Gulf 12 Hours in Review

This year's Gulf 12 Hours was certainly an interesting one indeed.  The arrival of Prototypes at the race made many think that the GT3 reign over this race was over.  However, that was not meant to be.  This, and many other surprises made up the most interesting Gulf 12 Hours to date.

It was clear to many that the P3s had the outright pace to defeat the GT3s in the early portion of this weekend, and that is what I myself expected to happen in the race.  However, the organizers handicapped the P3s later on in the weekend.  When I had written the preview on Friday afternoon, I was under the thought that this had been a power reduction, not the added 130 second-minimum pit stop that it actually was.  This is what killed the prototypes in the end, along with the long full course yellow caused by the wreck of one of the GDL Racing Middle East Lamborghini Huracan STs.  The P3s were a good 1.5-2 seconds faster a lap than the GT3s, but the long yellow forced by barrier repairs meant that a large amount of time that could've been gained by the P3s was lost.  At the half time break, all the P3s were at least 2 laps down to the GT Pro leaders.  The second half didn't mean much after that, as the deficit was too much to overcome for the prototypes.  It turned into a two horse race between the two GT Pro Ferrari 488s from Kessel Racing and Dragon Racing.  The Kessel Racing team once again came out on top, and took the overall win.  Kessel also won the gentlemen class, with the Herberth Porsche that had dominated the race running into issues with just an hour to go.  The Pro Am class went to the AF Corse/Spirit of Race Ferrari, who beat the Optimum Motorsport Audi after the Audi ran into mechanical issues in the second half of the race.  The 5 car from Graff won the Proto class, while the 23 car from United Autosports, who I predicted to win overall, did not have the pace unless Alex Lynn was in the car.  Villorba Corse won in the GTX class over the Dragon Racing Porsche Cayman, in a race where almost all the GT4 competitors faced problems.

So, how did my predictions turn out?

Proto - Incorrect, #5 Graff won over #23 United Autosports
GT Pro - Correct, Kessel Racing #11 won.
GT Pro Am - Correct, AF Corse/Spirit of Race #51 won.
GT Gentlemen - Incorrect, #77 Kessel Racing won over #99 Herberth Motorsport
GTX - Correct, #50 Villorba Corse won.

3/5 wasn't too bad I'd say!