Saturday 15 January, 2022. After an unblemished 24 hours, Sweden’s Emil Persson crosses the line at the Dubai Autodrome to secure a commanding win for HRT Performance, the first for the team at the Hankook 24H DUBAI at its ninth attempt. 

Yes, you did read that correctly. While HRT Performance has been a pillar of the event since its first run back in 2012, it would be 10 full years before the Hamburg-based outfit finally secured not just its first win at the Hankook 24H DUBAI, but, incredibly, its first podium finish.

Baffling, isn’t it?! Such though is the unpredictable (and occasionally just downright cruel) nature of endurance motorsport in which HRT Performance and Kim Hauschild have been so heavily involved since the team’s foundation more than a decade ago.

“We actually started this as a hobby,” Kim explains to CREVENTIC. “My father started racing very late, in his 40s. He immediately fell in love with it, and after I went with him to some of his races, I also wanted to start. I got my junior license when I was 15 – I did a lot of sprint racing, Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo in the years after that – and the next year, we bought our own car. 

“From that moment on, we kept growing as a team and it got more and more professional every year. We raced in [Porsche’s] one-make championship for two years: I was driving, and we rented out the other seats. 

“In 2018, I founded my own company to work with my own customers, but I still do everything together with my father. Today, I’m in charge of my company and my cars for the endurance program, and he focuses on the team’s sprint racing.”

That HRT’s long-awaited win in Dubai should come 10 years after the team’s debut with CREVENTIC was particularly fitting. Prior to that, HRT – then entering as ‘Hamburg Racing Team’ – had competed mostly at the Nürburgring as part of the then-VLN (“after the Porsche Carrera Cup, we changed to the Nürburgring and raced there for seven years in the NLS and at the [Nürburgring] 24 Hours.”). Of course, even with hundreds of hours around Europe’s most menacing race venue under its belt, a 24-hour race in the Middle East would prove a far different prospect to the still-fledgling HRT. 

Oddly though, it wasn’t the challenges of an endurance race in the middle of the desert that first attracted Kim to the Hankook 24H DUBAI…

“The most interesting thing to us was the timing!” Kim continues. “When we first started, there wasn’t much else to do in Europe, and Dubai was a very nice destination and helped us keep active during the winter. So, yeah, the timing and the location was the perfect combination for us. It was mainly about having a good time with the drivers.

“For me, that’s what [the Hankook 24H DUBAI] is about. Racing at the Nürburgring was like a different ‘spirit’ of racing.”

Lining up for HRT’s first crack at the Hankook 24H DUBAI, and in only his third 24-hour race to that point (he’d previously taken on the daunting Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2010 and 2011), Kim teamed with the experienced Vic Rice, Karl Pflanz and future 24H SERIES staple, Shane Lewis. Notably though, with the team’s association with Porsche Motorsport still a little over two years away, Hamburg Racing’s hopes lay instead with Aston Martin’s ‘N24’-spec Vantage GT4. 

“In comparison to each other, the Aston Martin GT4s we used in 2012 were like sports cars converted into race cars, while the Porsche Cup cars are purely built to be race cars. We have nice memories of the Aston Martin times, but the fact that we’ve stayed with Porsche Cup cars since we made the switch in 2014 speaks for itself as to how happy we are with Porsche!”

Were the learning curve of a brand-new endurance event not daunting enough, HRT, ambitiously, opted to run three Aston Martins on its first outing in Dubai too. Logistical headaches aside, Kim is adamant that a multi-car line-up provides the team with strategic benefits that a single car simply cannot…

“In general, it just makes more sense to have at least two or three cars, because you can share spare parts and part of the crew, like the technical direction and team management. Also, if you want to try different things with your setup, that of course helps a lot too. In the end, I’d say it’s not ideal to run just one car.

“But it also depends on the team and what’s possible for them, because the most difficult thing with a two or three-car line-up is finding customers and drivers. But if you can freely choose? It’s much more work, but it’s beneficial, in many different areas, to run multiple cars.”

Given that HRT has run one (2017, ’18, and ’20), two (’15, ’19 and ‘21), three (’12 and ’16), four (‘22) and even an unprecedented FIVE (‘23) car line-up at the event over the years, we’re intrigued: what’s the optimum number of cars a team ‘should’ run at the Hankook 24H DUBAI?!

