After the overall victory at the Hankook 6H Abu Dhabi, Team Car Collection also finished on the podium at the second race of the 24H Series within a week. At the Hankook 24H Dubai, drivers Dustin Blattner (USA), Fuad Sawaya (Lebanon), Sebastian Gorga (Italy) and the two Germans Mark Wallenwein and Dennis Marschall in their Porsche 911 GT3 R finished third in the PRO/AM class and sixth overall.
The Hankook 24H Dubai, which normally opens the motorsport year, had to be postponed by two weeks this year due to the political turbulence on the Suez Canal and the resulting transportation problems. The Car Collection Motorsport team was not unaffected by this. Instead of the planned three cars, the team now fielded a Porsche 911 GT3 R with drivers Dustin Blattner (USA), Fuad Sawaya (Lebanon), Sebastian Gorga (Italy) and the two Germans Mark Wallenwein and Dennis Marschall. The quintet competed in the highly competitive PRO/AM class. It was the first start in a GT3 racing car for Gorga, Sawaya and Wallenwein.
The density of the large field was evident in qualifying. Dennis Marschall, Dustin Blattner and Mark Wallenwein took sixth place on the grid in their class, which meant 11th place overall. After the start of the race, all five drivers drove their stints absolutely faultlessly and were able to stay in the leading group of the overall standings for a long time. During the night, however, the Porsche 911 GT3 R suffered a problem with the traction control, which cost the team several laps. After rectifying the problem, the driver quintet set about catching up. Even a heavy rain shower in the morning could not slow Car Collection down. On the contrary, Dennis Marschall was the first to put dry tires back on and was able to make up a lot of ground with extremely fast lap times. In the end, this resulted in a podium finish in the PRO/AM class and sixth place overall.
Peter Schmidt, Team Principal: “After the victory last weekend in Abu Dhabi, to be back on the podium here in Dubai is great, of course. We knew that it would be tougher here than in Abu Dhabi, so I’m all the more proud of the performance of the entire team. The drivers did a great job, the car didn’t have a single scratch! Without the small technical problem, we could have done even better!”
