motorsport remain relevant to a new generation of consumers.

But ask the man himself, and Taylor is typically modest about the impact of his social media persona.

“If you had asked me five years ago whether I’d be this outgoing with things, I would have said no way, it’s just not like my personality,” he says. “I think if people meet me in person, they’ll find me to be way different than I’m seen on social media. I’m a lot quieter and actually pretty shy, but I think it’s a good way to show the fun side of someone and what they’re like away from the racetrack. I try to show people more of my home life and I think they really appreciate that because they can relate to it a lot easier than if I just posted race car pictures all the time.

Indeed, one of the stars of the show is his faithful companion, Fonzie, who helps indulge Taylor’s impressively active imagination.

“They’re almost always spontaneous, if I try to think of something it never comes out as good,” Taylor says. “Recently I had a guy unfollow me on Twitter and say goodbye to me, so I started writing the response in my head and five minutes later I had a new post – that’s usually how it happens, it just comes to my mind and the rest is history.”

Since becoming the final Grand-Am series champion in 2013 before its merger with the ALMS, Taylor has stepped up another level in his driving and played a key role in Corvette Racing’s eighth triumph at the Le Mans 24 Hours last June alongside team-mates Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner. This on-track success, Taylor argues, is reflected in the growth of his social media reach, which now encompasses over 17,000 Twitter followers and a further 13,000 on Instagram.

“When I won the Grand-Am championship, it was the first major thing I’d won in my career; I’d finished second at the 24 Hour of Daytona, second at Sebring, second at Petit Le Mans and second in the GT championship in 2011, so it was such a relief to finally win something and get that down on my CV,” he says. “After that was kind of when my social media started going more positively, because I was a lot more easy-going and more relaxed around the racetrack, which translated into a lot of things in my personal life as well.

"Your hair is very sexy." I think that's a first for a mullet. #Mullet #LM24

A photo posted by Jordan Taylor (@jordan10taylor) on Jun 13, 2014 at 1:28pm PDT

“The Le Mans win was probably a bigger deal though – especially since we only had one car in the race, all the eyes were on us. It was a huge undertaking for the team to all get behind that one car, it’s never been done before, so to come away with the win was hugely emotional – I’ve never really been emotional after a race before, but Le Mans is the only race I ever dreamed about as a young guy, so to win it at somewhat of an early age was a little overwhelming.”

Next on Taylor’s bucket list is the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, a race his father Wayne won on two occasions in 1996 and 2005 and the first race on the newly re-named Weathertech SportsCar Championship calendar. Gunning for outright victory in the Wayne Taylor Corvette DP, Taylor will share with younger brother Ricky and veteran Max Angelelli, who was part of the victorious SunTrust Racing line-up in 2005.

“I remember saying to dad, we won Petit Le Mans a couple of years ago, we won Le Mans last year, the next two on my list are Daytona and Sebring, where I’ve finished second twice in both of them," says Taylor, for whom 2016 will be his ninth crack at winning a Rolex. 

"Everybody has to be on their game the whole time – you can get in the car at 2am on cold tyres and you’ve got to be ready to go, you need your team behind you on the radio and your spotter keeping you up to date with everything that’s going on. It’s a huge team effort.

“You work for months for this one race and the smallest thing can take you out of the race; a mechanical failure, a driver error, a mechanic error, someone else on the track, it can be anything. I think in the past three years we’ve done every lap and not gone behind the pitwall, so we’ve had a good run going and hopefully the team can keep that going. We know the car will be reliable and hopefully Max, Ricky and myself can have a clean drive as well.”

Oliver Gavin on Jordan Taylor, the racing driver

Jordan is a fantastic character to have in the team. He brings an awful lot of young, bubbly energy and he has a very fun, jokey way about him, but I think one of his real strengths is he knows when to switch that off and focus on the job in hand. He has a good brain, he’s a really bright lad who can pull himself away from doing one thing to being serious and focusing on what the team needs to do to achieve results.

