Monday 23 / September / 2024
OQ by Oman Racing achieved an absolutely incredible outright victory during round four of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Monza in Italy on Sunday, 22nd September – one of the proudest moments of Ahmad Al Harthy’s glittering motorsport career.
When a chaotic opening lap with a series of multi-car incidents resulted in the No.30 BMW M4 having to pit with damage, hopes of a Bronze class podium, let alone a challenge for outright victory in the three-hour race, looked absolutely unthinkable.
But inspired strategy from Team WRT, the squad which prepares and runs the OQ by Oman Racing entry, meant the car – in the hands of Sam De Haan for the first stint – made no fewer than three pit-visits while the Safety Car was circulating following the lap one dramas.
Enabling the BMW to have repairs facilitated, while vitally remaining on the lead lap, importantly it also meant they had begun to clear the three mandatory timed pit-stops which each entry had to serve during the race. Pain at the beginning led to sheer joy at the chequered flag thanks to steely focus, determination, faultless driving and nothing short of genius from Team WRT.
In addition to the stunning overall resul it is also the first Bronze class win for Al Harthy, De Haan and Jens Klingmann and the trio have become the first non-Pro class line-up, and maiden Bronze line-up, to claim an Endurance Cup win outright. For Team WRT, it marks the outfit’s first race win in the Endurance Cup with BMW.
Jaw-dropping win for OQ by Oman Racing makes GTWCE history
Preparation for the race weekend went well, with the No.30 squad just 0.6 seconds away from the quickest overall time in free practice and only 0.5 seconds shy of the pace in pre-qualifying. Final qualifying on Sunday morning, run across three sessions for the trio of drivers, concluded with OQ by Oman Racing sixth fastest in Bronze and 29th on the overall grid from 52 cars.
With an extra mandatory pit-stop required in this weekend’s race, differing approaches were taken by the teams. More spice was then added when De Haan sustained damage on lap one after contact from another car, so he pitted as the Safety Car made an early appearance.
After the decision by the team to pit multiple times under the early Safety Car to eat into the mandatory pit-stops, De Haan was at the tail of the field and with significant work to do. During the opening hour he carved through impressively, ultimately rising into fifth and the Bronze lead as other squads ran more traditional strategies.
Al Harthy got behind the wheel early in hour two and was third in class and 24th overall when he joined the race. Totally out of sequence with the competition, it mattered not as the signs were good for the strategy to work in their favour.
Maintaining his top three in class, OQ, Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Omantel, Experience Oman and BMW Oman backed Al Harthy continued to move forward in the overall battle and with 70 minutes to go he held second in Bronze and was up into the outright top 20.
When he handed the BMW over to Klingmann for the final hour, not only did the Bronze podium look likely – so did a big overall result. Into the final 50 minutes Klingmann was extremely well placed and just 10 minutes later he had risen to the class lead and an incredible third overall as the differing pit strategies continued to play out.
Needing to stop one more time inside the final 20 minutes, with the longer mandatory stops served at the beginning it meant Klingmann’s last visit to pitlane was fast. Driving superbly against vastly experienced topline Pro drivers, Klingmann was up to second with mere minutes to go and then took the lead – holding off the sister Pro class Team WRT car of Dries Vanthoor for the dizzying win.
Ahmad Al Harthy:
“Unbelievable, unbelievable – I can’t actually believe what happened! History, absolute history. It’s amazing to take this win, I am over the moon. This means so much to everybody in the team, to Oman, to our incredible sponsors and I would like to dedicate this remarkable win to His Highness Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham bin Tarik al-Said of the Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth.
“We actually had this plan drawn up, we said if it works it works and if it doesn’t we’ll look like we’ve done something wrong! It worked, it worked perfectly well, this was a team effort. Our engineer Will came up with the plan, he did an amazing job as well. This is what racing is about, you know, you have to really work together as a team and today we proved that, like nobody else could have.
“We out-performed everybody, a huge grid of the most professional teams and drivers. To win it with OQ by Oman Racing, our first win with BMW, and to win our class and the race overall really is unbelievable. I am so proud to see the Oman flag fly high here in Monza, I cannot describe it. I also want to thank His Highness Sayyid Nazar Al Julanda Majid Alsaid, the Omani Ambassador to Italy, for attending the race and for his support along with that of everyone from OQ and all our partners.”
The fifth and final round of the GTWCE Endurance Cup season will take place on Friday, 29th November, and Saturday, 30th November, in Saudi Arabia – the 6 Hours of Jeddah. Before then, on Saturday, 2nd November, Al Harthy will bring the curtain down on his 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.
GTWCE Endurance Cup Monza Result
1st Ahmad Al Harthy / Sam De Haan / Jens Klingmann
(OQ by Oman Racing, BMW M4 – Bronze)
2nd Dries Vanthoor / Sheldon van der Linde / Charles Weerts
(Team WRT, BMW M4 – Pro)
3rd Alessio Rovera / Vincent Abril / Alessandro Pier Guidi
(AF Corse, Ferrari 296 – Pro)
4th Christopher Haase / Alex Aka / Ricardo Feller
(Tresor Attempto, Audi R8 – Pro)
5th Raffaele Marciello / Maxime Martin / Valentino Rossi
(Team WRT, BMW M4 – Pro)
6th Thomas Drouet / Sergio Sette Camara / Maximilian Gotz
(Boutsen VDS, Mercedes – Pro)
2024 GTWCE Endurance Cup Bronze Class Standings (after Rd4)
1st Jonathan Hui / Chris Frogatt / Eddie Cheever, 65pts
2nd Jef Machiels / Louis Machiels / Andrea Bertolini, 57pts
3rd Max Hofer / Andrey Mukovoz, 53pts
4th Ahmad Al Harthy / Sam De Haan / Jens Klingmann, 40pts
