ATCUAE release provisional dates for the 2009/2010 UAE National Racing season

Dubai Autodrome will once again feature prominently on the 2009/2010 UAE National Racing season calendar which was made public this week by the ATCUAE, the sport’s governing body in the UAE. Although the dates are provisional they provide an indication that local race fans and competitors are in for a busy season of top class motorsport. The season will consist of eight rounds featuring UAE Touring Car Championship, UAE GT Championship, UAE Sportbike Championship and Gulf Radical Cup. The first race will be preceded by a combined pre-season test day and media launch.

Heading each of the eight race day bills will be the 2009/2010 UAE Touring Car Championship, with two rounds of the championship run per race day. For the forthcoming season the UAE Touring Car Championship, which is now more aligned with global Touring Car racing trends, will feature 3 classes within the series with the big difference being that only two wheel drive cars will be allowed to enter the championship and for the new season minimum will weight caps will be enforced.

UAE GT Championship will make its debut in the new season. The series is devised along the lines of similar international GT series’, which caters for exotic supercars and is likely to attract a spectacular grid of Porsches, Corvettes, Dodge Vipers, Aston Martins to name some. The series will feature three classes GTA, GTB and GTC. Because of the wide variety of cars, an objective classification has been chosen based on a “weight/power” ratio. In this way, our aim is to equalise cars participating in each class as fairly as possible.

UAE Sportbike Championship is invariably one the highlights of a UAE National Race Day. The speed and sound of the state-of-the-art motorcycles combined with the gravity defying cornering ability of the top riders makes Sportbike racing popular with fans and competitors alike. The Championship for 2009/2010 will consist of two production based classes, one for 1000cc Sportbikes and one for 600cc Sportbikes.

Gulf Radical Cup will be on the National Race Day bill once again. The series has grown from strength to strength in the past few years and provided some close racing featuring Le Mans style prototype sportscars.

Thus the 2009/2010 season will start with a “soft” opening on Thursday, 1 October 2009 at Dubai Autodrome with the real deal commencing two weeks later, at the same venue, on Friday, 16 October 2009. If the past season is anything to go by then 2009/2010 will undoubtedly be an intriguing affair as inevitably the bar will again move up several notches in UAE motorsport.

For further information, visit www.dubaiautodrome.com

2009/2010 UAE National Racing Provisional Calendar

1 October Test Day & Press Launch
16 October UAE National Race Day 1
12, 13 & 14 November Dubai Motorsport Festival including UAE National Race Day 2
4 December UAE National Race Day 3
29 January UAE National Race Day 4
19 or 26 February UAE National Race Day 5
12 March UAE National Race Day 6
2 or 9 April UAE National Race Day 7
23 April UAE National Race Day 8
7 May Night of Champions awards evening