CP Racing, Manamauri Energy by Ebimotors and Century Motorsport, which finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall at the 2023 Hankook 12H KUWAIT, have all confirmed entries for the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI as they continue their 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy championship fight in the United Arab Emirates. 

2018 Overall GT Drivers’ champions Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub and Joe Foster will compete alongside fellow 2023 GT3-Am Drivers’ champion Shane Lewis aboard the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3. Ebimotors meanwhile, which finished a record-breaking half a second behind CP Racing in Kuwait, will again field reigning 992 Drivers’ ‘Europe’ champions Sabino de Castro and Sergiu Nicolae alongside 2021 991 Drivers’ champion Fabrizio Broggi and Cosimo Papi aboard the Romanian-Italian team’s Porsche 992 GT3 R.

Century Motorsport, last year’s GT4 Teams’ Middle East Trophy winner, similarly enters an unchanged driver line-up for the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI as Carl Cavers continues his partnership with Lewis Plato and Jack Barlow aboard the British team’s new BMW M4 GT3. Heading into round two of the 2023/2024 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy, CP Racing, Manamauri Energy by Ebimotors and Century Motorsport are separated by just eight points in the GT3 Teams’ standings.

Herberth Motorsport finished 2nd at last year’s Hankook 6H ABU DHABI by an amazingly slim 7.226 seconds, and will no doubt hope to go one better in 2024 with Alfred and Robert Renauer, and team staple Ralf Bohn aboard its 992-generation Porsche GT3 R. Similarly, Haas RT, which has confirmed a two-car line-up for Abu Dhabi, will hope to replicate, if not improve upon, its 3rd place overall at last year’s event. Stanislav Minsky, Thomas Kiefer, team prodigy Mathieu Detry, and last year’s Hankook 12H ESTORIL winner Torsten Kratz will pilot the team’s #21 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, while Masoud Jaberian and Edoardo Bacci have been confirmed for the Antiguan outfit’s new Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.  

Several teams are set to make their 24H SERIES return on 20-21 January. Saalocin by Kox Racing, which finished 3rd overall in Abu Dhabi in 2022, most recently competed with CREVENTIC at the 2023 Hankook 24H DUBAI, and has confirmed team owner Peter Kox will drive alongside his daughter Stéphane van Poppel-Kox and long-time teammate Nico Pronk in its Porsche 991.2 GT3 R. ARC Bratislava took GT3-AM class victory at last year’s event after an impressive recovery drive from 20th on the grid, and will run team owner Miro Konopka alongside Slovakian compatriot Zdeno Mikulasko and the Czech Republic’s Petr Fulin in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3. 

Attempto Racing meanwhile, a 15-year veteran of the Hankook 24H DUBAI, last competed at the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI in 2021, and even led outright during the early stages. The German team has confirmed Jef Machiels, team regular Alex Arkin Aka, and Florian Scholze, the latter of whom took GT3-Am victory on his most recent series outing at Dubai in 2021, will race its Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II.

New Zealand’s Grove Racing, back for its first 24H SERIES event since finishing 4th overall at last year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI, will enter its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for Grove father and son Stephen and Brenton, and Australia’s Jordan Love. 

Five-time Hankook 24H DUBAI class winner Dragon Racing will make its Hankook 6H ABU DHABI debut with one of its newly-acquired Ferrari 296 GT3s. The UAE team will do so with Andrew Gilbert and Fran Rueda, who lasted competed together with 7TSIX in Dubai in 2023. 

Alongside its GT3 Ferrari, Dragon Racing will also field a Mercedes-AMG for series debutants Keith Gatehouse, Ramez Azzam and Denis Bulatov in the GT4 class.

Armenia’s Artur Goroyan and Roman Mavlanov, who took the TCR class win with Sharky-Racing at Yas Marina last year, will team up in one of two entries for Car Collection Motorsport at Yas Marina: Goroyan and Mavlanov will drive the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, while Dustin Blattner, Loek Hartog and Dennis Marschall will make their respective 24H SERIES debuts in the team’s new Porsche 992 GT3 R, which finished 5th on its maiden outing last year in Barcelona. 

