The opening round of the Hankook Tyres 24 Hour Series took place at the Dubai Autodrome in the UAE this weekend (13-14 January, 2017) and OCC Racing’s brace of Porsche Caymans were on the near 100-car grid the curtain raiser to the 2017 season.
UK-based Newbridge Motorsport, under the Direction of Team Principle Richard Tovey, were on hand to guide the #249 car to a trouble-free run and an 11th place finish in the SP3 GT4 class finish and also to provide technical and strategic support to car #250 entered by series debutants Rotek Racing.
In a race peppered with Code 60 safety car periods as the wide variety of GT and touring car competition hit either mechanical trouble, each other or the barriers, Newbridge Motorsport guided the pair of Caymans, driven by an all Dubai debutant line up, to faultless finishes showing good pace combined with reliability, the key to any endurance racing effort.
Team Principle Richard Tovey, who campaigned the OCC Lasik sponsored cars in last year’s Hankook 24H Series was more than pleased with the team and driver efforts.
“This is an extremely difficult event to compete in for both team and drivers,” he explained. “The sheer size of grid matched with the short lap makes the track extremely crowded and with varying speed differentials make it hard to stay out of trouble throughout the 24 hours.
“The Cayman GT4 is proving to be an extremely quick and reliable endurance car well suited to professional and amateur drivers alike and the guys we had in the car this weekend pay testament to that and both the crew and the drivers acquitted themselves superbly to strong finishes.”
The OCC Racing with Newbridge Cayman will next compete at the next round of the 24H series at Silverstone.