“The perfect amount of cars, to make things easy and smooth without having much experience… is… tricky!” – Kim flashes us a non-committal smile. – “It increases the risk that some things won’t go as smoothly as you want them to, and you really need to have a lot of good people you’ve worked with for a long time if you want to run more than two cars.”

Overheating issues sadly blighted ‘Hamburg’s trio of Aston Martins in 2012, and while all three did eventually cross the line, two of them did so in an underwhelming 18th and 19th in-class. Kim’s #125 entry meanwhile, despite an engine temperature spike very early on and a general lack of straight-line speed against the Ginetta G50s with which it was competing, was in contention for an SP3-GT4 podium during the night until a ruptured oil line in the gearbox lost the team two hours. 

“It doesn’t matter how well you plan everything, when the race starts, things can happen, and it’s always about how you react to that. You can have contact during the first hour, and then your setup is all over the place, but you still need to deal with that for another 23 hours. That’s just the endurance ‘spirit.’ Whatever happens to you, keep going and try to fix it, because bad luck can happen to everyone. You always keep fighting because you never know where you might end up at the finish.”

Though disappointing, 5th in-class first time was still a solid return from, what had been, a tough debut at the Hankook 24H DUBAI. So tough in fact, it would be another three years before the team, now rebranded as ‘HRT Performance,’ returned to the event. Now sporting two Porsche 997 Cup cars, HRT’s first Hankook 24H DUBAI representing Stuttgart in 2015 proved a hard-fought if slightly disappointing affair, considering the team’s high expectations going in. 

“With the endurance experience we had from other races like the Nürburgring 24 Hours, plus our first impressions from the race in 2012, we felt we were ready to compete for the win.”

Kim, now back on driver detail alongside Andreas Marc Riedl, Santiago Creel and Oscar Arroyo in 2015, ended up winning the inter-team ‘battle’ in 9th. Not bad considering the sister #59 entry was driven that weekend by future Mercedes factory driver Indy Dontje, future four-time TCR Denmark champion Kasper Jensen, and future 24H SERIES TCR Drivers’ champion – and new 992 ‘rival’ – Kim Holmgaard. 

One year later (by which point Kim had taken his first 24H SERIES win at Zandvoort), HRT repeated its 9th in-class finish, though Kim recorded his first DNF in Dubai as a driver when teammate Harald Hennes shunted heavily shortly before midnight. A sad end to a resilient drive after a lost fan belt led to engine cooling issues early on. 

Ironically, HRT’s gallant fightback in Dubai was overshadowed by its own driver line-up in 2016, as IndyCar race winner, and NASCAR convert, Alex Tagliani joined the team for his 24-hour racing debut. 

“Alex came together with another Canadian driver – Jean-Frédéric Laberge – who he was coaching. They both wanted to do something different outside North America, so they contacted us and joined us for that year’s race.”

No stranger to the pressures of endurance racing even at that point, did a semi-high-profile addition to the driver line-up bring increased expectations? 

“In some ways, yes. In the past years, we’ve had a lot of professional drivers, also some factory drivers, and it always adds a little bit of pressure because they’re used to such a high standard. And you want to give a good impression of your team. But in the end, if you do a good job, it’s more a benefit than pressure, because these guys bring so much experience in every area. They’re not just driving. They give quality feedback on setup much faster than a gentleman driver can, and they know all the mechanisms around the car – how it should be, what not to do – and try to help make everything run as smoothly as possible. In the end, it’s a very helpful thing to have!”

A two-year stint with MSG Motorsport and Russia’s Vintic & Shpuntic produces little joy for HRT: the team’s 2017 race lasts just 154 laps before the standalone Porsche ends its race against the barriers, while a heavy collision in 2019 means the short-lived Russian Vintic collaboration lasts only 16 laps in 2019. Particularly cruel, as this was the first endurance event for HRT’s new, second generation 991.2s. 

Bolstered by 7th in-class in 2018 however, HRT’s Hankook 24H DUBAI momentum was finally starting to shift by 2019. Its ‘MSG’ entry humiliated the sister ‘Vintic’ car by qualifying 3rd in-class and finishing 5th. But for a broken fan belt that cost the team an hour during the night, MSG by HRT, which had been leading the 991 class, would almost certainly have challenged for the win. 

