Al Nabooda Racing duo aim for double home victory at Dubai Autodrome

Dubai. Karim Al Azhari and Clemens Schmid will go all out to provide Al Nabooda Racing with a double home victory at Dubai Autodrome this weekend when the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East headlines one of the circuit’s biggest attractions of the year.

The Dubai-based outfit leads the team title race in the GT3 Cup series after four of 12 rounds, and Al Azhari and Schmid want to extend their advantage over nearest challengers, the Saudi Falcons, as the championship reaches the half way stage during the Dubai Motorsport Festival Weekend.

“This is our home circuit, we’re going to have a lot of support and we want to be at our absolute best,” said Al Azhari, who has been one of the most successful drivers at Dubai Autodrome since the circuit opened in 2004.

“If we can repeat our performance from the first two rounds in Bahrain where we won the team title in both races, that will put us in a very strong position in the overall team championship.

“Securing that is our top priority this season, and while Clemens and I both race to win as individuals, we’re very focused on the task to bring the GT3 cup team title to Dubai for the first time.”

Schmid, who scored a race victory at Dubai Autodrome on his first GT3 Cup appearance last season and won both of this season’s opening rounds in Bahrain,

 said: “We race to win, and the aim again this weekend is to get the both of us on the podium. That’s what wins championships.”

The Al Nabooda Racing duo aim to put pressure on the individual championship leader, Saudi’s Abdulaziz Al Faisal, who scored back-to-back race wins at Yas Marina Circuit last weekend and is chasing a third GT3 Cup drivers’ title. 

Now in its fourth season and firmly established as the Middle East’s leading circuit racing championship, the Porsche GT3 Cup series tops the bill with a 15-car line-up for the action-packed Dubai Motorsport Festival Weekend.

The prime late afternoon slots for Round 5 tomorrow (Thursday) and Round 6 on Friday highlight the status of a series now producing some of the most spectacular bumper to bumper sports car racing ever seen at the region’s top circuits.

“The level of driving skills on show in the championship has grown each year, and the competition is fierce, with the result that we are seeing some intriguing battles out there on the track,” said Vijay Rao, team manager of Al Nabooda Racing.

“This is circuit racing at its best, and that’s the reason why we went with a two-car entry this season in order for us to compete for the team title, and hopefully bring it to Dubai.”

The Dubai Motorsport Festival has been a mainstay of the Dubai Autodrome calendar for several years and culminates this weekend with an appetising programme of national and international racing also featuring the  NGK Racing Series, UAE Sportbikes, the Formula Gulf 1000, the UAE’s first junior single seater series, and the Radical Winter Cup.

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, team standings:

1. Al Nabooda Racing 160pts

2. Saudi Falcons 153pts

3. Team Bahrain 134pts

4. Frijns Structural Steel ME (QAT) 62pts

5. Gebhardt Motorsport ME (QAT) 44pts.