•    Dramatic end to Michelin 24H DUBAI as No.669 Team WRT BMW M4 victorious
•    Team WRT equals Black Falcon with five Dubai wins, BMW equals Porsche with six
•    GT3 class titles go to No.269 Herberth Porsche and No.69 Continental Racing Audi
•    Seblajoux Racing, Cerny Motorsport, Team CMR and asBest Racing all title winners

 SOUVERÄNER DOPPELERFOLG BEI DEN MICHELIN 24H DUBAI TEAM WRT UND BMW SICHERN SICH DEN TITEL IM NAHEN OSTEN

Dubai, UAE (18 January 2026):
Incredible drama during the last half hour of this year’s Michelin 24H DUBAI delivered a nail-biting conclusion to the finale of the Michelin 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy, with Team WRT earning a sensational one-two result with its pair of BMW M4 GT3 EVO racers.

The squad’s No.669, featuring BMW debutant Jordan Pepper, Kelvin van der Linde, Ben Tuck, Fran Rueda and new GT3 Drivers’ Champion Anthony McIntosh, opted to forego a late ‘splash and dash’ to instead fuel save to the finish. Pepper expertly did so, winning by a lap from the sister No.27 BMW of Christopher Hasse, Thomas Kiefer, Julian Hanses, Mathieu Detry and Stanislav Minsky.

“It was a casual Sunday drive at the end…I’m kidding!”, reflected an elated Pepper, “We went a bit risky with a lot of fuel saving at the end but it was good fun. Credit to the team, huge thanks to them for welcoming me onboard. My team-mates have been superstars, every single one of them have done an amazing job. To win my first BMW race as a BMW works driver is a dream come true.”

“It feels great”, said van der Linde, “Just before December I said to the team I really want to come to Dubai and tick this one off, it was the one race I was still missing – it’s been an amazing job by the whole team. Thanks to the guys, the strategy as always from Team WRT speaks for itself.”

TFT Racing began the race from pole position, with Top 10 Shoot Out pole qualifier Benjamin Paque at the wheel of the No.28 Mercedes-AMG. At the start though, he was swamped by the No.669 BMW of van der Linde and the fast launching Loek Hartog in the No.10 Herberth Porsche. 

The first Code 60 of the race came extremely quickly, due to contact at Turn Nine, but racing swiftly resumed with van der Linde, Hartog and Paque battling tooth and nail. Paque soon started to drop away from the lead pair though, and he was shuffled down the lead pack. 

James Kellett, in the AM class Paradine BMW, had rocketed from 12th on the grid into third by lap seven and Engel, driving the No.16 Winward Mercedes-AMG, was into fourth. Everything stayed close at the front up to the first stops, where van der Linde and Hartog entered pitlane nose-to-tail.

Herberth turned their car around faster, Au now at the wheel, and soon enough there were more Code 60s which continued to shuffle and shake-up the order. One of the biggest interventions came when the Ajith RedAnt Racing Mercedes retired with a blown engine. 

Dustin Blattner now led in the Al Manar by Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, but by hour four the BMWs were back in control with Augusto Farfus leading in the No.991 Paradine car. Alexander Bukhantsov was in the mix as well in the No.2 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II.

As sunset arrived the BMWs definitely had the edge, as other contenders faltered. In hour eight the No.81 Winward Racing Mercedes came to a halt minus its right-rear wheel, and duly retired, and just half an hour later the No.2 Audi R8 also lost its right-rear wheel at the same part of the track.

During the small hours of Sunday morning there were more dramas. Two of the Dragon Racing Ferraris retired with damage, the most significant being the No.777 Al Manar badged car which was destroyed after huge contact with the wall at Turn Nine. Thankfully, driver Al Faisal Al Zubair was OK.

At the front all remained well set, until the final half hour that is when racing resumed after a late Code 60. The No.992 Paradine BMW, which had been faultless with Kellett, Ahmad Al Harthy, Darren Leung and double-duty McIntosh, retired to the pits from third with the blown disc and tyre. Pepper coaxed his BMW to the win while fuel saving, with Hasse second after a late fuel stop.

