The 24H Series held one of their most popular races last weekend with the 24H Dubai. The race was originally scheduled to run earlier in January but was reschedule due to complications with getting cars and parts to the Middle East with the attacks on shipping that have been taking place in the Bab El Mandab Strait that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The rescheduling led several teams, including BMW M Team WRT, to withdrawal, but British BMW team Century Motorsport stayed on the entry and scored class wins in both the Pro/Am and Am classes.
Century Motorsport has been very successful competing with BMW. They won the British GT championship in 2023 with their M4 GT3 driven by Darren Leung and Dan Harper and had two M4 GT3s entered at Dubai. The #22 M4 GT3 (shown above) was entered in the GT3 Pro/Am class for drivers Carl Cavers, Lewis Plato, Jack Barlow and Jacob Rattenbury. They finished an impressive third overall and first in the Pro/Am class. The #14 Century Motorsport M4 GT3 driven by Darren Leung, Michael Johnston, Chris Salkeld and Sean Gelael took the class win in the Am class and finished fifth overall. It was the first time that Johnston and Salkeld had driven a GT3 car.
In the GT4 class, the #438 AGMC Racing team by Simpson Motorsport M4 GT4 finished second in class, while the Century Motorsport #429 entry suffered a DNF.
The Dubai race is typically the first race in the 24H series, but with the rescheduling this year the first race of the series took place at Abu Dhabi back on January 20th-21st with a six-hour race. Century Motorsport suffered a DNF in that race with their #22 M4 GT3, while the #429 M4 GT4 of Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead won the GT4 class.
The next race for the 24H series is the 12H Mugello race in Italy on March 22nd-24th. —David Haueter
[Photos courtesy 24H Series]