I'm not sure how this masterpiece never got posted. Must have a been a pretty boring race weekend. Good memory of the mullet. #CottonEyeJoe #Mullet #KonicaMinolta

A video posted by Jordan Taylor (@jordan10taylor) on Dec 8, 2014 at 3:22pm PST

When Jordan first came to Corvette Racing, you could see he was thrown in at the deep end a little bit with not much experience at Le Mans; he had an incident where he crashed the car on the test day and for the next couple of years, he really was working hard to wipe away the memory of what happened on that day. I think last year was when we saw the real Jordan, who could deliver every time he got in the car and who didn’t have any of that baggage left over from that accident. That can be the real challenge of Le Mans – you can have an incident or a crash and as a driver it’s about being able to wipe that from your mind and continue to compete there at the highest level.

Jordan has a really good skill-set, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Corvette Racing have seen him as a future star; I say future, but he’s a star right now in his own right. As he grows into his role at Corvette Racing, I’m sure he’ll be somebody in and around the Corvette Racing setup for a very, very long time.

Gavin: GTLM is wide open

Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin has declared that the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona will be anybody’s game after an inconclusive Roar Before the 24 test in which nobody was prepared to show their hand.

Aside from a small fire which cut short their running on the first day, the Roar went as planned for the no. 4 C7.R shared by Gavin, Tommy Milner and on-loan Audi LMP1 racer Marcel Fassler, making his first appearance at the Speedway. 

However, Corvette stalwart Gavin, who took his fifth victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours last June, isn’t taking anything for granted in the marque's pursuit of back-to-back class victories at Daytona, with the Balance of Performance (BOP) at the forefront of everybody's minds.

"Everybody is very cagey about the BOP" says Gavin (Richard Prince).

“It’s very hard to know what everybody was doing,” Gavin said at the Autosport Show. “It would seem that in every session there was a pattern where whoever was out first on a decent set of tyres would set the laptime, then everyone would drive up to that laptime and sit there right behind it, within a tenth or half a tenth of that original time and never wanted to go any faster.

“Everybody is very cagey about the BOP and in the past people have got very badly bitten by it. Last year we got absolutely murdered with it and in the second half of the year we couldn’t get anywhere near the Porsche. I don’t know why that was, but Porsche had everything they needed to compete and they came away winning the championship.

“You realise there’s going to have to be some more of that coming for this year and you’re wondering who is going to be the chosen one for 2016. It’s one of the necessary evils of sportscar racing at the moment – it’s frustrating but we’ll just have to see how the BOP plays out for everybody involved. It’s anybody’s game.”

Five things we learned at the Dubai 24 Hour

The Dubai 24 Hours provided welcome respite for small population of eccentrics starved of their motorsport fix over the winter break. Here are the five things it taught us.

1.       Audi’s R8 LMS is the real deal…

Mies set fastest lap in the Land Audi, although the result wasn't to be (Creventic).

From the moment Laurens Vanthoor set the pace in Wednesday’s pre-event test, it looked like Audi had the legs on the rest of the field. Even after Creventic applied a 40 kilo weight penalty on the eve of first practice, those first suspicions were confirmed when the unheralded Christer Jons went quickest in qualifying for C.ABT Racing, with Land Motorsport’s Christopher Mies second. Mies would go on to set the race’s fastest lap – a 1:58.7 – one of only four cars in the entire race (all Audis) to dip under two minutes. Although Land were denied a second-place finish by crippling gearbox problems, it was somehow apt that it was WRT who took home the spoils with the holy grail of pace and reliability.

2.       …But older generation can still do the job

Horfor Racing took fourth overall and A6-Am honours in the SLS AMG (Creventic).

