Porsche Carrera Cup drivers David Wall and Adrian Flack are set to compete in the Hankook 24 Hour in the United Arab Emirates on January 12-14.
Wall Racing will join with English-based the Toro Verde GT team in a Porsche Type 992 GT3 Cup Car that raced in this year’s Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britian.
Wall and 2023 Carrera Cup Pro-Am Champion Flack will line up alongside United Kingdom drivers Frazer McFadden and Edward Stanton.
With numerous Bathurst 12 Hour appearances behind him, Wall is no stranger to endurance racing. He has also taken in long distant events at Malaysia’s Sepang from mid to late 2000s. However he has yet to do a 24 Hour race.
“I’m good friends with Jules Westwood, an experienced driver and team manager who is involved with the Toro Verde GT team, and he encouraged me to give the Dubai race a go,” Wall said.
“I’ve wanted to do a 24 hour race for ages, and it’s great that I’m able to bring my crew over as well and give them an opportunity to work at such a major international endurance race – it will be a great way to make sure they’re all sharp before the Bathurst 12 Hour.”
“There is definitely more of a speed difference between the fastest and slowest cars, and the field is even bigger than it used to be,” said Flack who previously competed in the race a decade ago.
“There are often fields of up to 90 cars racing on a track that’s shorter than Bathurst, with everything from TCR cars all the way up to full-blown GT3 cars – the track will be super-busy.
“Our Porsche will be neither the fastest nor the slowest in the field, so we’ll be dealing with the challenges of both passing slower cars and being passed by faster cars, which is what endurance racing is all about.”
“The strategic side of things will be a bit different to the Bathurst 12 Hour and other races I’ve done in Australia, because they don’t have Safety Cars – if there’s an incident, they call a Code 60 where everyone has to slow down to 60km/h without the field bunching up,” Wall added.
“Also, the refuelling is done in a bowser area separate to pit lane, so if you come in for a fuel stop and all the bowsers are occupied, you have to wait – like queuing up at a service station! That will keep us on our toes, that’s for sure.”
The Dubai 24 Hour can be followed with a live stream at 24hseries.com.
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