18 cars have already signed up for the upcoming Gulf 12 Hours on December 10th, which acts as the final round of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge season.
The list for the Driving Force Events-run meeting at the Yas Marina Circuit includes last year’s winner AF Corse, which also holds a record number of victories, as well as IGTC regulars Team WRT (BMW), GruppeM and SunEnergy1 (Mercedes-AMG), and Grove Racing and Herberth Motorsport (Porsche).
Indeed, WRT and GruppeM will spearhead their respective constructor’s IGTC drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships, while Grove has Independent Cup title contender Stephen Grove amongst its ranks.
Herberth, meanwhile, has secured IGTC and overall pole positions at each of the globe-trotting GT3 series’ last two rounds.
The event’s full list of teams, drivers and manufacturers, as well as Intercontinental nominations, will be confirmed in due course. However, the current list already includes some significant entries.
The grid features winners from 10 of the race’s 12 editions. As well as AF Corse, Kessel Racing clinched each of its four victories with Ferrari, while Anglo-Bahraini squad 2 Seas Motorsport are two times winners.
SunEnergy1 Racing is also scheduled to compete after topping the Pro-Am podium last year.
Although currently unconfirmed, WRT – which makes its Gulf 12 Hours debut – is likely to split Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS winners Philipp Eng, Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor across two M4s. All three are IGTC title contenders.
However, the man to beat is Jules Gounon who leads Eng by eight points. He will most likely represent Mercedes-AMG’s full-season factory squad, GruppeM, just as he did at Gulf last season.
Each full-season IGTC manufacturer is permitted to nominate four cars, three of which can feature Pro driver line-ups.
Provisional entry list
Featured image courtesy of the Gulf 12 Hours
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