With all three of the new Mercedes AMGs suffering problems and Konrad’s Lamborghini falling at the final hurdle, the stage was set for the older-spec Ferrari 458s and Mercedes SLS’ to shine. Whilst Scuderia Praha didn’t seize their opportunity (more on that later), it is worth noting that they led even after gentleman driver Jiri Pisarik had completed his mandatory drive time. The 458 didn’t have the one lap pace of the Audi (but then few did), but consistency looked set to reap rewards until their race-ending crash occurred. As for the #16 Black Falcon crew – they demonstrated that Cinderella stories can and do happen, every once in a while.

3.       Creventic not afraid to lay down the law

Pictured en-route to victory in the Brno 12hr last year, Scuderia Praha
won't be in Mugello after being hit with a one-race ban (Creventic).

Issuing suspensions is of itself a rare occurrence in sportscar racing – it usually takes something of Matteo Malucelli proportions for that to occur – and even rarer still for the event organisers override the stewards, but that’s what happened on Saturday as Creventic announced that Scuderia Praha would not be welcome at the 12hr of Mugello. It follows what Creventic deemed an “avoidable collision” in the tenth hour between Matteo Cressoni – who was leading at the time – and the Primus Racing Ginetta of Thomas Martinsson, who had to be cut free of the wreckage after the incident. "We would like to emphasise our philosophy to offer a platform for amateur drivers and teams to do their hobby: racing for fun,” the statement added. “We expect all competitors to respect our sporting objectives and to adjust driving behaviour accordingly.”

4.       Porsche’s future is in good hands

de Philippi impressed on his first appearance in an Audi (Creventic).

Although he was driving an Audi in Dubai, Connor de Philippi’s breakout performance showed once again that Porsche know a talent when they see one. The American doesn’t know for certain what he’ll be doing this year, though further outings for Land Motorsport seem likely, but Porsche would be foolish not to tie him down alongside fellow Junior scheme products Klaus Bachler and Sven Muller. Black Falcon driver Bachler set a 2:03.7 in qualifying to top the 991 class in an impressive 24th overall – ahead of several A6 (GT3) runners – before his car encountered problems in the race, while Muller’s Lechner Porsche ran faultlessly to win the class by five laps. Muller, who turns 24 in February, was called upon to drive a Manthey GTE-Pro Porsche at Spa last year when Porsche found themselves stretched thin, and, like Bachler – a regular in the Proton Competition GTE-Am Porsche – appears to have a very bright future within the brand.

5.       Dubai needs to cater to photographers

In several respects, Dubai can't be faulted. Temperatures that really ought to be illegal in January, spectacular backdrops and free Wifi access in the paddock all make for a brilliant place to go racing, but not everything was a bed of roses. With no designated photo holes, circuit access for trackside photographers was extremely limited; Creventic would do well to address this before the tenth anniversary race is held next year.

WRT Audi win Dubai war of attrition

Team WRT started 2016 on a winning note, with Laurens Vanthoor, Stuart Leonard, Michael Meadows and Alain Ferte taking victory in an attrition-filled Dubai 24 Hours. 

The Audi quartet had to fight back from one lap down, after losing three minutes queueing for fuel in hour two, but their task was made easier as rivals suffered mechanical problems and were involved in incidents in traffic.

Vanthoor interviewed on the podium after winning the Dubai 24 (Creventic).

Despite being unable to match the one-lap pace of the new R8 LMS, Scuderia Praha's Ferrari 458 was firmly in contention for victory when Matteo Cressoni collided with a slower Ginetta in hour 10. The driver of the Ginetta, Thomas Martinsson, was attended to by medical teams during a lengthy Code 60 stoppage.

Once racing resumed, the Land Motorsport Audi driven by Connor de Philippi, Christopher Mies, Marc Basseng and Carsten Tilke managed to build a lead of almost a full lap over the WRT Audi, when de Philippi ran out of fuel, losing several laps while the car was recovered to the pits. 

Audi factory drivers Mies and Basseng propelled the car back to second during the early hours of the morning, but a worsening gearbox problem forced its retirement with just two hours remaining.

