Last year MINI raced a pair of JCW Coupés in a 24H race at the Nürburgring. Those aren’t the only MINI’s to race for endurance though. Teams such as S.I.G. Motorsports (above) and Besaplast Racing will be entering the 24H of Dubai this year starting tomorrow, January 12, 2012. In races like these, just finishing can be a victory. Best of luck to everybody racing behind the MINI wings. Go fast. Go far! MotoringFile
The teams mentioned above seem to be the only ones. There are three MINIs on the entry list: #80, Besaplast Racing (who interestingly are also running a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup), and #81 and #82, S.I.G. Motorsports. The race starts Friday (13 Jan) at 5am Eastern. Looks like there are a few options for viewing/following along listed at the main site 24H Dubai.
Nice job on the new header. Left to right reading direction and motion, proper look, you nailed it. (has nothing to do with 24h of Dubai but, the Nürburgring werks for me!)
24 Hours of Dubai content in header.... The MINIs pictured are from the S.I.G. Motorsports team that are competing in the 24 Hours of Dubai.
To bad they aren't running their trusty old Challenge Club Sport R53 ! In any event good header choice.
Interesting tweet from the 24HSERIES feed: "#80 s.i.g. Motorsport is looking for a (left) fuel pomp in tank for a MINI R56 they are in pitbox 9B at the #Dubai24. Who can help them out?" According to the entry list the #80 isn't a S.I.G but the #82 S.I.G MINI is stuck in the pits, I assume that's the one they're talking about. That tweet was at least 2 hours ago and it's still listed as stopped.
FWIW, currently 5th in the A2 class with the MINIs (the Besaplast MINI is currently 1st in class ) is the Racing Divas team's #84 Renault Clio RS Cup piloted by all women. Ain't it purty?
10 hours in, here's an interesting tidbit. Besaplast's #80 (class leading) MINI is classified in 28th place on lap 230...Besaplast's #40 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup is right behind it in 29th on the same lap.
Mercedes swept the podium with three SLS AMG GT3s from two different teams. The three Mercs finished 628, 626 and 625 laps. A BMW Z4 GT3 took 4th, just 8 sec behind the 3rd place Merc. All 3 MINIs finished the race! Besaplast #80 finished 533 laps and came 1st (of 9) in class and 25th overall out of 67 still listed at the finish. S.I.G. Motorsport #81 finished 503 laps and was 3rd in class and 31st overall. S.I.G. Motorsport #82 got running again after a number of hours stuck in the pits with a fuel pump problem (see post #7), managed 358 laps and finished 8th in class and 55th overall.