Pole starter Rik Breukers led away in the Red Camel-Jordans.nl Porsche, with Paul Meijer in the Muhlner Motorsport car second and van Eijndhoven third for Tierra Outdoor. Through the early stops and Code 60 periods the lead of 992 changed hands several times, with de Haan in the Tierra Outdoor Porsche looking very competitive. 

At the three hour mark de Haan led, Muhlner’s Jiatong Liang and Martin Ragginger for Neuhofer Rennsport having both taken turns at the top, and the No.910 Seblajoux Racing car and No.924 Red Ant Racing Porsches were also building their challenges.

The front-running 992 battle remained very close, but Tierra Outdoor did seem to be taking more of a hold on first place with van Eijndhoven. There was bad news for the No.914 Razoon – More Than Racing car though on Saturday evening when its bid was damaged after losing a front wheel.

At 10 hours van Eijndhoven pitted from the lead, with Ivo Breukers running second in the Red Camel car and Mathys Jaubert third in the No.910. Team GP-Elite held the 992 AM lead, fourth overall, at that stage with Jukka Honkavuori at the wheel. Then, early in hour 11, Red Camel’s race came to a dramatic halt when Ivo Breukers had to avoid another car and hit the barriers at Turn Five. 

Through the early hours and past sunrise on Sunday morning Tierra Outdoor were increasingly in control and ultimately won by a couple of laps. Red Ant Racing took a strong 992 AM victory in second overall, with the No.910 Seblajoux car of Jaubert, Lajoux, Louis Perrot, Solenn Amrouche and Enzo Joulie completing the overall 992 podium.

Leipert Motorsport began the race from GTX pole, Thalin at the wheel of its Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, but it was the GT 3 Poland Lamborghini in the hands of Andrezj Lewandowski which took the early lead ahead of Roman Rusinov in the Rossa LM GT.

Rusinov soon moved to the head of the class and took a firm grip for the first three hours, but the Team CMR Ginetta G56 had, not-so-quietly, been making progress and in hour four Mitchell took the lead for the British marque.

The Ginetta and Rossa soon became embroiled in a fantastic back-and-forth battle, less than five seconds splitting the cars at one third distance, but an incident for the Rossa on Sunday morning triggered an immediate retirement. The Ginetta therefore looked well set in the lead of GTX, but with two and a half hours to run the car stopped on track with smoke filling the cabin.

Team CMR’s mechanics swiftly found the issue, a split exhaust silencer, and the car returned to the race – Mitchell taking over from Prost – albeit 16 laps off the lead. Leipert ultimately won 16 laps clear, with the Ginetta having enough in hand to see off the troubled No.701 Vortex for second.

Cerny Motorsport completely dominated GT4 for the entirety of the 24 hours to perfectly wrap-up their Middle East Trophy campaign. Bednarski stormed into a big lead from pole in the BMW M4 GT4 and while the No.427 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) valiantly provided competition, the result never realistically looked in doubt for Cerny.

At 10 hours the lead stood at eight laps and they continued to put more and more space between themselves and their pursuers to the finish. Both the No.427 Porsche and the No.444 Circuit Toys Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 encountered problems, and they battled tightly to the end.

Great racing was provided in TCE-TCX from the get-go, the No.127 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) led from pole in the hands of Darian Donkel with the No.111 asBest Racing Porsche 718 of Zaamin Jaffer running strongly in second.

Early damage for the No.111 stymied its bid, a separate incident also causing damage to the No.127, and therefore the No.102 asBest Cupra TCR DSG assumed the lead. From that point forward it was never challenged. Second in TCE-TCX, and victory in TCE-TC, went to the KCMG Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO ‘B spec’ shared by Paul Ip, Andy Yan, Marchy Lee and Ho-Pin Tung.

With the Middle East Trophy now concluded, focus turns to the five-round 2026 Michelin 24H SERIES European Series which will begin in Italy on 20/21/22 March with the Michelin 12H MUGELLO.