That allowed the #16 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG of Oli Webb, Adam Christodoulou, Abdulaziz al Faisal, Oliver Morley and Frank Montecalvo to finish a remarkable second, having started 98th and last. After their original race chassis burned to ground in practice, Black Falcon mechanics worked through the night to prepare last year's race-winning chassis, which had been on display in the team's hospitality unit, and were rewarded with a clean race, five laps behind the winners.

The result for the old car came amid a weekend to forget for Mercedes' new AMG GT3 in its first 24 hour race, with both Black Falcon entries retiring before half distance. 

RAM Racing did at least soldier on to finish 19th overall and 11th in class, but a broken oil cooler during the night had long since resigned Tom Onslow-Cole, Paul White, Thomas Jager, Stuart Hall and Roald Goethe to an extended test session.

The new AMG GT3 had a debut to forget, but it's day will come (Creventic).

The polesitting C.ABT Racing Audi of Christer Jons, Isaac Tutumlu, Daniel Abt, Andreas Weishaupt and Matias Henkola recovered from a spell in the pits to complete the podium after the ailing Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan suffered an engine failure with twenty minutes to go.

Konrad's demise promoted A6-Am winner Horfor Racing to fourth overall, one place ahead of the Optimum Motorsport Audi of Frank Stippler, Joe Osborne, Ryan Ratcliffe and Flick Haigh, which led the first hour and had been a victory contender until a slow puncture and contact with an SP3 Aston Martin caused delays.

Lechner Racing Middle East secured a one-two finish in the 991 class, with back-to-back stints from Jaap Van Lagen and Sven Muller ensuring the #40 car finished comfortably ahead of the #81, which featured Indy Lights racer Ed Jones.

This article also appeared on Autosport.com

Dubai 24h Talking Points

Ahead of the ninth running of the Dubai 24 hour, The Motorsport Journal runs through the seven things to keep an eye on.

1.       Bragging rights for pole position

Land Motorsport's Audi will be a contender for pole with Mies (Christopher Mies).

Everybody knows that winning pole position at a 24 hour race counts for little, but that’s not to say it won’t be hotly contested, especially  considering the calibre of driver the Dubai 24H has attracted for 2016. 

Having now fully recovered from the leg injuries sustained at Misano which cost him a chance at the Blancpain Sprint Series title, Laurens Vanthoor (WRT #19) is an obvious contender, but don’t count out his Audi colleagues Markus Winkelhock (Car Collection #33) and Christopher Mies (Land Motosport #28), FIA GT World Cup winner Maro Engel (Black Falcon #2), Mercedes counterparts Bernd Schneider (Black Falcon #3) and Renger van der Zande (GDL Motorsport #67), or even the #88 Dragon Ferrari of Matt Griffin, who will share with underrated Briton Alex Kapadia. 

2.       First big test for new Mercedes AMG GT3

The new Mercedes AMG GT3 looks mean in RAM colours (Tom Onslow-Cole).

Black Falcon have racked up three wins in the last four years with their trusted SLS AMG and expand to three cars for 2016, but the arrival of a new car presents something of an unknown. Although the AMG GT3, an evolution of the SLS which shares the same engine, has undergone a rigorous testing programme to be ready for Dubai, nothing quite compares to a 24 race when it comes to ironing out weaknesses.

Whilst Black Falcon won’t be contesting the full 24H series, instead using Dubai as a warmup for their VLN and Blancpain campaigns, RAM Racing will be defending their 24H titles with the new car. Tom Onslow-Cole, Thomas Jäger and Paul White all return, with 2013 FIA WEC GTE-Am champion Stuart Hall and regular co-driver Roald Goethe coming on board for Dubai. 

3.       Optimum step up to A6 (GT3)

Optimum have tested extensively over the winter (Ryan Ratcliffe).

British GT stalwarts Optimum Motorsport will be gunning for outright honours for the first time having acquired a smart new Audi R8 LMS GT3, one of six entered in the race (one each from WRT, Phoenix, Land Motorsport GmbH and Christian Abt Racing, plus two from Mercedes converts Car Collection Motorsport). 