As the winner of the inaugural event in 2021, Car Collection Motorsport could potentially make history in 2024 by becoming the first team to win the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI more than once.

Britain’s Race Lab completes the GT3 field thus far, and will run Lucky Khera, Thomas Surgent and factory driver Euan Hankey – who makes his first 24H SERIES start since 2018 – aboard its McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, marking the first time Woking’s updated GT3 flagship will compete in an official 24H SERIES event.  

Red Camel-Jordans.nl, RABDAN by FULGENZI and series newcomer KKrämer Racing head into the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 992 Teams’ 24H SERIES Middle East Trophy standings after locking out the class podium in Kuwait. 

Red Camel will once again run Breukers father-son duo Ivo and Luc alongside 2019 Overall TCE Drivers’ ‘Europe’ champion Fabian Danz, while RABDAN Motorsport team principal Saif Alameri will race alongside Emirati compatriot Helal Almazrouei and Austria’s Christopher Zöchling at his home event in Abu Dhabi.

Heading into the second round of its first international motor racing program, KKrämer Racing has again registered two cars for Abu Dhabi. Cameron Mcleod and Marco ‘Speakerwas’ will race the ‘992’ entered #937 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup, while team boss Karsten Krämer will float between both the #937 and the 992-Am-entered #936 Porsche alongside Michele Di Martino and ‘Selv.’

24H SERIES stalwart HRT Performance, which took a double podium and 992-Am victory at last year’s Hankook 6H ABU DHABI, will also run a two-car entry at Yas Marina. British teammates Graeme Mundy and Arron Mason are confirmed for the #918 Porsche, which has been entered in collaboration with ‘PRP Motorsports’, while the Qatar Motor & Motocycle Federation returns for a second official program with HRT in 2024, confirming Qatari teammates Abdulla Ali Al Khelaifi, Ghanim Al Ali and Ibrahim Al Abdulghani alongside driver coach Julian Hanses in the sister #931 ‘QMMF by HRT’ entry. 

Mühlner Motorsport, a frontrunner in the 2022 Prototype Cup Germany, is set to make its first 24H SERIES start since finishing 3rd overall at the Hankook 24H PORTIMAO in 2020 (Vladislav Lomko is the sole driver registered so far). Markus and Felix Neuhofer meanwhile, who finished 2nd overall at last year’s Hankook 6H ABU DHABI, will also return to the event with their eponymous Neuhofer Rennsport Porsche 992 GT3 Cup. The father-son duo will be joined by Alexey Denisov on driver detail, and the team will collaborate with multi-time Hankook 24H DUBAI class winner, MRS GT-Racing. 

One year on from challenging for a 992-Am class podium in Dubai, SebLajoux Racing by DUWO Racing is set to make its series return. Team principal Sebastien Lajoux will be joined by Benjamin Paque and Stéphane Perrin, the latter of whom made history in 2023 by becoming only the second driver in 24H SERIES history to take an overall win in both the GT division (Mugello) and the TCE division (Dubai) during the same season.  

The returning NKPP Racing by Bas Koeten Racing and MDM Ireckonu round out the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI 992 field so far. The former has entered Harry Hilders and Gijs Bessem, while the latter will be joined by Jan Jaap van Roon and newly-crowned TCR Europe Touring Car Series champion, Tom Coronel. Significantly, on two of his three most recent outings with CREVENTIC, the World Touring Car Championship legend has taken class victory. 

2019 Overall GT Teams’ ‘Continents’ champion Leipert Motorsport, also the GTX Teams’ ‘Europe’ champion of 2022, headlines the GTX line-up on its first 24H SERIES outing in more than 18 months. Series regulars, and American contemporaries, Gregg Gorski and Gerhard Watzinger are set to drive the German team’s Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo. 

Leipert Motorsport is another former overall podium finisher in Abu Dhabi, having finished 2nd overall at the inaugural edition in 2021. 

