Shane Lewis
Endurance racing specialist Shane Lewis will add another event to his CV when he contest the Dubai 24 Hours later this month, making his first appearance in the seventh year of the race at the Dubai Autodrome.
As well as multiple class wins in the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Series in America Lewis has a total of 31 starts in 24 Hour race, including 21 shared between three of the world's great 24 hour race – three starts at Le Mans and four at the Nurburgring sit alongside 14 Daytona 24 Hours starts.
In Vic Rice and Karl Pflanz Lewis will reunite with two members of the driving line-up from his 2010 Nurburgring 24 Hours entry, which ended in a class victory. The team will be completed by German driver Kim Hauschild, and will enter the SP3 class in the race in a Hamburg Racing Team (HRT) prepared Aston Martin Vantage N24.
“I am really excited about this chance to race at Dubai,” said Lewis. “I’ve raced all over the world but never in the Middle East so that is going to be exciting. The fact that this race has so quickly become one of the major endurance races on the world calendar adds to that. I have great teammates for this race. Vic and I have raced together so many times I have lost count. There aren’t many guys out there as quick and as reliable as Vic is and you can’t ask for more in a teammate. Vic and I raced together with Karl Pflanz at Nürburgring and had a lot of success and I have heard really good things about Kim Hauschild.”
“HRT is really experienced. They know their stuff and they have put us into one of the hottest rides out there. The Aston Martin Vantage is a legendary car and one of the few makes I have never run. I can’t wait to race the car!”
As many as 90 cars are expected to squeeze onto the 3.35 mile track for the start – Lewis admitting that the traffic is going to be one of the key challenges to the race. The team will work out of the Team Oryx garage for the week before the race, running in the open test session on Wednesday January 11 before the first official practices the following day.
Qualifying for all classes starts at 4:00pm (local time) on Thursday, with a session especially for the SP3 class at 5:00pm, followed by night practice at 6:00pm.
The cars will form up on the grid at 1:00pm on Friday, January 13 with the race starting at 2:00pm.
