24H Dubai Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***Marc Basseng topped the time charts in Friday morning’s 30-minute warmup session, taking his All-Inkl.com Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 to a best lap of 2:00.720. The session saw one red flag early for a stopped car on the circuit, with no other major incidents reported.

***While Team Abu Dhabi Racing by Black Falcon seeks its third consecutive 24H Dubai crown, they are racing in memory of Sean Edwards, who was part of their winning lineup the last two years. A moment of silence will be held for the Englishman on the grid this afternoon.

***Only a handful of A6 (GT3) teams have nominated themselves for A6-Am class status. They include the No. 3 Fach Auto Tech Porsche, No. 10 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini, No. 11 Car Collection Mercedes, No. 14 Spirit of Race Ferrari, No. 18 VISIOM Ferrari, No. 19 GDL Racing Mercedes, No. 28 Team LNT Ginetta, and both Dragon Racing Ferraris.

***Under A6-Am rules, cars cannot exceed a 2:05 target lap time, with ten “joker” laps allowed per entry. the A6-Pro class, which features the majority of the GT3 field, runs without any laptime restrictions.

***The No. 162 Cor Euser Racing Lotus Evora of Americans Shane Lewis, Vice Rice and Hal Prewitt has already had a rough weekend, with engine issues preventing the GT4-based entry from getting any significant track time thus far. It did, however, top the SP3 class time sheets in warmup this morning.

***More than half of the race’s 79-car field are running with SPAA05’s Race Position lights system, which will also be used in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship beginning with the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona later this month. The system displays each car’s current overall position.

***Mark your calendars. The 10th annual Dunlop 24 Hours of Dubai has already been confirmed for Jan. 8-10, 2015.

***While Sportscar365 will provide frequent updates, you can follow the race with live streaming video and commentary from Radio Le Mans at: http://www.24hseries.com, starting at 2 p.m. local (5 a.m. ET).

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John