WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain

FIA World Endurance Championship

The WEC has established itself as one of the premier championships under the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the leading global series for endurance racing. It attracts countless stars in motorsport, and it continues to grow in popularity every year, with races taking place in eight countries across four continents.

View More
Buy Tickets

Stacked 36-car grid set for BIC this weekend in the Bapco Energies 8H of Bahrain

Stacked 36-car grid set for BIC this weekend in the Bapco Energies 8H of Bahrain

  • 12 Hypercars set for record-breaking fight in WEC’s top-tier category
  • Thirteen LMGTE Am teams racing in world’s most iconic sportscar brands to hit tarmac, including an all-female squad
  • Tickets for both days of world championship racing and family entertainment at BD5.500 for adults, BD2.750 for children

A stacked field of 36 cars will be lining up on the grid at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) this weekend for this year’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.

The ultra-competitive entry list for the final round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is set to be headlined by a record-breaking 12 Hypercars, along with 11 contenders in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class and another 13 in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Am (LMGTE Am) category.

The world-class competitors will be hitting the tarmac at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East” as the Spirit of Le Mans makes its presence felt in Sakhir in a massive way.

The action starts on Thursday (2 November) with the WEC’s first two 90-minute practice sessions to be held behind closed doors.

BIC will then open its gates to fans on Friday and Saturday (Editor’s note: 3 and 4 November) for them to see endurance motorsport’s best teams and drivers in action in their iconic and technologically superior Hypercars and sportscars.

Gates are scheduled to be open from 11am to 6.30pm on Friday and from 10.30am to 10.30pm on Saturday.

Tickets to the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain remain available and those looking to attend are urged to purchase theirs today for this unmissable occasion at BIC.

Tickets cost just BD5.500 for adults and BD2.750 for kids for the two-day weekend programme. They can be bought online at BIC’s official website bahraingp.com or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000. Tickets are priced as one of the most affordable ways to witness a world championship motorsport event.

Hospitality packages are also available for the BIC Spirit of Le Mans Club Experience, where guests can experience exclusive cuisine and incredible views in BIC’s Paddock hospitality. Packages are also available to purchase online or via the BIC Hotline.

This year’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain will yet again be a brilliant spectacle for all those attending and watching on television from across the globe. The race on Saturday will flag off under the afternoon sun and then wrap up beneath the stars while shining brightly under BIC’s state-of-the-art floodlights.

With over a decade of racing history at BIC, the WEC has grown to become a landmark event in Bahrain. The 36-car field is one of the largest for the WEC race since it switched to an eight-hour format in 2019.

This year, the Hypercar category will be more hotly contested than ever.
Toyota Gazoo Racing and Peugeot TotalEnergies will be making their return to Bahrain, and they will be joined in the Hypercar battles for the first time at BIC by Ferrari AF Corse, Porsche Penske Motorsport, Cadillac Racing, Floyd Vanwall Racing Team, Hertz Team JOTA, and Proton Competition.

Toyota Gazoo Racing, Peugeot TotalEnergies, Ferrari AF Corse and Porsche Penske Motorsport will each have two cars taking to the track—all Hybrids. Hertz Team JOTA, Proton Competition and Cadillac Racing will be racing single Hybrid challengers, while Floyd Vanwall Racing Team will compete in their Vanwall Vandervell 680.

A star-studded cast of drivers across the board will be plotting their race strategies. They include former Formula 1 aces Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Kamui Kobayashi, Paul di Resta, Jean-Eric Verge and Antonio Giovinazzi in the Hypercar category; and Robert Kubica and Daniil Kvyat in the LMP2 class, among others.

The LMP2 category will see plenty of heated action amongst the 11 Oreca 07-Gibsons. United Autosports, Alpine Elf Team, Prema Racing and Team WRT will each have two cars in contention, to be joined by Vector Sport, JOTA and Inter Europol Competition with one car each.

The LMGTE Am category features the WEC’s biggest line-up of entries, taking to the track in the most iconic sportscar machinery.

Among the participants is the all-female crew of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey, who are sharing the duties in their Porsche 911 RSR-19 as the Iron Dames team.
The other squads competing in Porsches are Project 1-AO, Iron Lynx, Dempsey-Proton Racing and GR Racing.

Taking to the track in Ferrari 488 GTE EVO cars are two AF Corse crews, Kessel Racing and Richard Mille AF Corse.

ORT by TF, Northwest AMR and D’Station Racing will each be competing in Aston Martin Vantage AMR challengers; while Corvette Racing will be getting into the fight in their Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

Aside from the WEC action, there will also be top-class racing from the region’s leading one-make series, the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East.

Off the track, there will also be loads of family entertainment, plus a WEC-exclusive Open Paddock experience—a unique feature which allows fans to enjoy behind-the-scenes access, getting right next to the teams’ garages and possibly see some of the sport’s star drivers in person.

All this and so much more await race-goers at this coming weekend’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain.

Images