24H Dubai opens the season for the 24H Series

Following a settled tradition, the 24H Dubai opens the 2019 24H Series this weekend. Competitors will hit the track on Thursday for a couple of 60-minute Free Practices; the Qualifying will follow in the afternoon (from 15:15 to 16:00 local time for TCE teams) and a 90-minute Night Practice will conclude the day. The race will kick off at 15:00 local time on Friday, with the TCE cars taking the start ten seconds behind the GT field.
Thirteen teams have entered in the TCR class, running Audi (6), Volkswagen (2), CUPRA (4) and Honda (1) cars.
The single Honda Civic FK8 is run by Hong Kong-based KCMG and driven by team principal Paul Ip together with experienced Touring Car racers Andy Yan (2016 TCR Asia champion), Henry Lee jr. and Kenneth Ma, and former Asian Formula Renault winner Jim Ka To.
Also from Hong Kong, TeamWork Motorsport has entered a Volkswagen Golf GTI for Sunny Wong and Alex Hui, who have been crowned TCR China champions last week; they are joined by fellow countrymen Paul Poon and Alexander Fung. The second Golf is run jointly by Switzerland’s Autorama Motorsport and Germany’s Wolf-Power Racing.
The winner of last year’s 24H TCE Europe title, Red Camel-Jordans.nl, fields a CUPRA DSG for the cosmopolitan quartet of Ivo Breukers (Dutch), Henry Littig (German), Cory Hill (Australian) and Klaus Kresnik (Austrian). Also running a CUPRA DSG is Hungary’s Zengő Motorsport with team principal Zoltán Zengő sharing driving duties with four fellow countrymen.
Amongst the Audi teams, Finland’s LMS Racing is the most experienced with Antti Buri, Olli Kangas and Kari-Pekka Laaksonen. BTCC regular Team Dynamics Motorsport makes its first TCR appearance with Touring Car expert James Kaye together with Henry and William Neal, the sons of former BTCC champion Matt Neal. Another driver to watch is Gilles Magnus, the young Belgian selected by RACB National Team to take part in the 2019 TCR Benelux; he will drive for AC Motorsport together with another Touring Car expert Vincent Radermecker.