ABU DHABI — Top Italian team, AF Corse scored its second successive victory in the Gulf 12 Hours held recently at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. After winning the inaugural race held at Yas Marina Circuit earlier this year by just 2.6”, AF Corse had things a little easier this time as former Minardi F1 driver ‘Gimmi' Bruni, Finn Toni Vilander and Venezuelan Gaetano Ardagna took their Ferrari 458 to a 25” victory over the AF Waltrip 458 driven by Ryan Dalziel, Pierre Kaffer and Alex Popow after 309 laps of the challenging and varied Hermann Tilke-designed circuit. Taking second place in the GTX category was team Yas Marina Circuit. The all-Emirati team, consisting of Saeed Al-Mehairi, Sheikh Hasher Al-Maktoum and Abbas Al-Alawi competed in the 12 hours in Yas' own Aston Marin GT4. Driver Saeed Al-Mehairi commented: “While it's not first place, we are more than pleased with the result - it was a true team effort. Although this Gulf 12 Hours just ended, we're already looking forward to the next one!” The overall podium place was finalized by a 3rd place showing for Autorlando Porsche of the Dutch Bleekemolen brothers, Jeroen and Sabastiaan, along with Venezuelan Emilio Di Guida. Autolardo's Jeroen Bleekemolen managed some heroic stints early in the day as the team tried to make up for a 60s stop/go penalty for exceeding the maximum 75 minutes stint length at the very start of the race. The team was set for a strong recovery in the last 90 minutes of the race, but the younger Bleekemolen actually felt ill for the final portion, cutting short his chase of the AF Waltrip car. Fourth place fell to the Italian-American AF Waltrip's team of Muarizio Mediani, Michele Rugolo and Steve Wyatt, while fifth overall and winner of the SC sportscar Class, just four laps down, was the Avelon Formula team of Ivan Bellarosa, 16-year-old Alessandro Latif and Emirati driver Juma Ali Al-Dhaeri. The team's Wolf GB08 was particularly rapid in Bellarosa's hands as he chased down down and passed the sixth place Kessel Racing Ferrari of Philipp Peter, Daniel Zampieri and Michael Broniszewski in the final stint of the race. Kessel, narrowly beaten in the inaugural event, was unlucky once again. Good strategy under a first half Safety Car established the Swiss Ferrari 458 in front, but a delay when the front bodywork worked loose in the second half of the race, cost the team dear. GTX class honors seemed firmly in the hands of the Ebimotors Porsche but a major gearbox issue threw them out contention. The Nova Race Ginetta G50 driven by Roberto Rainieri, Luca Magnoni, Luis Scarpaccio and Matteo Cressoni inherited the lead and got honors after a strong and consistent performance that allowed them to finish ahead of the Yas Marina Circuit team's Aston Martin and the Barwell Motorsport V8 Vantage. The Gulf 12 Hours is a landmark motorsport endurance race. The event is open to four categories of cars: GT3, GT4, Cups and Sportscars CN2 Prototypes. The race is split in two 6-hour parts and mechanics are allowed to work on the cars under the public eyes for 40 minutes in between. — SG