The Wakefield team’s familiar twosome of Welshman Ryan Ratcliffe and Joe Osborne will be joined by team regular Flick Haigh and the experience of Audi factory driver Frank Stippler, who claimed a surprise pole and finished second at the Spa 24 Hours last year.

4.       First 24 Hour for Renault RS01

The RS01 on the grid for a French GT race at Paul Ricarrd (Boutsen-Ginion).

The Renault RS01 is a quirky addition to the SP6 field, having been detuned from its original race spec in the one-make Renault Sport Trophy to be eligible for competition. Equipe Verschuur dipped a toe in the water at the Gulf 12 Hour, where it’s gentleman line-up finished tenth, managing a best lap-time two seconds off the pace set by Davide Rigon’s race-winning Kessel Ferrari.

Hoping for better on the RS01’s first foray into 24 hour racing this weekend will be the Boutsen-Ginion team. Frenchmen Eric Vaissiere, Andre-Alain Corbel and Daniel Waszczinski will share with Belgian Christophe de Fierlant.

5.       Indycar legend in Porsche

Dan Cammish (right) starts his first 24 hour race in the MSG Porsche (Martin Konrad).

You’d be forgiven for not recognising the majority of the line-up in the #91 HRT Performance Porsche, but the name Alex Tagliani is not one to be sniffed at. Now 43, the French-Canadian IndyCar veteran may have scaled back on his top-flight commitments to one-off appearances at Indianapolis, but as select road course outings with Team Penske in the NASCAR Xfinity Series have shown, ‘Tags’ has lost none of his speed, or his passion.  A promising endurance career beckons for the man who won pole for the 500 only five years ago and who has his own range of oatmeal cookies!

The 991 class features some very strong names; Alex Premat headlines the no. 92 B2F Competition entry, while the no. 40 Lechner Racing Middle East Porsche can boast the talents of Sven Muller – second in the Supercup last year – and Lada WTCC racer Jaap van Lagen, who won at Monaco in a one-off appearance with Fach Auto Tech. One to watch could be the no.63 Austrian MSG-entered Porsche, in which runaway Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Dan Cammish will start his first 24 hour race alongside Facundo Regalia, who finished second to Daniil Kvyat in GP3 in 2013.  

6.       British GT teams to contest SP3

Century have partnered with the University of Bolton for 2016 (Century Motorsport).

The SP3 class for GT4 cars has attracted several names from the British GT grid, who will face up against a cluster of German and Dutch entered BMWs, the Italian Nova Race Ginettas and a Czech KTM X-Bow.

Century Motorsport are set to field two Ginetta G55s; the University of Bolton-backed no. 229 will be driven by team boss Nathan Freke and Anna Walewska – already confirmed as team-mates in British GT – with Ginetta Supercup champion Tom Oliphant and Aleksander Schjerpen completing a very strong looking line-up, while former BTCC racer Ollie Jackson and Jake Rattenbury headline the second car.

As well as their SP6 Audi, Optimum Motorsport keep faith in their Ginetta G55, which will be driven by 2007 British GT champion Bradley Ellis, Ade Barwick, Dan O’Brien and Elliott Norris.

Title contenders in GT3 for Motorbase last year, Rory Butcher and Liam Griffin team up once again in JW Bird Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Liam’s brother Kieran, who raced for the team last year, and 2014 British GT4 champion Jake Giddings complete the line-up. 

Speedworks Motorsport have also entered an Aston Martin, with John Gilbert and Devon Modell the two named drivers when The Motorsport Journal went to press. Both race winners last year, Jamie Stanley and Oz Yusuf team up in Track Club’s Lotus Exige, where they will be joined by Adam Knight and Glenn Sherwood.

7.       Magic of Istanbul in A3 class

Dudek joins Fabien Barthez in the goalkeepers-turned racers club (Liverpool FC).