One year later, HRT secured its best finish in Dubai – 4th in-class – after gambling on slick tyres during the famously-rain-shortened event’s opening rain shower. When the red flags were eventually flown, the #969 was an impressive 22nd overall on the timing screens.

As the winds of change were starting to blow, Kim, onboard the MSG by HRT Porsche in 2018, had already started his transition to full-time team management. While the competitive juices still flowed, it was time for the family team to take priority…

“It’s possible [to be team manager and a driver], but you have to sacrifice some things. If the opportunity comes along to drive – like in Kuwait last year – then I’d grab it right away. But it’s only possible if you have a very, very good system, and that’s why, for the last two or three years, we’ve focused on building a structure and a system in the team that works automatically. Each car has its own engineer, its own mechanics, its own re-fuelling guy, etc, so that each car can operate in its own interest and always aim for the best result. This is the only way you can be very competitive when you run multiple cars in endurance racing.

“Right now, we are at a stage where we have built such a good self-working system around every car that I would be able to drive myself.”

Sadly, HRT’s newly-built Dubai momentum came to a shuddering halt with a disastrous run in 2021. Brake failure meant the #928 was buried deep in the turn one tyre barriers after just five laps, damaging the chassis in the process (Fabio Citignola fortunately emerged unscathed barring some knocks and bruises). Brutally, the sister #929 was the next confirmed retirement from the event when Holger Harmsen ricocheted off both the pit wall and the grandstand barriers exiting turn 16. Less than five hours into the 2021 Hankook 24H DUBAI, HRT Performance was already packing up and heading home.

It's a race that clearly still stings, and one that, understandably, Kim doesn’t particularly want to relive…

“In 2022, I was very, very grateful that we got rewarded a year after, probably, the worst endurance race we’ve ever had.”

And so to 2022. Putting memories of the year before firmly behind them, Gustav Bard, Gustav Bergström, Henric Skoog and Patrik Skoog utterly dominated the new 992-Am class, establishing a two-lap lead over their rivals by half-distance and extending this to eight laps at the flag. Adding yet further to the team’s celebrations, the second HRT Porsche (#928) completed the 992 rostrum in 3rd after its own clean run, while the third (#930) overcame early delays to ensure HRT Performance had three cars in the 992-Am top four! 

“It felt so good, especially when, the year before, we were so unlucky. It was a good reward for all the effort the guys at HRT always put into endurance racing.

“I think 2021 was the first year where we really aimed to do a full season with CREVENTIC, so from that moment on, we tried to improve all of our systems within the team. We always look to add one more per cent in every area, and improve everything a little bit, and I think that was the moment when all the work from the past years just came together for us. “That year we had a very good driver line-up, we got a little bit of luck as well, and we got rewarded for that.”

Though the team couldn’t quite replicate that class win in 2023, two of HRT’s five Porsches secured another double podium just over a lap behind the victorious Huber Motorsport, with only one failing to go the distance after a heavy shunt against the barriers on lap 21 (again, Michael Blanchemain was uninjured).  

Ironically though, and much like 2016, HRT’s on-track performance was slightly overshadowed by its driver line-up, as Kim and his team were running not just two standalone ‘HRT’ cars and fan favourite NKPP Racing that weekend, but also two Porsches partnered, officially, with the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation. A first for the sporting body. 

“Running five cars in 2023 was the biggest operation in the history of our team. Probably the biggest one in the history of that race! And entering two out of those cars with the QMMF was a special challenge on top of that. They had very high standards and expectations: if they do something, they want to do it right. From a team’s point of view, it´s very nice to have a partner that wants to run such a project in the best possible way, in every area. 

“But I also have to admit that it came with a lot of pressure for us to perform. The whole project was much more than ‘just’ running two cars in Dubai. It started with a drivers’ development program in Spain where we did simulator training and rented a full track for two days of testing and coaching with the Qatari drivers. And these were super committed drivers who made huge improvements and took home several podiums on top of that. In the end we had a very great time, and we are really looking forward to continuing that project in the future.”

After 11 years and 10 entries, it feels like HRT Performance have finally found their rhythm heading into the 2024 Hankook 24H DUBAI. Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if one of the event’s most tenured teams was looking to upstage its competitors once again in 2024. 

“We would love to see a full HRT 1-2-3 podium one day. That would be a dream!”

That’s the goal anyway. But as Kim Hauschild and everyone at HRT Performance knows all-too well, endurance racing rarely goes that smoothly.