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Dubai 24 hour race sees the return of Lotus
and the Mansell family name to the race track
31 years after Formula 1 World Champion Nigel
Mansell made his F1 debut in a Lotus courtesy of
Colin Chapman’s eagle eyed talent spotting, his
sons Leo (26) and Greg (23) get behind the wheel
of the new Lotus Evora GT4 Endurance. The two
Mansell boys join Lotus GT factory driver Johnny
Mowlem, WTCC driver Stefano D’Aste and Gianni
Giudici to take on the gruelling endurance
challenge of the Dunlop Dubai 24 hour race which
starts on Friday (14 January).
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With a pedigree like theirs it will come as no
surprise that both gentlemen are more than a
little familiar with racing, having started out
like so many others in karting before
progressing through various single seater
Formula series. And they’re no strangers to 24
hour racing, an unfortunate incident involving a
suspected slow puncture prematurely ended their
attempt at the Le Mans 24 hour race last year
where Leo and Greg joined forces with Mansell
Senior to tackle the iconic race.
Commenting on their debut with Lotus, Nigel
Mansell said: “It’s a great feeling to see both
my boys working with Lotus and it brings back
some very fond memories for me. But F1 is
obviously very different to endurance racing and
as with any 24 hour race, the event in Dubai
represents a big challenge. What’s special about
the race in Dubai though is it will not only
test their endurance under extreme conditions
but they will have the added challenge of
adapting very quickly to a relatively new car. I
think they’ll do well and they have some well
established drivers on the team to work with too
– so hopefully they’ll all complement each other
and the team dynamic will be strong. Lotus
Motorsport has a great support team set up so
everyone will be working together to get the
best result out of the race.”
The 6th edition of the Dubai 24 hour race begins
at 2pm local time on Friday at the 5.39km Dubai
Autodrome and it will be the first competitive
outing for the new Lotus Evora GT4 Endurance
complete with an updated engine from Cosworth.
The Lotus Evora GT4 Endurance will be in full
“GT Endurance” specification and the engine has
completed substantial in-car and on-dyno
endurance testing. Cosworth decided that
maintaining the maximum engine speed (at base
GT4 level) while increasing efficiency was the
most effective route to meeting the performance
and durability targets set by Lotus.
The proof of all that hard work and planning
will be in the performance of the team on Friday
so fingers crossed that both Lotus and the
Mansells have something to celebrate together.
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