The 2009 TOYO Tires Dubai 24 Hour was the 4th running of the Dubai 24 Hour endurance event. The race was held at the Dubai Autodrome and was organized by the promoter Creventic. The official event commenced on 8 January and finished on 10 January 2009.
Overview Practice days for the event began on 5 January 2009, followed by qualifying on 8 January which decided the grid positions for the race. The 24-hour event began on January 9 and finished on January 10. A total 78 entrants from all over the world participated in the event.
Qualifying Qualifying began on January 8 on a sunny afternoon. The cars from the A6 class dominated the top of the time table, and it was no surprise when one of the Porsche 997 GT3 cars occupied Pole Position. Apart from this, a notable curb in the domination of the Porsches was in the shape of a 3-Year Old Mégane driven by the Equipe Vershuur Team which took 3rd place on the grid with a stunning lap of 2:04.168, beating some of the more agile vehicles on the grid.
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold. Pos No. Team Car Class Lap Time Difference 1 34 Autorlando Sport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR A6 2:01.183 2 41 Land Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR A6 2:02.487 +1.304 3 107 Equipe Verschuur Renault Mégane Trophy SP1 2:04.168 +2.985 4 46 Khaleji Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:05.277 +4.094 5 69 Al Faisal Racing BMW Z4 Coupe A5 2:05.279 +4.096 6 33 Lukas Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:06.506 +5.323 7 12 ARC Bratislava Porsche 911 GT3 A6 2:07.276 +6.093 8 42 Land Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:07.466 +6.283 9 28 Jetalliance Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:08.084 +6.901 10 17 De Lorenzi Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:08.268 +7.085 11 32 First Motorpsort Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S A6 2:08.282 +7.099 12 111 Bovi Motorsport Brokernet Silver Sting SP1 2:08.454 +7.271 13 100 Hubert Bergh Motorsport Porsche 997 Supercup A6 2:09.115 +7.932 14 35 CM Creativ Marketing GmbH Porsche 996 GT3 Cup A6 2:09.128 +7.945 15 118 PMB Motorsport Porsche 996 GT2-R SP2 2:09.175 +7.992 16 104 Khaleji Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT SP2 2:09.218 +8.035 17 103 Gravity Racing International Mosler MT900R GT3 SP2 2:09.371 +8.188 18 9 Motorsport International Jaguar X-type Silhouette SP1 2:09.396 +8.213 19 77 Attempto Racing Porsche 997 Cup A6 2:09.626 +8.443 20 18 Besaplast Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:09.630 +8.447 21 44 Mal Rose Racing Holden Commodore SS SP2 2:09.703 +8.520 22 23 RJN Motorsport Nissan 350Z GT3 A5 2:10.193 +9.010 23 27 Autoweiland.de Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:10.688 +9.485 24 8 Duller Motorsport BMW M3 GTR A5 2:10.842 +9.659 25 39 CC Car Collectuon Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:10.945 +9.762 26 30 First Motorsport Porsche 996 Supercup A6 2:11.062 +9.879 27 117 PMB Motorsport Porsche 996 GT2-R SP2 2:11.419 +10.236 28 24 Motors TV BMW 135i SP2 2:11.469 +10.286 29 888 Audi CR-8 Team Audi R8 LMS SP2 2:11.603 +10.420 30 53 RJN Motorsport Nissan 350Z A5 2:11.965 +10.782 31 10 Duller Motorsport BMW M3 GTR A5 2:12.146 +10.963 32 26 Autoweiland.de Porsche 997 Cup A6 2:12.392 +11.209 33 101 SartoriusTeam Black Falcon BMW M3 GTS SP2 2:12.394 +11.211 34 3 Speedlover Porsche 997 GT3 A6 2:12.412 +11.229 35 22 Chad Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup A6 2:12.424 +11.241 36 120 Empire Motorsports Lotus 2 Eleven A5 2:12.678 +11.495 37 15 CC Car Collection Porsche 996 GT3 Cup A6 2:13.610 +12.427 38 113 Gomez Competition Solution-F Touring Cup SP1 2:13.870 +12.687 39 112 Gomez Competition Solution-F Touring Cup SP1 2:13.939 +12.756 40 114 Gomez Competition Solution-F Touring Cup SP1 2:14.202 +13.019 41 29 First Competition Porsche 996 Supercup A6 2:14.574 +13.391 42 105 DXB Racing Dubai Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 SP2 2:14.660 +13.477 43 109 Equipe Vershuur Renault Mégane Trophy SP1 2:14.847 +13.847 44 31 First Motorsport Porsche 997 A6 2:14.873 +13.690 45 58 TeamA Sweden Volkswagen Golf GTI A5 2:14.935 +13.752 46 56 G&A Racing BMW Z4 Coupe GT4 A5 2:15.117 +13.394 47 73 PB Racing Lotus Exige GT4 A4 2:16.592 +15.409 48 72 Bas Koeten Racing BMW Z3 Coupe M A4 2:17.348 +16.165 49 96 Tusnami Racing Team BMW 120d D1 2:17.781 +16.598 50 52 Sartorius Team Black Falcon BMW M3 GTS A5 2:18.956 +17.773 51 116 VDS Racing Adventures Ford Mustang FR500 SP2 2:19.114 +17.931 52 108 Equipe Verschuur Renault Mégane Trophy SP1 2:19.176 +17.993 53 50 Zengő Motorsport SEAT León Supercopa A5 2:19.522 +18.339 54 59 Tschornia-Motorsport BMW 320i WTCC A5 2:19.762 +18.579 55 62 Mana Alattar Racing Audi TT A5 2:20.467 +19.284 56 57 Raser Racing Team SEAT León A5 2:22.203 +21.020 57 83 Team First Renault Clio A2 2:23.117 +21.934 58 60 Tschornia-Motorsport BMW 320i ETCC A5 2:24.143 +22.960 59 67 GMC Pro-Sport Audi TT A5 2:24.305 +23.122 60 65 GMC Pro-Sport SEAT León Supercopa A5 2:24.759 +23.576 61 70 Brunswick Automotive Mazda RX-7 A4 2:24.889 +23.716 62 79 Equipe Vershuur Renault Clio III RS A2 2:25.043 +23.860 63 25 GT Auto Passion Renault Clio Cup A2 2:25.145 +23.962 64 61 Mitsubishi Motors UK Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X A5 2:25.185 +24.002 65 66 GMC Pro-Sport SEAT León Supercopa A5 2:25.996 +24.813 66 71 Stefan Kass Racing Team MINI Cooper Challenge A4 2:28.535 +27.352 67 55 Carworld Motorsport Renault Clio Cup A2 2:28.548 +27.365 68 36 Ebbing Motorsport Volvo S60 A6 2:28.779 +27.596 69 76 Endurance Club Hungary Ford Fiesta ST A1 2:29.641 +28.458 70 78 Equipe Vershuur Renault Clio Cup A2 2:30.452 +29.269 71 80 Exigence Motorsport Renault Clio Cup A2 2:30.984 +29.801 72 93 Marcos International Racing BMW 120d D1 2:33.297 +23.114 73 90 Pachura Motorsport VW Golf V2.0 TDI D1 2:33.337 +32.154 74 95 Marcos International Racing BMW 120d D1 2:33.577 +32.394 75 84 Team Mirage Australia Mitsubishi Mirage A1 2:35.903 +34.720 76 85 Team Mirage Australia Mitsubishi Mirage A1 2:39.611 +38.428 77 99 Al Faisal Racing BMW 320d D1 No Time N/A 78 94 Marcos Racing International Marcos Mantis GT SP1 No Time N/A
Race After 24 hours of racing at the Dubai Autodrome, only 49.676 seconds separated the 1st and second 2nd cars in the fourth running of the TOYO Tires Dubai 24 Hour. The final hour of the race that saw no less than three changes of the lead, the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, entered by German team Land Motorsport and driven by Carsten Tilke, Gabriël Abergel, Andrzej Dzikevic and Niclas Kentenich, came out on top, only just defending its lead from the charging Al Faisal Racing Team’s BMW Z4 Coupé M that was shared by Abdualziz Al Faisal, Paul Spooner, Claudia Hürtgen and Stian Sorlie. 3rd was taken by another Porsche, the Besaplast Racing Team entry of Martin Tschornia, Franjo Kovac, former DTM-champion Kurt Thiim and the father-and-son pairing of Roland Asch and Sebastian Asch.
The Autorlando Porsche, which started from pole-position with Richard Lietz behind the wheel, and the identical Land Motorsport entry, driven by Marc Basseng, were able to pull a gap over Claudia Hürtgen with the Al Faisal Racing BMW Z4 Coupé M on the first few laps. On lap seven, there was the first lead change as Basseng managed to overtake Lietz.
Later on, the Autorlando Porsche lost about 45 minutes in the pits when the rear section of the car needed repair after another driver had run into it. There was a close battle between the Al Faisal Racing BMW and the ARC Bratislava Porsche (Miroslav Konopka, Jiri Janak, Mauro Casadei, Rudiger Klos) for many hours during the night. Around 05.00 h, the BMW took the lead, partly as a result of its slightly better fuel-efficiency, and stayed there for the next couple of hours, with the ARC Bratislava-Porsche and the Porsches of the Besaplast Racing Team and Land Motorsport following closely.
Later in the morning, the battle between the Al Faisal Racing BMW and the ARC Bratislava Porsche heated up again. With 1 hours and 10 minutes remaining the BMW came into the pits with a puncture and resulting damage to the right rear bodywork of the car, which handed the lead to the ARC Bratislava Porsche. That team stayed in front for a while and looked on its way to victory, especially as the BMW team were given a one lap penalty because of taking a shortcut. However, with 42 minutes remaining, the Porsche came in for another fuel stop and soon after that came in with apparent suspension problems, losing more valuable time and dropping back to fourth.
At that time, the Land Motorsport Porsche found itself in the lead with Niclas Kentenich behind the wheel, but the young German was put under massive pressure by Claudia Hürtgen in the Al Faisal Racing BMW Z4 Coupe M, who was lapping up to twelve seconds per lap faster than the Porsche. Eventually, Kentenich drove the victory home for the Land Motorsport Porsche team, finishing just 49.676 seconds ahead of the BMW. The Besaplast Racing Porsche finished third, although finishing driver Sebastian Asch had to overcome massive brake problems in his final stint.
Results Class winners in bold.