Walkenhorst Motorsport celebrates premiere in Saudi Arabia

Walkenhorst Motorsport will be competing in Jeddah for the first time at the season finale of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup in Jeddah. David Pun makes his debut for the team.

This year’s season finale of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup will take place at a special venue: The SRO racing series will compete for the first time on the Formula 1 circuit in Jeddah. Walkenhorst Motorsport will be on the grid with three Aston Martin Vantage GT3s.

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is a 6.174-kilometre street circuit directly on the Corniche of the harbour metropolis. The high-speed circuit is characterised by its long straights and ultra-fast combinations of corners – its location directly on the Red Sea adds a special flair. A GT race will be held for the first time on the racetrack, which opened in 2021. The SAL Jeddah GT Race will run over a distance of six hours and will be held in the dark, making it an absolute highlight of the Fanatec GT World season!

‘Jeddah will be a special experience for us – everyone comes to Jeddah with minimal experience, which makes the official test sessions on Thursday all the more important for a good set-up. The run-off areas are very small, while the speeds will be extremely high – so it’s important to do a zero-error job, as any mistake can have major consequences,’ explains Managing Director Jörg Breuer.

In Jeddah, Walkenhorst Motorsport welcomes a new driver to the line-up: David Pun from Hong Kong will compete in the #36 Aston Martin. Pun contested the 24h Spa in various GT3 cars in the past two years. He is also familiar with the Aston Martin from various Asian racing series, including the Asian Le Mans Series and the GT Cup race on the legendary street circuit in Macau. Pun shares the team’s Bronze Cup car with the two regular drivers Mex Jansen and Ben Green.

The team’s top car will be driven by the three Aston Martin factory drivers David Pittard, Ross Gunn and Henrique Chaves. Gunn returns to the line-up of the team from Lower Saxony after having to miss the last race in Monza due to a clash of dates.

The Walkenhorst Motorsport line-up is completed by the Silver Cup car, which recently secured the team’s first podium result of this year’s SRO season at Monza. Romain Leroux, Lorcan Hanafin and Maxime Robin will share the cockpit of the car.

‘This year’s season has shown that the Aston Martin works well on high-speed circuits, which is why we are travelling to Jeddah with confidence! We would like to fight for top results in all three classes and finish this year’s season with good results. This will be our premiere in Saudi Arabia, which also presented us with some organisational challenges, but which we were able to overcome as a team,’ adds Niclas Königbauer, Managing Director Walkenhorst Motorsport.

The six-hour SAL Jeddah GT Race will start on Saturday, 30 November at 15:00 German time (17:00 local time) and will be broadcast on the official SRO livestream on YouTube. The three-part qualifying will take place at 9.45 am. The race weekend will be heralded by a test day on Thursday and two extensive practice sessions on Friday – each session will be broadcast in the livestream from Friday onwards.

The six-hour SAL Jeddah GT Race will start on Saturday, 30 November at 15:00 German time (17:00 local time) and will be broadcast on the official SRO livestream on YouTube. The three-part qualifying will take place at 9.45 am. The race weekend will be heralded by a test day on Thursday and two extensive practice sessions on Friday – each session will be broadcast in the livestream from Friday onwards.