Desert heartache for Newbridge in Dubai 24

The opening round of the 2020 24H Series from Dubai this week was supposed to be the catalyst that swept the Newbridge Motorsport team into headline GT racing around Europe with their new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 - instead it has turned into something of a nightmare.

Arriving in Dubai earlier this week, videos were posted onto the team's social media channels showing everyone methodically going about their business, preparing the garage and car for the start of track activity that commenced last Wednesday with Private Testing.

As each test and Free Practice session came and went, the #471 Newbridge entry sadly remained stranded in the garage with an unquantifiable electrical fault that the team worked tirelessly on to resolve.


Missing Qualifying itself yesterday, they patiently awaited the delivery of strategic component parts flown in overnight from the Prodrive factory in the UK, there remained the hope that the issues could be fixed in time for the teams five drivers to take at least a delayed entry into the start of the 24hour race earlier this morning.

Unfortunately, repairs and the swapping out of parts have been not been able to resolve the issues within the car with the team ultimately but reluctantly retiring the #471 car from the event not having turned a single timed lap in the UAE.

The biggest test from this will be who they deal with this and how they bounce back at their next racing event as the real autopsy on this week events cannot begin until the car is returned back to base in the UK.

Photo credits - Newbridge