Officials, teams arrive for endurance spectacle in Bahrain

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Kingdom of Bahrain and Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) have over the past few days been welcoming the participants for this weekend’s FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain, the final round of the 2019/2020 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season.

Officials from the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the WEC, along with WEC team management, staff and a number of drivers, have reached the island ahead of the endurance racing spectacle, which gets underway tomorrow at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East.”

Upon touching down at Bahrain International Airport, they were received by members of BIC’s Meet and Greet Team, who gave them a warm welcome and assisted them in their arrival formalities at a specially constructed BIC Reception Tent.

The race officials and teams are also completing their preparations at the BIC premises in Sakhir, with set-up work in Race Control Tower, the Paddock, along the Pit Lane and garag- es, as well as at key locations around the track.

WEC action gets underway with a 90-minute Free Practice tomorrow, to be followed on Friday, November 13, by a second WEC Practice of the same duration, plus a third over 60 minutes. Qualifying will then be held that evening, setting the stage for the highly anticipated eight-hour race on Saturday, November 14. The main event is scheduled for a 2pm start in the daytime and it will end at 10pm under the brilliance of BIC’s state-of-the art floodlights.

Five of the WEC’s eight championship titles are set to be decided in the season-finale at BIC. These include the FIA World Endurance LMP Drivers’ Championship, the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers, the GT FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship, the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE Am Teams, and the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE Am Drivers.

The titles already clinched are the FIA World Endurance LMP1 Championship, won by Toyota Gazoo Racing; the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams, claimed by United Autosports, and the GT Manufacturers FIA World Endurance Championship, won by Aston Martin.

The 8 Hours of Bahrain will also mark the last official appearance on track for the WEC’s top-tier Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) category, which will make way for the Le Mans Hypercar class starting from 2021.

Aside from the WEC, there will also be plenty of racing excitement in the homegrown BIC 2,000cc Challenge, the region’s longest-running circuit racing championship.