About Us
The Al-Manar Racing team came about through Al-Faisal Al-Zubair’s steps into the international motor sport scene. Al-Manar Financial Investments, a leading Middle Eastern investments company, has supported Al-Faisal’s race programme for several years.
Following the Omani’s successful progression from the Porsche BWT GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East with a Porsche 911 GT3 run by Austria’s Lechner Racing, Al-Faisal and his team switched to GT endurance-style racing and teamed up with the Haupt Racing Team (HRT) to form Al-Manar Racing by HRT.
Launched in July 2020 by Hubert Haupt, himself a successful racing driver, the German team is based at Meuspath, within close proximity to the iconic Nürburgring circuit. It has competed successfully in DTM, NLS, the GT World Challenge Europe, the Asian Le Mans series and the Nürburgring 24-Hour.
The team clinched the DTM Drivers’ Championship in 2021 with Maximilian Götz and enjoyed a busy programme with the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, Dubai 24-Hour and Nürburgring 24-Hour.
The Al-Manar Racing team managed to secure a number of wins in 2022, including the GTWC Paul Ricard 1000 and the penultimate race of the International GT Open.
After a successful 2022 season across various race championships, Al-Manar Racing by HRT started the 2023 season in winning style by sealing back-to-back GT Class victories in the third and fourth races of the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi with Al-Faisal Al-Zubair, Luca Stolz and Martin Konrad in the Al-Manar Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3. The team managed to clinch second place in the GT Class Championship standings.
Al-Zubair also competed in select International GT Open and Intercontinental GT Challenge races and the Le Mans Cup. The team also took part in select Endurance events that formed part of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS with a top-class driver trio fighting for overall honours in the Pro class.
Al-Manar Racing have now formed a strategic partnership with GetSpeed Performance. In the colours of the tie-in between the Omani racing team and Adam Osieka’s GetSpeed, Maro Engel, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz initially competed in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. GetSpeed Performance has more than 20 years’ experience in international motor sport and has an impressive list of successes.
Based on the Nürburgring Industrial Park, GetSpeed is at the forefront of track racing and employs innovative approaches to its team management, including driver stress level monitoring, live onboard streaming and track coaching.
Its competition department was founded in 2013 and the team made its GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS debut in 2019. Team Principal Adam Osieka teamed up with Denis Remenyako on that occasion to compete for Amateur Cup honours in a Mercedes-AMG at Misano.
In 2024, Al-Faisal Al-Zubair is tackling select rounds of the Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup, the International GT Open, a programme of Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) events and
appearances in the Hankook Dubai 24H and Gulf 12H races.
He drives the Al-Manar Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 alongside the likes of Fabian Schiller, Luca Stolz, Mikaël Grenier, Anthony Liu, Dominik Baumann and Phillip Ellis in the various race programmes.
WHERE WE RACE
The International GT Open was founded by the Spanish GT Sport Organización in 2006 and was a spin-off from the former Spanish GT Championship. It now runs as a successful championship for FIA GT3 cars and is fought out over a European racing calendar.
Each weekend features free practice, a separate stint for bronze drivers, two 40-minute qualifying sessions and two races, the first running for 70 minutes and the second lasting for an hour.
There is an exception for the GT Open 500 race at Spa in Belgium: this runs for 2hr 40min plus an additional lap, but still offers a pair of qualifying sessions and double points.
The Asian Le Mans Series was created by the famous Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and offers a race calendar in Asia. It succeeded the Japan Le Mans Challenge and began in Okayama, Japan, in 2009. After a slow start, the series was relaunched at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans with a plan to run it in a similar way to the European Le Mans Series.
The series took a while to become established but gradually interest increased and the series visited the Middle East for the first time in 2021 with a pair of four-hour races in Dubai and a pair in Abu Dhabi.
The inclusion of a bronze Pro-Am driver was mandatory in each class from the start of the 2023 season and the last calendar featured a race at Sepang in Malaysia before visits to the Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi for double-header races. There are now classes for LMP2, LMP3 and GT cars.
The UAE’s premier endurance car race is the Hankook Dubai 24H that ran for the 19th time in late January 2024 at the Dubai Autodrome. Inaugurated in 2006, it is organised by Dutch agency Creventic under the auspices of the FIA.
The race itinerary spans three days with free practice and qualifying sessions taking centre stage on the Friday before night practice. The 24-hour race then starts at 1pm on the Saturday and finishes at 1pm on Sunday.
It attracts teams across the GT3, GTX, 992, GT4, TCR and TCX classes and caters for GT, touring car and Le Mans-style prototype racing. Hankook has been the exclusive tyre partner since 2012.
The most successful drivers are Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen, Emirati Khaled Al-Qubaisi and German Hubert Haupt with three wins apiece.
The Gulf 12 Hours is an annual GT endurance event held at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, although the Sakhir track in Bahrain hosted the 2021 edition because of global travel restrictions.
Inaugurated in 2013, the event was a round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in 2022 and 2023.
Black Falcon Racing won the first race in 2013, with Ferraris securing the top step of the podium between 2014 and 2018. Audi, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari have been successful since 2019.
