Bahraini-British motor racing team 2 Seas make solid start

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahraini-British motor racing team 2 Seas Motorsport put in solid results yesterday on the opening day of action in the 2024 GT World Challenge Europe’s Endurance Cup.

The season-opening meeting kicked off at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, and the programme marked 2 Seas’ highly anticipated debut in the championship.

Competing amongst the series’ Gold Cup competitors, 2 Seas were in the top five in class in both the day’s sessions.

In free practice, the Kingdom’s representatives were the leaders in the Gold Cup and second overall, and then in pre-qualifying, 2 Seas were fifth in the Gold Cup and 50th overall.

Sharing the duties this weekend behind the wheel of 2 Seas’ #60 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo car is the crew of team co-owner His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Lewis Williamson of Scotland, and Martin Kodric of Croatia.

All three drivers showed their pace yesterday en route to securing their classifications amongst the 54-car field, competing in the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Cups as well as in the Pro class.

2 Seas are racing in this year’s GT World Challenge Europe’s Endurance Cup while also defending their GT3 Teams’ title in the British GT Championship— making for a highly competitive pair of series for this campaign.

In yesterday’s free-practice session, 2 Seas had a best lap of one minute 54.026 seconds while completing 44 laps of work.

They were not far behind overall pace-setters M-AMG Team GetSpeed, who are competing in the Pro class.

They had a fastest time of 1:53.912. Best Meanwhile, in pre-qualifying, 2 Seas’ best was a lap of 1:55.813 while going out for 22 laps in the session.

Pro class squad Rowe Racing were the overall leaders at 1:54.003, while best amongst the Gold Cup competitors were AlManar Racing by GetSpeed in 12th overall with a quickest lap of 1:54.643. Action continues today with qualifying scheduled to be held at 10.45am.

That will set the grid for the three-hour endurance race, starting at 4pm, all Bahrain time.

In qualifying, all three drivers will get out on track, with the average time between them determining their place on the grid.

This weekend’s events at Paul Ricard mark the first of five rounds in the GT World Challenge Europe’s Endurance Cup.

Following the season-opener, a prologue is scheduled on May 21 and 22, to be held ahead of the 24-hour race in Spa, Belgium, which is round two from June 26 to 30.

Round three will take place at the Nurburgring in Germany from July 26 to 28, and then the fourth and penultimate meeting will be held from September 20 to 22 in Monza, Italy.

The curtain-closer is then scheduled for November 21 to 23 in Jeddah.

HH Shaikh Isa, Williamson, and Kodric have all driven with 2 Seas across multiple other events. HH Shaikh Isa is a double champion in the Gulf 12 Hours, and he will be making his European race debut.

He is joined by former Autosport BRDC Award winner Williamson, who is back with the team having scored multiple podium-finishes in the 2022 British GT campaign.

Kodric is also returning with 2 Seas having been teammates with HH Shaikh Isa for their Gulf 12 Hours victories, and has also scored wins in GT Open and British GT events.