A total of six invitations were received in a mini-series of four races, which included a couple of four-hour races at the Dubai racetrack on February 12-13 and two more races on the Yas Marina track in Abu Dhabi last weekend.
The LMP2 top class was dominated by the only Pro car to participate in all four races, Nielsen Racing Oreca 07-Gibson with Matt Bell, Ben Hanley and American racer Rodrigo Sales with a bronze rating.
Bell, Hanley and Sales came out on the board with a pair of victories in Dubai and then finished second in both races in Abu Dhabi after United Autosports Paul da Resta and American youngster Josh Pearson.
United have not competed in Dubai, as Pearson – who will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year – has only reached the minimum age of 16 a week before Abu Dhabi.
This meant that da Resta and Pearson did not score points, which gave Nielsen’s team an easy path to the title and an automatic invitation to Le Mans, which is accompanied by this.
The best Pro / Am team was the Graff team, whose Oreca was led by David Drew, Sebastian Page and Eric Truye. They won their subclass in three races out of four, losing only to a trio of high-class Denis Andersen, Anders Fjordbach and Kevin Weed in the second race in Dubai.
In the LMP3, the Spanish team CD Sport sealed the only automatic invitation to Le Mans as its pair Ligier JS P320 blocked the top two spots in the standings.
The № 27, driven by Stephen Pallet, Christoph Crespo and Antoine Docken, did not win in any of the four races, but finished second in three and third in the rest of the race, beating sister № 3 Nick Adcock, Edward Kohaup and Michael Jenson’s four .
The bumper 23-wagon GT Field has offered car invitations for the top four of the championship.
They went to Inception Racing with Optimum Motorsport (McLaren 720S GT3), Herberth Motorsport (Porsche 911 GT3 R), Rinaldi Racing and AF Corse / APM Monaco (both Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo).
The starting trio of Ben Barnicat, Brendan Iribe and Oli Milroy – who already have entry to Le Mans thanks to their WEC program with Project 1 Motorsport – won the start in Dubai and took two second places to take the title by two points from Herberth drivers Ralph Bon , Alfred Renauer and Robert Renauer.
Leading car Herberth won both victories in Abu Dhabi, and the rest of the victory in the class in the second race in Dubai went to Rinaldi Ferrari of Rin Mastronardi, David Peral and factory driver David Rigon.