The first TOYO TIRES 24 HOURS OF DUBAI, in the United Arab Emirates, was a very brave project from the Dutch Creventic organisation, in collaboration with DNRT (Dutch National Racing Team). But the mission succeeded and a second edition was immediately planned. That first event was also an historic one for motorsport, as it was the first ever 24 hour race in the Middle East.

So the Creventic squad and Huub Vermeulen of DNRT continued the effort for 2007 and the entry number of 67 cars in 2006 will be up to 80 for this year’s event, which was the initial aim of the organizers and the Dubai Autodrome.

The technical rulebook of 2006 meant that, even though the organizers had requests from teams running big GT1 cars, they deliberately stuck to a maximum engine capacity of 4000 cc and 6 cylinders. This decision paid off and explained part of the first edition’s success, together, of course, with other factors, such as the open philosophy of bringing professional teams, semi-professional teams and pure amateurs together. This resulted in a wide variety of cars because teams with Seats, Clios, Ford Fiëstas etc. were also welcome. And the speed differences, without the big GT1s, were still acceptable.
On the 12th of January 2007, 13 different makes will be on the grid. The GTs, and more precisely the Porsches, will be, without any doubt, among the frontrunners, but the battle for victory will be wide open because the number of potential winners is considerable.

From the first edition on, illustrious teams and famous drivers were present. This time, the top-3 from last year will be back on the grid, with the winning BMW-squad of Düller and their quartet Quester / Stuck / Peter / Wolf, the Hubert Bergh Motorsport Porsche from Sweden and the AC Bratislava Porsche from Slovakia.

This year’s grid will see 25 different nationalities, with Germany, Holland and Belgium on top. Among the 22 other countries, we even find drivers from Japan and Australia.

The entry will be divided into six main classes, from A1 to A6, or from 1600 cc to 4000 cc, with 2000 cc, 2500 cc, 3000 cc, 3500 cc being the other classes. The diesel powered cars and the Silhouettes (Touring Trophy) are running in a separate class. This makes a total of 8 classes fighting not only for overall victory, but also for the class honours.
Toyo Tires Benelux again will be the major partner of Creventic and there even will be a special trophy for the highest Toyo team in the rankings.

A novelty is the presence of support races. The Lumina CSV Championship ME is an illustrious sprint series from Bahrain. Last but not least is the Drift Challenge, with European specialists facing local heroes from Dubai. This will be without any doubt a spectacular highlight of the event.

Motors TV will again be broadcasting the entire Dubai 24 hours, so TV coverage will be available throughout Europe. The production house Marlin Media is part of this operation.

Following on from this preview, there will be press releases with pictures after qualifying, right after the start and, of course, after the finish of the race. During the race, there will be live timing and updates on www.24hDubai.com.