Autorama Motorsport & Wolf-Power Racing win 24H Dubai

A Volkswagen Golf GTI claimed victory in TCR’s first race of the year, the 24H Dubai, opening round of the 24H TCE Series.
It was the car entered by Autorama Motorsport with Wolf-Power Racing that crossed the line first, having completed 545 laps and clinching a brilliant 26^th position overall out of 74 starters. 
Marlon Mendel, Fabian Danz, Yannick Mettler, Stefan Tanner and Jerôme Ogay shared driving duties and took the lead for the first time halfway through the race.
For the first twelve hours, the fight for the lead involved three Audi RS 3 LMS cars and the KCMG Honda Civic Type R, until they all ran into troubles. The AC Motorsport and LMS Racing Audi cars pitted with a fuel pump failure and a low oil pressure respectively, while the RS 3 LMS entered by Team Dynamics with WRC Development crashed because of a brake issue. The Honda took the lead, but soon afterwards lost time for restarting the engine after a pit stop.
Both, the AC Motorsport Audi and the KCMG Honda were able to recover; the former moved up into the lead once again but then lost more time after a collision that resulted in a broken wheel-hub and eventually finished in fifth position; the latter was running in second place and closing the gap from the leaders when it suddenly caught fire. Andy Yan who was at the wheel escaped thanks to a quick intervention from the marshals.
The Autorama Motorsport Golf took the lead for good four hours before the end, with a comfortable margin ahead of two CUPRA cars. The Bas Koeten Racing driven by Ronny Jost, Julien Apothéloz, Loek Hartog and Oscar Graeper finished second, four laps behind the winners. The podium was completed by the Red Camel-Jordans.nl of Ivo Breukers, Cody Hill, Henry Littig and Klaus Kresnik three further laps down. The best classified Audi car was the one entered by TFT/Cogemo/TLRT in fourth position.
The second round of the 24H TCE Series will be the 12H Mugello, on 28/30 March.

24H Dubai – Race results
1^st – Autorama Motorsport VW Golf GTI (Menden/Danz/Mettler/Tanner/Ogay), 545 laps
2^nd – Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA (Jost/Apothéloz/Hartog/Graeper), 541 laps
3^rd – Red Camel-Jordans.nl CUPRA (Breukers/Littig/Hill/Kresnik), 538 laps
4^th – TFT/Cogemo/TLRT Audi RS 3 LMS (Bazaud/Caillon/Morales/Thirion/Rihon), 532 laps
5^th – AC Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS (Perrin/Radermecker/Boonen/Magnus), 529 laps
6^th – TeamWork Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS (Wong/Hui/Poon/Fung), 512 laps