BMWs finished first in four of the ten classes at the 24 Hours of Dubai, but Mercedes took the overall win.
The Saudi Falcon Team Schubert BMW Z4 GT3s were BMW’s best hope for victory. They were quick, but it was not their weekend to win. The Z4s qualified fourth and fifth, but the #12 car driven by Dirk Adorf, Dominik Schwager, Dominik Baumann, Abdulaziz Al Faisal, and Faisal Binladen exited the race early after it was hit by another car. The #24 car, driven by Claudia Hürtgen, Jörg Müller, Dirk Müller, Al Gaisal, and Binladen, ran in the top five for some time, but it retired from second place with oil-pump failure with less than four hours remaining in the race.
Jeroen Bleekemolen, Sean Edwards, Bernd Schneider and Khaled Al Qubaisi won the race in their Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.
Two of the BMW class winners were in E46 M3s, one was in a 320D, and another was in a 120D.—Brian S. Morgan
