More than 20 GT3-spec cars headline an 80 car entry for next weekend’s 2020 Dubai 24 Hours, opening round of the 24H Series.

The top tier GT3 category, renamed from ‘A6’ for 2020 sees 21 cars currently listed in the GT3-Pro and GT3-Am classes covering five different marques.

Audi, 6 cars

MS7 by WRT: (Pro) features factory drivers Dries Vanthoor and Christopher Mies plus Mohammed Said Fahad Al Said and Michael Vergers

WRT: (Pro) features factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van Der Linde plus Rolf and Mark Ineichen

Car Collection: (Pro) features factory driver Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock plus multiple 24 Hour race winner Rik Breukers and Mike-David Ortmann and Dimitri Parthofer

Attempto Racing: Pro) with Duncan Huisman, Luc and Max Braams and Nicolas Schöll

Sainteloc Racing: (Am)

Car Collection: (Am)

BMW, 1 car

3Y Technology

Lamborghini, 1 car

Barwell Motorsport: (Pro) Dennis Lind, Jordan Witt, Adrian Amstutz and Patrick Kujala

Mercedes AMG, 8 cars

Black Falcon: (Pro) Khaled Al Qubaisi, Ben Barker, Hubert Haupt, Manuel Metzger and Jeroen Bleekemolen

SPS automotive performance: (Pro) Tom Onslow-Cole, Dominik Baumann, Lance David Arnold and Valentin Pierburg

HTP Winward: (Pro) with factory drivers Maxi Buhkk and Maxi Gotz, Christopher Bruck and Al Faisal Al Zubair

Toksport WRT: (Pro) Maro Engel with Luca Stolz, Philip Ellis, Patrick Assenheimer and Martin Konrad

Toksport WRT: (Am)

MP Motorsport: (Am) featuring Jaap van Lagen

Team Hong Kong Craft-Bamboo: (Am)

CP Racing: (Am) All US line-up featuring Joe Foster, Mike Hedlund, Shane Lewis, Charles Espenlaub and Charles Putnam

Porsche, 6 cars

GPX Racing: (Pro) Factory driver Dirk Werner is joined by Porsche Young Professional Julien Andlauer with Stuart Hall, Jordan Grogor and Frederic Fatien completing the line-up.

Dinamic Motorsport: (Pro) has a five driver line-up featuring Klaus Bachler as the lead Pro.

Herbert Motosport: (Pro) Porsche factory driver Sven Müller is joined by Robert an Alfred Renauer, Ralf Bohn and Daniel Allemann

Dinamic Motorsport: (Am)

Dinamic Motorsport: (Am)

Earl Bamber Motorsport: (Am) Will bomber headlines an otherwise all AM line-up

Competition is set to be similarly tight further back in the field. Newly-crowned 24H SERIES Continents GT champion Leipert Motorsport makes its now traditional trip to Dubai aiming to repeat its class win from 2019 in the newly renamed ‘GTX’ class.

Dutch endurance racing legend Cor Euser returns to Dubai with his eponymously entered MARC II V8, a quintessentially Australian sports car also entered by 24H SERIES returnee, and former SP2 champion, VDS Racing Adventures. As was the case last year, the heritage-liveried Exige V6 Cup R of Lotus PB Racing is sure to be among the fan favourites at the Dubai Autodrome.

MRS GT-Racing bolsters the ‘991’ field with a three-strong Porsche 991-II Cup line-up, and will be a pre-race favourite for the category win alongside compatriot, and former ‘991’ class Dubai winner, race:pro motorsport. Another contender is sure to be Porsche Lorient Racing, the reigning category champion in both the ‘Europe’ and ‘Continents’ calendars that signed off a successful 2019 season with a class win at the Circuit of the Americas. As a two-time class winner last year, Belgium’s Speed Lover will also be an entry to keep an eye on.

Across in GT4, reigning class champion Sorg Rennsport last year claimed 2nd in-class in Dubai in the dying moments of the race. Alongside the second entry for Leipert Motorsport, competition will no doubt be tight courtesy of Canadian competitor ST Racing, the eponymous team of Ontarian sensation, Samantha Tan, former TCE division champion Hofor-Racing by Bonk Motorsport, and Ciceley Motorsport, the endurance-racing arm of the British Touring Car Championship team. Another 24H SERIES fan favourite, Century Motorsport, returns to action in the UAE with two BMW M4 GTs.

More than a dozen entries feature in the ‘TCR’ class.

Chief among them is the dual Volkswagen Golf GTI entry from Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing, which last year completed an outstanding maiden partnership to claim both TCE division championships in the 24H SERIES. The Swiss team will go head-to-head in 2020 once again with touring car specialists Team Dynamics Motorsport, Dutch racing legend Bas Koeten, Asian standouts KCMG and former TCR-class champions, Nordschleife Racing. The latter in particular will make headlines in Dubai when it begins its first full championship assault in the 24H SERIES with the brand new Ligier JS2 R.

The 2020 Hankook 24H DUBAI also celebrates the start of a brand new partnership for the 24H SERIES with Trees for the Future. TREES, a public charity incorporated on 14 August 1989 and with roots dating back to the 1970s, has successfully planted over 170 million trees in more than 60 nations across Asia, Africa, and the Americas as it aims to improve the livelihoods of impoverished farmers by revitalizing degraded lands. As part of its new partnership with Dutch organising body CREVENTIC, one tree for every lap completed by each of our competitors across this year’s 24H SERIES season will be planted in 2020. To put that into perspective, the GT and TCE divisions collaboratively completed 33,485 laps at last year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI, while the 2017 and 2018 races each surpassed the 40,000+ mark.

Official sessions and the race itself will be streamed live through the official 24H SERIES YouTube channel. The coverage will include full commentary and analysis from radiolemans.com

Free Practice for the 11th annual Hankook 24H DUBAI begins at 10.20 hrs local time on Thursday 9th January and is followed by Qualifying and Night Practice at 15.05 hrs and 18.00 hrs respectively later the same day. The green flag will be flown at 15.00 hrs on Friday 10th January, and the race will run uninterrupted until the chequered flag is unfurled 24 hours later on Saturday 11th January.

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