Organisers have revealed the initial list of teams set to contest ‘the best-ever’ Gulf 12 Hours on December 10 when this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli champions will also be crowned.
This morning Driving Force Events confirmed that 18 teams from around the world will tackle the event’s 12th running at Yas Marina Circuit. They include last year’s winner AF Corse, which also holds the record for number of victories, as well as IGTC regulars Team WRT (BMW), GruppeM and SunEnergy1 (Mercedes-AMG), and Grove Racing and Herberth Motorsport (Porsche).
Indeed, WRT and GruppeM will spearhead their respective constructor’s IGTC drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships, while Grove has Independent Cup title contender Stephen Grove amongst its ranks.
Herberth, meanwhile, has secured IGTC and overall pole positions at each of the globe-trotting GT3 series’ last two rounds.
The event’s full list of teams, drivers and manufacturers – as well as Intercontinental nominations – will be confirmed in due course. However, the current list already includes some significant entries.
The grid features winners from 10 of the race’s 12 editions. As well as AF Corse, Kessel Racing clinched each of its four victories with Ferrari, while Anglo-Bahraini squad 2 Seas Motorsport are two times winners.
SunEnergy1 Racing is also scheduled to compete after topping the Pro-Am podium last year.
Although currently unconfirmed, WRT – which makes its Gulf 12 Hours debut – is likely to split Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS winners Philipp Eng, Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor across two M4s. All three are IGTC title contenders.
However, the man to beat is Jules Gounon who leads Eng by eight points. He will most likely represent Mercedes-AMG’s full-season factory squad, GruppeM, just as he did at Gulf last season.
Each full-season IGTC manufacturer is permitted to nominate four cars, three of which can feature Pro driver line-ups.
CONFIRMED TEAMS SO FAR
2 Seas Motorsport (Mercedes-AMG)
7Tsix (Mercedes-AMG)
AF Corse (Ferrari)
Baron Motorsport (Ferrari)
Car Collection (Porsche)
Centri Porsche Ticino (Porsche)
Garage59 (McLaren)
Greystone GT (McLaren)
Grove Racing (Porsche)
GruppeM Racing (Mercedes-AMG)
HaasRT (Audi)
Herberth Motorsport (Porsche)
Kessel Racing (Ferrari)
MP Racing (Mercedes-AMG)
Optimum Motorsport (McLaren)
SunEnergy1 Racing (Mercedes-AMG)
Team WRT (BMW)
Tsunami RT (Porsche)