The 19th annual Hankook 24H at the Dubai Autodrome will be the final round of Creventic’s three-round, Middle East program that has two races in the United Arab Emirates and one in Kuwait.
Heading the drivers from the Pacific Oceania region will be the line-up for Grove Racing. The father and son team owners and drivers Stephen and Brenton Grove will be joined by their new Supercar recruit Matt Payne (NZ) and Brit Phil Keen.
Jordan Love joined the Groves the weekend prior in their Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo which was supported by Earl Bamber Motorsport.
They initially slipped from fifth to 15th in the opening laps but was the last GT3 team to make its first fuel stop after they led outright. After they recovered to overall be in the top six only, they had issues with its right rear wheel mount. The car would eventually lost the right rear wheel and stopped on-track which dropped them to 34th in the end.
Fraser Ross will be back in a McLaren – a 720S GT3 – for the 24 Hour in the marque he has previously raced in Australia. He will have Australian businessman George Nakas, Omar Jackson and Axcil Jefferies in the British 7Tsix team.
Also in GT# will be Australian John Corbett who will link up with two-time Australian Drivers’ Champion James Winslow (GB), Alex Bukhanstov and George King in a Porsche 911 GT3R.
The Ginetta G55 of Mark Griffith and Colin White (GB) started the 6 Hour from the TCX class pole and led the class before it suffered gearbox issues and ultimate finished second, albeit . It will have the addition of three more drivers for the 24 Hour.
Cameron McLeod who was a Super3 gun in 2023 as well as his drives in MARC Cars, will vie for GT4 class honours as he joins AGMC Racing team by Simpson Motorsport along with Fabian Duffieux, Artur Dzhalilov, Ivan Krapivtsev and Hugo Cook Cameron McLeod in a BMW M4 G82.
Two others from the MARC ranks will be in the 992 class. Darren Currie and Axle Donaldson will be in a Holmgaard Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 992 along with Magnus and Jonas Holmgaard, and Patrick Steen Rasmussen.
Kiwi Brendon Leitch will be hoping for better luck with Leipert Motorsport had in the 6 Hour. The GTX Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo he shared with Gregg Gorski and Gerhard Watzinger were eliminated from contention after a tangle with the class rival P21 Motorsport Porsche.
For this weekend’s longer race Leitch will be sharing with Gabriele Rindone, Marco Mapelli and Alban Varutti. Meanwhile young New Zealand kart champion Rianna O’Meara-Hunt who last year had GT4 Championship round wins in the Unted States will be in a BMW GT4 along with David Holloway, Piers Johnson and Nicholas Halstead.
The race will be livestreamed on YouTube and starts on Saturday January 27 at 1pm local time which is 8:00pm AEDT.
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