Also among the GTX frontrunners will be razoon – more than racing. The reigning GTX Teams’ Middle East Trophy winner endured a tough race at Kuwait en-route to 3rd in-class, but impressed with strong wins in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi last year. Daniel Drexel and Artur Chwist return to the KTM X-BOW GTX, and will be joined by Denis Liebl who replaces team owner Dominik Olbert.  

Hankook 12H KUWAIT class winner Toro Verde continues its development program with the new Ginetta G56 Cup on 20-21 January, with Ginetta CEO Lawrence Tomlinson once again driving alongside his son Freddie and Ginetta works driver, Mike Simpson. 

After a promising competitive debut at the Hankook 12H KUWAIT, Vortex V8 will hope its new ‘2.0’ prototype sports car can compete at the front in the UAE. Team owners Arnaud and Olivier Gomez will be joined, as they were in Kuwait, by Philippe Bonnel and Lionel Amrouche. 

Portugal’s P21 Motorsport, a regular at the Hankook 6H ABU DHABI and a GTX podium finisher in 2023, returns for its third outing at the event, and, fittingly, boasts an all-Portuguese driver line-up. Team boss José Monroy, Jorge Figueiredo and Rui Miritta will drive the team’s #715 first-generation 991 GT3 Cup, while Kika Queiroz, Alexandre Fonseca and Rúben Costa will compete in the sister #721 Porsche. 

Series debutant Scott Sport rounds out the GTX field, doing so with a Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo for Keith Frieser, Mikkel Mac and team namesake Aaron Scott. 

Fresh from their GT4 class win in Kuwait, Dubai’s AGMC Racing and Simpson Motorsport continue their collaboration in Abu Dhabi. The BMW M4 GT4 will be driven by Fabian Duffieux, Tim Docker and Ivan Krapivtsev as the British team looks to secure its first category title in the 24H SERIES. 

Like Dragon Racing, Century Motorsport will also field a second car in the GT4 class. Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead will drive a BMW M4 GT4.

For the first time in 24H SERIES history, two Toyotas are set to compete at the same event. The first – an official TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK entry – will be piloted by Michael O'brien, Benjamin Tusting, Samuel Harrison and Kavi Jundu, while the second has been registered by series debutant Continental Racing for the returning Vasily Vladykin, Andrey Solukovtsev and the UAE’s Ahmed Al Khaja.

Both teams will run a Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo, marking only the second 24H SERIES event for the model since an example debuted at last year’s Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS. 

Alongside the AGMC Racing by Simpson Motorsport GT4 entry, the British team, as it did in Kuwait, has also entered an Audi RS 3 LMS DSG in the TCR class for Andrei Muraveika, Jason Garrett and British touring car legend, James Kaye. Though its driver line-up is unconfirmed, Belgium’s AC Motorsport, the overall TCE winner of the Hankook 24H DUBAI in 2023, has confirmed an Audi RS 3 LMS for Abu Dhabi, and will be looking to improve upon a troubled run to 3rd in-class last year. 

Fresh from its series return in Kuwait, former SP3 and TCX Teams’ champion CWS Engineering will compete with team owner Colin White and Dale Albutt driving its Ginetta G55 in Abu Dhabi. Race Track Competition meanwhile, which competed as ‘LAMERA by Racetrack’ in 2022, rounds out the 2024 Hankook 6H ABU DHABI field so far with its Lamera Cup. The Luxembourg team boasts a (nearly) all Luxembourg team for its maiden series race, having registered Tommy Rollinger, Laurent Özkan and Gilles Bruckner alongside France’s Daniel Lamouli.

2021              

1.  Car Collection Motorsport (Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo) – 140 laps
2. Leipert Motorsport (Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo) – 137 laps
3. PROFILDOORS by Huber Racing (Porsche 991-II Cup) – + 56.274

2022              

1. Baron Motorsport (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo) – 166 laps
2. JR Motorsport (BMW M6 GT3) – 165 laps
3. Saalocin by KoxRacing (Porsche 991.2 GT3 R) – 38.822s

2023              

1. Pure Rxcing (Porsche 991.2 GT3 R) – 165 laps
2. Herberth Motorsport (Porsche 991.2 GT3 R) – 7.226
3. Haas RT (Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II) – 10.032