Hancock to race HMR Aston Martin GT4 at Dubai 24 Hours
Monday, January 10, 2011
Official Aston Martin Racing Factory Driver Sam Hancock will contest this weekend’s Dubai 24 Hours in an Aston Martin GT4 after being invited to race with Humaid Al Masaood’s HMR team at the Middle East’s biggest endurance racing event.
Successful businessman, team owner and racer Al Masaood is a member of The Drivers Club, the Jota Sport-run specialist high-performance driver coaching service co-founded by Hancock in 2009, and has enjoyed recent success at the Dubai 24 Hours having won the competitive SP3 class last year.
Hancock, who drove a similar GT4-spec Aston Martin to class victory at the Spa 24 Hours last year and also contested the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours and Le Mans Series at the wheel of the iconic British manufacturer’s LMP1 prototype, will team up with Al Masaood, BTCC star Steven Kane and 2009 Radical European Masters champion Alex Kapadia at the wheel of HMR’s car for the race which takes place on 14/15 January at the 5.39km Dubai Autodrome.
Sam Hancock: “A big thank you to Humaid and the guys at HMR for inviting me to join them at the Dubai 24 Hours. I’ve done the race once before in 2005 and I can’t wait to go back there. The team has winning experience in this event and I’d love to help them achieve a second successive class win.”
Tom Maplethorpe, HMR Team Manager: “Last year we won our class and we’re aiming to do it again. The event is much bigger this time around, with a full grid of almost 90 cars, but I think we’ve got one of the strongest driver line-ups in the race and our car is much improved from last year too.”
Successful businessman, team owner and racer Al Masaood is a member of The Drivers Club, the Jota Sport-run specialist high-performance driver coaching service co-founded by Hancock in 2009, and has enjoyed recent success at the Dubai 24 Hours having won the competitive SP3 class last year.
Hancock, who drove a similar GT4-spec Aston Martin to class victory at the Spa 24 Hours last year and also contested the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours and Le Mans Series at the wheel of the iconic British manufacturer’s LMP1 prototype, will team up with Al Masaood, BTCC star Steven Kane and 2009 Radical European Masters champion Alex Kapadia at the wheel of HMR’s car for the race which takes place on 14/15 January at the 5.39km Dubai Autodrome.
Sam Hancock: “A big thank you to Humaid and the guys at HMR for inviting me to join them at the Dubai 24 Hours. I’ve done the race once before in 2005 and I can’t wait to go back there. The team has winning experience in this event and I’d love to help them achieve a second successive class win.”
Tom Maplethorpe, HMR Team Manager: “Last year we won our class and we’re aiming to do it again. The event is much bigger this time around, with a full grid of almost 90 cars, but I think we’ve got one of the strongest driver line-ups in the race and our car is much improved from last year too.”