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Toyo Tires 24H Dubai - Twelve Hours Update

© InsightF1

The Toyo Tires Dubai 24 Hours reached its halfway point, another twelve hours to go. During the last six hours a lot has happened. Let’s take a look back at what exactly happened during the previous six hours of the Dubai 24 Hours.

After suffering a broken front axle the Al Faisal Racing 1 BMW went into the pit lane for repairs. As a result the car dropped from the lead all the way back to fifteenth position. As a result Land Motorsport 1 was officially leading the race after six and a half hours of racing.

The Gomez Competition 2 Solution F crashed some fourty minutes into the seventh hour and despite severe damage to the front the team did a great job by repairing the car and sending it out again within fifteen minutes. Several other teams had their cars in the pit with cooling problems, brake problems and even gearbox changes. But Equipe Verschuur faced an even tougher task as their #78 Renault Clio returned to the pit with a blown engine, a huge hole is spotted in the engine.

More and more cars came into the pit after suffering problems, including the Gravity Racing International Mosler MT 900. Just after 22:00 local time the Gomez Competition 3 Solution F gave the team more work after it was brought back to the pit lane on a flat-bed transporter. It had been involved in a collision with the RJN Motorsport 1 Nissan and damaged the rear-right. The RJN Motorsport car returned to the pit under its own power.

Just after 22:30 First Motorsport Team 1 hit trouble. In an attempt to avoid another car the Porsche 996 Supercup hit the wall. The Belgian team got the car back into the pit where they could assess the damage and start the repairs. (Unfortunately two hours later the car was officially retired.) Further down the pitlane the Gravity Racing International team stopped working on their Mosler and retired it from the event.

With the clock going towards 23:00 the track status suddenly went from ‘green’ to ‘Code 60′. At the far end of the circuit the leading Land Motorsport 1 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR had caught fire. As the car came to a halt a rescue truck was deployed and after the fire had been extinguished the car was towed back to the pit where the Land Motorsport team quickly concluded its race was over. As a result the ARC Bratislava Porsche inherited the lead of the race, ahead of the Land Motorsport 2 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup. Almost twenty minutes after the ‘Code 60′ was deployed the track was cleared and racing was resumed.

Just after 23:30 the ‘Code 60′ returned to the Dubai Autodrome when one of the Equipe Verschuur Renault Clios crashed in turn 1. The car was hit from behind by one of the other teams and crashed into the wall. Seven minutes after the ‘Code 60′ flags came out the race was resumed. Meanwhile the Clio had been delivered at Equipe Verschuur where the team started to work on the car.

Ten and a half hours into the race the ARC Bratislava Porsche was still leading, but the Hubert Bergh Motorsport Porsche 997 Supercup had closed in and was only 15 seconds behind. Further down the field the Autorlando Sport team had not given up after their problems in the first quarter of the race. Slowly but steadily they made progress through the field on their way back to the front of the race, still 14 laps down though.

At the same time the Autoweiland.de 2 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and GMC Prosport 3 Audi TT-R crashed into each other. A heavily damaged Porsche and a blocked pit lane were the results of the crash. Minutes later the team confirmed their car would not return to the track. Fortunately there was nothing wrong with the driver either.

Towards the end of the eleventh hour more accidents happened. First it was the Marcos Racing International 1 BMW 120d that spun on the track. It was missed by several other cars but unfortunately it was then collected by another car. A few minutes later the Gomez Competition 2 Solution F crashed again, this time after it was hit by the Khaleji Motorsport 1 Ferrari F430 GT (the ex-Risi Competizione car). While the Ferrari continued only slightly damaged the Solution F car suffered more damage.

A pit stop meant the Hubert Bergh Motorsport team’s attempt to catch the ARC Bratislava Porsche came to an end and also meant the ARC Bratislava car retained the lead going into the twelfth hour, ahead of the Land Motorsport 2 and Jetalliance Racing Porsches. Al Faisal Racing was fourth while Hubert Bergh Motorsport was still fifth.

Twenty minutes before the halfway point of the race both ARC Bratislava and Jetalliance Racing came in for refueling. As a result the Jetalliance Racing Porsche fell back outside the top three while the Land Motorsport 2 car came within 42 seconds of the leading ARC Bratislava Porsche.

With a refueled ARC Bratislava car and the Land Motorsport yet to make another stop the gap between the first two cars in the race got smaller and smaller towards 2:00 and as the two cars had both passed the line just after 2 AM the gap between them was only 12.617 seconds. Al Faisal Racing 1 was one lap behind in third.

The top 10 after 12 hours

1. ARC Bratislava - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR
2. Land Motorsport 2 - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
3. Al Faisal Racing 1 - BMW Z4 M Coupé
4. Hubert Bergh Motorsport - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
5. Besaplast Racing Team - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
6. Jetalliance Racing - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
7. Khaleji Motorsport 1 - Ferrari F430 GT
8. CM Creativ Marketing GmbH - Porsche 996 GT3 Cup
9. CC Car Collection 2 - Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
10. Sartorius Team Black Falcon 1 - BMW M3 E92