BIC launches ticket sales for endurance racing spectacle

TDT | Manama                                                               

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Motorsport fans around the world can now book their tickets to one of the region’s biggest race weekends, marking a spectacular culmination to the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) announced yesterday the launch of ticket sales for this year’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain, taking place this November 3 and 4 as the seventh and final round of the WEC season.

The meeting will be the first major international event of BIC’s 2023/2024 racing calendar, which will be highlighted by celebrations marking the landmark 20th anniversary of “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.

Tickets cost just BD5 for adults and BD2.5 for kids for the two-day WEC weekend, which will feature plenty of motor racing action as well as off-track family entertainment for all to enjoy. Tickets can be purchased online at bahraingp.com or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973- 17450000.

The launch of ticket sales coincides with the staging of one of the world’s most iconic races this weekend and the crown jewel of the WEC each year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will be celebrating its Centenary on 10 and 11 June.

Fans are urged to purchase their WEC tickets at the soonest so as to not miss out on the Spirit of Le Mans coming to Bahrain, boasting many of motorsport’s leading endurance drivers and teams as well as some of the biggest brands in all of motoring.

This year’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain will also be the first time Bahrain’s race lovers will get to see the all-new grid of WEC Hypercars—the top-tier category of the series—featuring brand new entries such as Cadillac Racing, Floyd Vanwall Racing Team, Porsche Penske Motorsport, Hertz Team Jota and Ferrari-AF Corse joining defending WEC champions Toyota Gazoo Racing as well as Peugeot TotalEnergies and Glickenhaus Racing.

There will also be plenty of thrills in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Am (LMGTE Am) classes, all as part of a massive grid of WEC race contenders. The packed field will be battling it out from day to night around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre track, making for a brilliant spectacle that flags off under the afternoon sun and then wraps up under the stars while being brilliantly lit by BIC’s state-of-the-art floodlights.

In support of the WEC, the newly rebranded Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East will be hitting the tarmac during the weekend, featuring the region’s best gentleman racers of different nationalities.

This championship, formerly known as the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East, is the region’s premier one-make series that was born and is based at BIC. BIC has also planned an incredible line-up of off-track entertainment for the race weekend that race-goers of all ages can look forward to.

The Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain will be crowning the 2023 FIA WEC champions, wrapping up a fantastic season that saw races also held in the US, Portugal, Belgium, France, Italy and Japan before coming to Sakhir.

It will be the 12th WEC race at BIC and the fifth in the eight-hour format, following the six-hour races which took place since the WEC’s inaugural season in 2012. More details of this year’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain will be announced in due course. For any information on the WEC race weekend or other BIC events and activities, visit bahraingp.com or call the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000.