It can be tempting to overlook the smaller classes with such a quality SP6 entry battling for the outright victory, but the presence of Jerzy Dudek in the RTG by Gladysz Racing SEAT Leon Supercopa means that won’t be easy. 

The goalkeeper in Liverpool’s unforgettable comeback in the 2005 Champions League final, 42-year-old Dudek will be forever remembered for his instinctive double save from Andriy Shevchenko at the end of extra time to take the game to penalties, before saving from Andrea Pirlo and Shevchenko in the shootout. Hopefully the Pole will bring a sprinkling of that same magic to the A3 class too.

Stuart Leonard – On the hunt for two in two

Headline writers were spoiled for choice when it came to the Sepang 12 Hours winning crew. Laurens Vanthoor put any lingering doubts about his fitness firmly behind him in his first race back after a horrifying shunt at Misano by twice passing Christopher Mies’ sister WRT Audi in the closing stages, while Stephane Ortelli brought the curtain down on his glittering Audi career in the best possible fashion on the top step of the podium.

By no fault of his own, the efforts of WRT’s third driver on the day, Stuart Leonard, were somewhat overshadowed; not that they should have been however, the Brit defying the treacherous rain and stifling heat to mark his first appearance in the Audi R8 LMS with a victory.

Conditions at Sepang were constantly changing - by contrast,
Dubai ought to be a shade more predictable... (Olivier Beroud).

“It was fantastic, you couldn’t ask for a better debut with Audi and WRT,” Leonard reflects. “I’ll never enter a race if I don’t think I have a chance of winning and I knew there was a possibility, but like any endurance race, there’s so much you have to take into consideration. If you look back to the early stages, the Clearwater Ferrari was looking very strong, but then they had their problems which allowed us our chance.

“I was very nervous because Stephane and Laurens are both very reputable drivers and I was under pressure to perform, but WRT did a fantastic job, my team-mates helped me out and together we pulled through.”

Since their partnership was first established in 2012, a Vanthoor-driven WRT Audi has time and again shown the rest of the field a clean set of heels. For Leonard, who has campaigned a Prodrive Aston Martin Vantage under the Leonard Motorsport banner with mixed results, the opportunity to join the Belgian outfit was too good to turn down and quickly vindicated by the events of Sepang.  

“As much as I tried with my team and with Prodrive, for one reason or another it just didn’t quite work out,” says Leonard, whose sole win in Pro-Am came on home turf at Silverstone last season. “To be honest the Aston wasn’t great down the straights because of the BOP – if you looked at us coming off the corners, particularly at Paul Ricard at the Aston, even at Spa, we were slower than the BMWs which are renowned for being slow in a straight line.

Leonard: "WRT's record speaks for itself" (Olivier Beroud).

“WRT’s record speaks for itself in terms of its results and the way the team is run, it’s incredible to be a part of it and watch them work. The Audi was definitely a big step forward, extremely well-balanced, good traction off the corners and within a lap I felt extremely comfortable. You can really feel the aero working, it handles really well and sounds quite different as well with the V10. It’s a very impressive piece of kit, Audi have done a very good job on it.”

One month on from that first victory, Leonard is aiming to start 2016 in the same vein as he ended 2015 at the Dubai 24 Hours. Once again, he will be partnered by Audi ace Vanthoor and regular co-driver Michael Meadows, with bronze-rated Frenchman Alain Ferté - who raced legendary Group C machinery including Tom Walkinshaw’s Jaguars, the Sauber-Mercedes C11 and Peugeot’s Evo 1B in his heyday - also stepping in to fulfil Creventic's Bronze criteria.

“Of course [the win is the aim], we wouldn’t turn up otherwise!” says Leonard. “Mike is very impressive, he’s always been able to get up to speed very quickly on new circuits and in new cars, and I think the Audi will be better suited to his style given his success in Carrera Cup. I don’t expect there to be any issues, I’m confident that he’ll do a good job and learn a lot from Laurens.”