The first act of the Winter Challenge kicks off in Dubai

The  Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific Rounds 5 & 6 have arrived in the UAE. The first of the two events making up the Winter Challenge starts at the Dubai Autodrome from 26th to 29th January and is held in conjunction with Ferrari Racing Days.  This Challenge series is also open to drivers from the other championships in Europe, US and the UK. Twenty 488 Challenge Evo cars will compete in the Prancing Horse’s one-make series. 

Ferrari Racing Days is one of the biggest events where we will enter a fabulous world of Ferrari and kick off an entire weekend of festivities. Highlights of the event will be some incredible on-track displays of single-seaters from the F1 Clienti and several cars, including the models FXXK Evo and 599XX Evo, from the XX Programmes, as well as Club Competizioni GT cars, organised by Corse Clienti, the department that coordinates all the sporting activity involving Ferrari owners.

Raring to go. This weekend’s race at Dubai Autodrome will feature drivers from all the regional Challenge series organized by the Maranello-based marque. All eyes will once again be on the battle between APAC challengers Yudai Uchida and Nobuhiro Imada, both from Rosso Scuderia, as the fight for supremacy in Trofeo Pirelli AM continues. Both contenders took turns standing on the top step of the podium during the last round at Imola and the race is again expected to be a close one as they fight for the championship in the final 2 rounds of the series. They will face some fierce competition from Philippe Prette (Blackbird Concessionaires), class champion of the APAC series in 2019, who will be racing in this last 2 rounds.

Meanwhile, we will also see some strong rivalry amongst the Europeans and Americans, with the likes of Jeremy Clarke (Ferrari of Beverly Hills), freshly crowned champion of Ferrari Challenge North America Trofeo Pirelli 2022, Matt Kurzejewski (Ferrari Westlake), Omar Jackson (Baron Motorsport), Andreas Bogh-Sorensen (Formula Racing) and Carl Cavers (Graypaul Nottingham), who will battle for the honour of Winter Challenge champion in the Trofeo Pirelli class.

In Coppa Shell, Kazuyuki Yamaguchi (Cornes Osaka) will fight to keep his spot at the top of the table standings, but will face some serious challenge from teammate Kanji Yagura who’s only 21 points behind him, Motohiko Isozaki (Cornes Shiba) and Jay Park of FMK.  On top of that, they will be joined by 2019 Coppa Shell Europe champion Tani Hanna (Formula Racing), Lisa Clark (Ferrari of Beverly Hills), winner of Ferrari Challenge North America Coppa Ladies 2022, Maya Hartge, Mohamed Alqamzi and James Geddie (all from Al Tayer Motors) who will be looking to join the fight for the podium. In the Am class, Shigura Kamiue of European Version still leads the standings with 95 points after his win in Race 2 in the last round at Imola. But Kamiue will be facing some stiff competition from Baby Kei (Cornes Osaka) and New Zealander David Dicker (Continental Cars Auckland) who will be looking to move up the standings.

Schedule. Practice sessions will run on Friday.  Official sessions will begin on Saturday, with the qualifying session at 10.45am and Race 1 taking place at 3.35pm. The second qualifying session will take place on Sunday at 11.45am followed by Race 2 at 4.35pm (all times are local).