House Of Portier / TAM Auto Engineering Lead UAE GT Championship In Memoriam Of Henny Portier R.I.P

After a hard battle in Abu Dhabi, the House of Portier / TAM Auto Engineering team go into the mid-season break leading the Cytech UAE GT Championship.

It was the first time the Yas Marina Circuit played host to a dedicated UAE National Race Day and the track proved to bring a new set of challenges to all teams and drivers.

Driving the championship-leading Callaway Motorsports Corvette Z06 were UAE racing champion, Karim Al Azhari and European racing legend Fabian Giroix.

Karim Al Azhari posted the quickest time in the qualification session putting the GTA class Corvette on pole position with a time of 1:10.754 around the technical 3.13km Yas Marina North circuit. This was a clear second quicker than the next car on the grid, the Ginetta G50Z driven by Raed Hassam and Bassam Kronfli.

Al Azhari lead for the first half of the 60-minute long race before handing over to Giroix during the mandatory pit stop. Giroix emerged returned to the track and was soon just two seconds behind the front-runner, before taking the lead once again.

However, disaster struck with just a quarter of race distance remaining as the right rear tyre suffered a severe puncture that required an unscheduled pit stop to replace. With the fresh rubber in place, Giroix set about regaining lost time on the track and managed to bring the Corvette home in third place overall and second in class.

After the race, Karim Al Azhari said "We might be a bit unlucky but all in all it was a good race, I was so satisfied with the car set up thanks to TAM Auto Engineering. I was little bit shocked when I saw Fabian back in the pit with a damaged rear right tyre, but I was confident that Fabian would use his magic. I am so happy to be driving alongside him, I am learning a lot from his massive experience and he is definitely a boost for my skills!"

Fabian Giroix was happy with second in class given the problems with the tyre suffered during the race. "I was so comfortable when I joined the race after Karim, we were just two seconds y behind the leader so I was driving the car to 70% of its abilities. But after the puncture, it felt like I was pushing it to 200%!"

The GTB House of Portier Corvette with the pairing of Jiri Skula and Mohammed Al Mutawaa narrowly missed out on class victory. The young drivers managed to keep more experienced drivers at bay for nearly the entire hour, only losing the top spot on the final corner of the race.

However, the team raised concerns about the handling of the "Code 60" which was called in the final quarter of the race and how some teams failed to adhere to the mandatory 60kph average speed around the circuit. A Code 60 is called when a car is stranded in a dangerous position on the circuit which requires recovery, and the low speed limit is enforced to maintain safety on the track.

There were also a lot of questions raised over the rolling start to the race, which was aborted on four occasions.

Experienced Corvette racer, the young Czech driver Jiri Skula had this to say at the end of the race. "I was little bit disappointed about the crazy start of the race - I have never seen something like that before! I was so happy with the lead over my closest competitor, but I think at the end they should have respected the rules and regulations and follow the code 60. But at the end of the day, that’s motorsport and I look forward to winning next race for House of Portier supported by TAM Auto Engineering."

His teammate, the eighteen year-old Emirati racing ace Mohammed Al Mutawaa, had this to say. " I had a very good race before the Code 60 was called... I still don’t know how the 7-second gap that we had over the MSW Porsche became less than 2! They managed to overtake me at the last curve on the final lap. At the end of the day, that’s motorsport and most importantly our Corvette was rocking and its set up was just perfect for the challenging conditions of Yas Marina."

Team Manager for House of Portier / TAM Auto Engineering, Motaz Abu Hijleh, was happy with his drivers’ performance in the conditions. "I would like to thank all of the team at Yas Marina Circuit for hosting this UAE National Race Day, but I have few concerns with the DAMC’s organisation. It wasn’t as good as we were expecting it to be. All in all, we at House of Portier/TAM Auto Engineering are satisfied with the race and are happy that we didn’t put a foot wrong throughout the entire weekend. Fabian especially did a fantastic job making up time after the unfortunate puncture."

The result from Abu Dhabi puts Karim Al Azhari 1st in the Driver Ranking of GTA class with 28 points. Mohammed Al Mutawaa sits in joint 1st position in GTB on 28 points. In the Team Championships, the House of Portier team is again at the top of the rankings.

The House of Portier / TAM Auto Engineering race team returns to Yas Marina on 11-12th February when the Cytech UAE GT Championship runs as support race to the V8 Supercars Australia.
 

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