Our magazine for the 2021 Hankook 24H DUBAI is now available for digital download. Across 90 pages, record-breaking three-time winners Jeroen Bleekemolen, Hubert Haupt and the UAE’s own Khaled Al Qubaisi discuss their respective journeys to the Dubai top step. Series stalwart Ricky Coomber walks us through the annual build-up to the Hankook 24H DUBAI, including how the 2021 edition will differ. CREVENTIC outlines what fans and competitors can expect across the 2021 24H SERIES season. And resident photographer Petr Frýba walks us through his favourite shots of 2020. And that really is just for starters!
Go back 12 months, and CREVENTIC, plus more than 250-plus competitors on the Dubai Autodrome grid, were gearing up for the 15th annual Hankook 24H DUBAI. An event that would surely be among the most significant in the event’s illustrious history.
How right we all were… sort of…
Just after seven hours of the race had elapsed, torrential rain caused the red flags to be thrown at the Dubai Autodrome. With vast quarters of the track, and the paddock, still underwater come daybreak, any hope of the restarting the race was extinguished. And so it was that, in the shortest running of the event to-date, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Hubert Haupt and the UAE’s own Khaled Al Qubaisi were able to celebrate a record-breaking third win apiece at CREVENTIC’s biggest event of the season. As the trio explain themselves, the journey into the record books has been a long and difficult one.
That the worst was behind the 24H SERIES after a chaotic season opener seemed a foregone conclusion. But again, nobody could predict that, just a few months later, the worldwide pandemic brought life as we know it to a screeching halt. Indeed, with lockdown restrictions only starting to relax as summer dawned, only then could the second round of the 24H SERIES get underway, SIX months after the Dubai deluge. That CREVENTIC was also the first motorsport promoter to host an international event in more than four months meant all eyes were glued to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve on 13-14 June. Hardly surprising then that Portimão, alongside first-ever visits to a (briefly rain-affected) Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and the Autodromo di Pergusa, are among 24H SERIES resident photographer Petr Fryba’s most significant memories of 2020 HERE.
Here we are though, back in the United Arab Emirates, wiser and more circumspect after a year the likes of which nobody could have predicted. Could the 16th annual Hankook 24H DUBAI pick up where its predecessor left off? Well, if ‘the calm before the (metaphorical) storm’ is anything to go by, then quite possibly.
And bear in mind that Dubai is ‘just’ the first stop on what is promising to be a sensational, nine-race calendar for the 24H SERIES in 2021. Radiolemans.com’s Joe Bradley is already psyched for CREVENTIC’s first visit to the acclaimed Sebring International Raceway in November, and series partner TREES is looking to build on an already impressive 2020 this year.
As confirmed by the team namesake herself, Canada’s Samantha Tan Racing is taking its first big steps into endurance racing with its first full 24H SERIES campaign, while AC Motorsport is more determined than ever to secure its maiden Overall TCE Teams’ championship with the Audi RS 3 LMS. Of course, winning a title in the 24H SERIES is never an easy accomplishment. Just ask Charles Espenlaub…
A lot to look forward to then for fans, competitors and supporters of the 24H SERIES in 2021. Hopefully rain won’t be one of them.
Download. Sit back. Enjoy!
