Wednesday 08 / April / 2026
Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France will host the opening race of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup this Saturday, 11th April, where Ahmad Al Harthy will be aiming for a strong and successful start for the new Oman Racing by Century Motorsport squad.
Confirming his full-time return to GTWCE in late February, the Omani is now raring to go for the 2026 campaign where he will bid for the Bronze Cup class title along with team-mates Javier Sagrera and Calan Williams at the wheel of the No.42 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
Round one of the season is a six-hour night race at the Le Castellet track, beginning on Saturday at 18.00 local time, and is a venue where Al Harthy has been a Pro-Am class podium finisher in the past. His most recent race at Paul Ricard was in 2024, where he was sixth in the Bronze class.
Having focused on the FIA World Endurance Championship and, before that, the European Le Mans Series for the past few years, Al Harthy made his first appearance in the GTWCE Endurance Cup since the 2019 season a couple of years ago where he made history at Monza.
With a headline grabbing performance, along with then team-mates Sam De Haan and Jens Klingmann, the trio claimed a remarkable outright GTWCE race victory at the Italian track – the first ever Bronze class entry to achieve such a feat. They then secured another class podium in the 2024 season finale in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to finish the season fourth in the Bronze standings.
Al Harthy’s focus on GTWCE this year is very much an endurance racing home-coming, as the series has played a major role in his glittering motorsport career. Debuting in the championship back in 2013, since that time he has achieved a series of incredible milestones including, of course, his two Pro-Am class championship victories in 2017 and 2019.
This weekend’s action will feature an incredible packed grid of 59 cars in total, with the Bronze division featuring the biggest single class entry of 18. Al Harthy’s season is being supported by prestigious partners OQ, Omantel, Oman LNG and the Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth.
Ahmad Al Harthy:
“It’s fantastic to be back in GTWCE Endurance Cup, and especially with a new challenge working with the guys at Oman Racing by Century Motorsport and my new team-mates Javier and Calan. It’s the biggest, and most hotly contested, GT endurance championship in the world and it really is a delight to be back where I’ve achieved so much success in the past for Oman.
“We go into this weekend at Paul Ricard aiming to do as well as we possibly can, targeting the biggest result, but we also know the Bronze class is going to be incredibly competitive – you don’t expect anything less in GTWCE. Hopefully the prologue over the next two days will go well and then we can take that confidence through free practice and into qualifying and the race on Saturday.”
The build-up to round one begins today, Wednesday, 8th April, and tomorrow, Thursday, 9th April, with the traditional pair of official prologue test days at Circuit Paul Ricard. Bronze testing and two more practice sessions follow on Friday, 10th April, with qualifying taking place at 12.05 local time on Saturday, 11th April.
The six-hour race itself will begin at 18.00 local time on Saturday evening and live coverage of the racing, as well as qualifying, will be available to watch online HERE
