British trio Ben Aucott, Joe Macari and Rob Wilson drove a Ferrari 360 GTC entered by JMB-Racing to a podium finish in the inaugural 24h Race of Bahrain which finished on Sunday afternoon. The crew complete 474 laps of the 6.140-kilometre Bahrain track, and finished twelve laps behind the winning Porsche 911.

“The atmosphere during the first 24h Race of Bahrain was truly impressive and racing on the endurance layout is big fun," commented Joe Macari. "It’s just great that three different manufacturers, Porsche, BMW and Ferrari, succeeded in securing the top-three positions. Certainly it was a fantastic event the people of Bahrain.” Meanwhile team mate Ben Aucott was making his international motor sport debut, the Englishman having previously competed on the Gumball 3000 road rally.

The debut edition of the 24-haur race in the Arabian Kingdom was held from the 13th to 16th December, on the Grand Prix circuit, which opened in 2004. When the starting lights went green on 15th December at 14.00hrs, it was the culmination of a one-year effort executed by the event’s organisers, the ‘MSC Ruhr-Blitz Bochum e.V. im ADAC’, and the management of the Bahrain International Circuit. On the grid of the 24h Race of Bahrain were entrants from nearly every region of the planet. Brazilian driver Lucas Molo, who raced for Alfa Romeo in this year’s World Touring Car Championship, and had gathered experience in the Brazilian Endurance Championship, in the past contested the desert race at the wheel of a Land Porsche. Germany’s Franz Engstler, who won the 2005 Asian Touring Car Championship and succeeded in defending his title this year, raced a BMW M3. One of the strongest rivals of team Land came from Austria: Dieter Quester, Philipp Peter (both Austria), Vincent Vosse (Belgium) and Jarek Janis (Czech Republic) who contested  the event with the BMW Z4 M Coupé entered by Duller-Motorsport. Also in the running for honours was an Austrian team including Sheik Salman Al Khalifa (Bahrain), and Porsche expert Richard Lietz (Austria) who were part of a well-balanced driver line-up in Lechner-Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Other drivers travelled to Bahrain from Denmark, Italy, Monaco, Belgium, France and the USA. They battled it out over the twenty four hours with the likes of motor racing greats from the Persian Gulf region, and a group of BFGoodrich Endurance Championship Nürburgring runners.

However Franz Konrad, Wolfgang Kaufmann, Michael Schrey (all Germany), Luciano da Silva (Italy) and Miroslav Konopka (Slovakia) were to be the winners of the first 24h Race of Bahrain as the battled to the chequered flag. On the way to winning the event, the driver quintet contesting the race with the Konrad-Lechner Motorsport entered Porsche 911 GT3 RSR completed a total of 486 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit. They crossed the finish line for the final time after 24 hours and covered a total distance of 2,984.04 kilometres. “I just can’t think clearly right now,” said Franz Konrad, Team Principal and driver at the same time, during the presentation ceremony.
 

The runner-up position in the tough race was secured by Dieter Quester, Philipp Peter (both Austria), Vincent Vosse (Belgium) and Jarek Janis (Czech Republic) with their Duller-Motorsport BMW Z4 M Coupé, who finished six laps behind the winners, while the Ferrari 360 GTC entered by JMB-Racing was next up.

The event featured an international top-class starting grid and provided a thrilling battle for the overall win. And just as usual in endurance racing, minor and major dramas also could be witnessed during the course of the race. Due to a technical problem of their Land-Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Hermann Tilke, Dirk Adorf, Patrick Simon and Christian Land (all Germany) - the pole-sitters who also had held the lead for a ling time - dropped back and had to settle for fourth position in spite of having delivered a fantastic chase.

In the end, the team from the Westerwald region had to make do with having set the fastest race (2:34.682 minutes (average speed 146.60 kph), set by Adorf on lap 65. For Richard Lietz (Austria), Christian Menzel, Klaus Graf, Thomas Jäger (all Germany) and Salman Bin Isa Al Khalifa (Bahrain), who also were regarded as co-favourites, with their Lechner-Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, the race took an early and sudden end during the sixth hour due to an accident. Meanwhile the local heroes Salman Bin Isa Al Khalifa, Fahad Al Musalam, Hamad Ahmad Al Fardan and Rashid Salman Al Khalifa delivered in truly fine style. Together with Porsche expert Lietz, the four racing drivers from Bahrain clinched an excellent sixth position in the overall rankings.

Following a technical problem in the opening stages, Obermann / Giuliani / Viebahn / Galladé / Burgmann battled their way back up to seventh position, with their BMW M3 entered by the race organisers, the MSC Ruhr-Blitz Bochum. Aston Martin came eighth with their V8 Vantage and another Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Mühlner-Motorsport) finished ninth.