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Photo: Gulf 12 Hours CapitalRT by Motopark came out victorious in the 15th running of the Gulf 12 Hours after a drama-filled final four-hour segment in which several contending cars ran into trouble. The No. 13 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Denis Remenyako, Adam Christodoulou and Mikhail Aleshin took victory with a margin of a minute and 32.190 seconds over the No. 77 Al Manar by Dragon Ferrari 296 GT3. The Motopark and Al Manar cars, together with the No. 81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, were the only three entries to start the deciding four-hour part of the race on the lead lap. However, both the No. 69 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and No. 4 Grove Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG regained the lead lap in the opening 20 minutes as Ben Barnicoat and Jules Gounon went on the offensive early on. Despite that, Chris Froggatt retained the overall lead of the race for Al Manar, only for the Omani-flagged squad to suffer a first setback when it was caught speeding in the pits and r...

Photo: Optimum Motorsport Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff dominated the opening hour of the Gulf 12 Hours. Schandorff started the race from pole position aboard the No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 and rapidly cleared away during the opening stint, opening a gap of over 30 seconds by the end of the first hour. The No. 69 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Aaron Telitz worked its way up from sixth to second in the opening hour. Telitz captured second place when Winward Racing’s Rinat Salikhov tangled with the No. 27 Pellin Racing Ferrari of Lisa Clark at Turn 12, allowing the McLaren to make its way through. Salikhov’s No. 81 Mercedes-AMG ended the hour in third position, ahead of CapitalRT by Motopark’s Mikhail Aleshin and the No. 77 Al Manar by Dragon Ferrari in the hands of Chris Froggatt. The sister DFYNE by Dragon Ferrari was one of the first cars to encounter significant trouble during the race, with an early charge for Giacomo Altoe brought to a halt with a power ste...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Asian Le Mans Series The No. 10 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R has been stripped of its class victory in Saturday’s Asian Le Mans Series opener at Sepang after Loek Hartog was penalized for contact with GetSpeed’s Fabian Schiller at the final corner. An unpredictable fight for GT class honors went down to the wire in the first leg of the 4 Hours of Sepang as an alternative pit strategy set up a last-lap showdown between Hartog and Schiller’s No. 9 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Schiller looked as if he would stave off Hartog until running slightly wide at the Turn 15 left-hander on the last lap, opening the door for the Porsche driver to attack, but the two cars made contact as Hartog wrested away the lead. Post-race, it was decided by officials to hand Hartog a one-place penalty, demoting the No. 10 car he shared with Klaus Bachler and Antares Au to second behind the GetSpeed car of Schiller, Anthony Bartone and Shigekazu Wakisaka. The relevant stewards’ bulletin read: “The s...

Photo: SUPER GT Goodsmile Racing has become the first SUPER GT team to officially firm up its plans for the 2026 season, revealing a change of service provider. The long-time Mercedes-AMG squad revealed during its season presentation event on Saturday that it has parted ways with RS Fine, which has run the effort since 2015, forging a new tie-up with Gotemba-based firm Kim International. Driving pair Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka will continue together for a 15th consecutive season driving the Yokohama-shod No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. With RS Fine departing, the team has welcomed a new chief engineer in the form of Viktor Ferder, who has a wealth of experience running Mercedes-AMG machinery in events such as the Nürburgring 24 and the FIA GT World Cup in Macau. Ferder, who previously worked for HWA and Schnitzer Motorsport, was present for Saturday’s presentation with Taniguchi, Kataoka and team director Ukyo Katayama. Taniguchi and Kataoka finished fifth in this year’...

Photo: Gulf 12 Hours Driving Force Events has announced that the Gulf 12 Hours will move from December to January, with the next edition of the event set to be held in 2027. Revealed on Saturday ahead of the 15th edition of the Abu Dhabi enduro, the next running of the event is set to take place on Jan. 10, 2027. Driving Force CEO Andrea Ficarelli explained to reporters at the Yas Marina Circuit that the decision has been made to move the event due to a combined number of factors, which includes a smaller grid for this year’s race, a compressed timetable due to Formula 1 and logistical challenges. This year’s event has attracted 20 entries from five manufacturers, down from 24 last year. “The issue that we have now with the number of cars – they are good overall, good quality, but clearly it’s not in line with what expect as a starting grid for the Gulf 12 Hours, is the fact that the market has evolved in quite a difficult way,” said Ficarelli. “The European activities are last...

Photo: Asian Le Mans Series Giorgio Roda scored pole for Saturday’s opening round of the new Asian Le Mans Series season at Sepang in his first outing with United Autosports. The Bronze-rated Italian driver set the fastest time of the 15-minute LMP2 session on a rapidly drying track following earlier rain, logging a 1:55.614 in the No. 5 Oreca 07 Gibson he shares with Mikkel Jensen and Gregoire Saucy. That effort put Roda almost six tenths clear of nearest rival Jens Reno Moller aboard the No. 49 High Class Racing Oreca. However, Moller was able to score pole for Sunday’s second leg of the 4 Hours of Sepang courtesy of his second best-time of 1:56.262, just 0.060 seconds slower than his best. Third overall on a 1:56.382 was the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition of Georgios Kolovos, who edged out Roda for second on the race two grid by a tenth and a half. Fourth on the grid for the opening race was the best of the three Algarve Pro Racing entries, the No. 20 car of John Falb, fol...