14th January 2012

The Dubai 24 hours (13-14 January) kicked off the 2012 endurance season. Mercedes-Benz scored an impressive one, two, three with their SLS GT3s led by the Black Falcon entry.

The Dubai 24-Hours race is organized by the Dutch agency, Creventic, and it is aimed above all at amateur drivers, and while it doesn’t enjoy the prestige of the Daytona or Le Mans 24 Hours, it has the advantage of being on pole on the international calendar! After seven runnings it has now become an obligatory event for a large number of drivers and teams despite the organizers’ attempts to allow low-priced cars like the Honda Integras and Renault Clios at the start.

The Mercedes-Benz dominated the event and victory went to the Abu Dhabi-Black Falcon SLS GT3 driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Sean Edwards, Thomas Jaeger and Khaled Al Qubaisi. This talented foursome beat the record for the event, and they saw the flag ahead of two identical cars, the Heico Motorsport entries of Schneider-Buhk-Frankenhout-Zuber-Nilsson and Schneider-Heyer-Simonsen-Gonzalez.

In SP2, the GT Academy winners, Tresson-Ordonez-Heitkoffer-Mardenborough, came third at the wheel of a Nissan 370 Z.

Text: François Hurel – Photo: Dubaï 24 hours