Monday 23 / June / 2025
MUSCAT: Oman’s Al-Faisal Al-Zubair returns to the scene of one of his greatest racing achievements when he joins forces with Jens Klingmann, Ben Tuck and Neil Verhagen to compete in the Gold Cup category at this weekend’s Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian Ardennes region.
Last year, Al-Zubair, Dominik Baumann, Mikaël Grenier and Philip Ellis guided their Al-Manar Racing Mercedes to seventh overall and victory in the Gold Cup section.
On this occasion, the new team quartet head to Spa topping the standings in the Teams’ and Drivers’ Championships and will tackle the third round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup powered by AWS in their Al-Manar Racing by Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
Al-Manar Racing by Team WRT leads the Teams’ Championship by two points from Verstappen.com Racing after the opening two endurance rounds at Paul Ricard and Monza. Al-Zubair, Klingmann and Tuck hold a similar cushion in the Drivers’ Championship.
Points are awarded for positions after six, 12 and 24 hours at the season’s flagship event at Spa and the talented 24-year-old American driver Neil Verhagen has been recruited as the fourth driver for the Belgian weekend.
Al-Zubair said: “Looking forward to Spa 24. This is the biggest race of the year for all of us. It is an important race for us to make sure we gather all the points, especially with it being a 24-hour race with points available at six hours, 12 and 24. It will be important for the championship for us to collect as many as possible during the race.
“It is looking very good in the championship at the moment. We are currently second in Sprint and first in Endurance. It has been a great start. Monza was fantastic to carry on the momentum and take it into Spa. We are all prepared and the team knows what it is doing, as they have shown multiple times this year.
“We also have Neil Verhagan on the car. He’s a BMW driver who will be joining us and we are excited that he is with us as the fourth driver. Hopefully, it’s a race that is even better than last year, if that is possible!”
Seventy-three GT3 cars have been entered across the various classes and will take to the track over the weekend in the presence of several members of the Belgian Royal Family.
Amongst Al-Manar Racing by Team WRT’s Gold Cup rivals are CSA Racing, Herberth Motorsport, the Verstappen.com Racing Aston Martin, the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi and the Garage 59, Optimum Motorsport and Team RJN McLarens.
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup powered by AWS shares the circuit with the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club, the GT2 European Series, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo and McLaren Trophy Europe.
On-track action on the demanding 7.004km circuit gets underway with free practice from 11.20hrs on Thursday (June 26th) and precedes pre-qualifying from 17.40hrs and four qualifying sessions between 21.15hrs and 22.21hrs. Additional night practice will then be allowed from 23.05hrs.
A quiet Friday for the GTWC entrants sees Super Pole set for 16.10hrs and then a warm-up session permitted from 20.05hrs. The 24-hour race then gets underway at 16.30hrs on Saturday afternoon and finishes at the same time on Sunday.
TEAMS – latest Gold Cup standings
1. Al-Manar Racing by Team WRT 44pts
2. Verstappen.com Racing 42pts
3. CSA Racing 33pts
4. Tresor Attempto Racing 24pts
5. Team RJN 21pts
6. Optimum Motorsport 16pts
6. Paul Motorsport 16pts
8. Herberth Motorsport 12pts, etc
DRIVERS – latest Gold Cup standings
1. Al-Zubair/Klingmann/Tuck 44pts
2. Lulham/Vermeulen/King 42pts
3. Gachet/Rougier/Kell 33pts
4. Mancini/Øgaard/Cazzaniga 24pts
5. Barr/Foster/Buncombe 21pts, etc
GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS (gt-world-challenge-europe.com)
