Lamborghini will be out to spoil the Ferrari party
NGK UAE GT Championship: Who can stop the Ferrari?
This weekend, on Friday, 16 December, rounds of the DAMC organized NGK UAE GT Championship and Total UAE Touring Cars Championship take place at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi with some fierce battles on the cards as national racing goes to the nation’s capital for the first time this season.
The inevitable question before any NGK UAE GT race is: who can beat the Ferrari 458 Italia with Leon Price and Rob Barff sharing cockpit duties.
In truth it is going to take a massive effort to prevent the #888 car from powering to their fourth straight GTA Class victory. If there is any chance, then it will probably be the Gulf Racing Lamborghini LP560 in the capable hands of Fabien Giroix and Frederic Fatien who will dethrone Maranello’s finest. The Lambo has yet to match the pace of the Ferrari, but last time out, at Dubai Autodrome, they were closer than ever.
The GTC Class should be an Aston Martin slugfest with John Iossifidis and Yusef Basel taking on local favourite Saeed Al Mehairi taking on the entire stint on his own in the absence of Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum in the Yas Marina Circuit backed Aston Martin. The NGK UAE GT race format is an hour long mini-enduro with mandatory pit stops and optional driver changes.
Total UAE Touring Cars: Important points up for grabs
Round 7 and Round 8 at Yas Marina Circuit this weekend is set to be another hardcore battle in the tightly contested Total UAE Touring Car Championship, with valuable points up for grabs as the series heads towards the halfway mark.
Total UAE Touring Cars action
Class 1 this year has been a battlefield between a quartet of SEATs in the capable hands of privateer Nader Zuhour, Mohammed Al Owais (Emirates Racing Team), Ramzi Moutran (Duel Racing) and Costas Papantonis (Gulf Petrochem Mouhrista Racing) – in the first six rounds at Dubai Autoddrome there has been little to separate the four, at Yas Marina Circuit much of the same can be expected.
Also very much in the mix is Martin Johnson in the Phoenix Motorsport Vauxhall Astra, who lies second in the points standings behind Zuhour who tops the table heading to Abu Dhabi.
Three of the top five Class 1 drivers have scored victories in the first six races, emphasizing how close the racing in the tin top series continues to be.
Racing is very close in the Total UAE Touring Cars Class 2
In Class 2 the battles are equally fierce with a gaggle of Honda’s scrapping for top honours. Aslam Moola (Emirates Racing Team Honda) heads to Abu Dhabi leading the points from reigning champion Umair Khan (Lap 57 Honda), the pair notching up three wins each so far this season. Also in the hunt will be Jonathan Mullan (GNSS Racing Honda) and Rupesh Chanaka (Lap 57 Honda).
Another ‘race-within-a-race’ is the Clio Cup which should see Khalid Bin Hadher (Emirates Racing Team Renault) defending his points lead from Alexandros Annivas (Gulf Petrochem Mouhrista Racing Renault) and Sami Moutran (Duel Racing Renault) – Bin Hadher has four class wins to his credit, while Annivas has bagged two victories so far and racing has invariably been bumper-to-bumper.
There will be two sprint races for the Total UAE Touring Cars at Yas Marina Circuit on the day.
Also part of the race weekend programme at Yas Marina Circuit are races for UAE Radical Cup, Formula Gulf 1000 and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.
