Sigalsport drivers Dubai 24 hours report

MATT ALHADEFF AND GENE SIGAL FINISHED THIRD OVERALL IN THE INAUGURAL 24 HOURS OF DUBAI!

Los Angeles, January 17, 2006: Sigalsport BMW team drivers Matt Alhadeff and Gene Sigal (also the team owner), finished third overall in the inaugural 24 Hours of Dubai. The 2006 Rolex Series drivers were co-driving a Porsche GT3 with Slovakian AC Bratislava team owner Miro Konopka and Jirko Malcharek.

AC Bratislava team owner, Miro Konopka, drove for Sigalsport last year at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and invited Gene Sigal and Matt Alhadeff to participate in the Dubai 24 Hours this year.

The inaugural Toyo Tires Dubai 24 Hours was won by Austrian Duller Motorsport in the BMW M3 E46 GTR co-driven by Dieter Quester, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Phillip Peter and Toto Wolff. The winners managed to race 519 laps around the new Formula One circuit in 24 hours.

Gene Sigal and Matt Alhadeff and their co-drivers managed to cover 170 laps and finished only 10 laps behind the second place finish and second in their class.

The inaugural Toyo Tires 24h of Dubai was the first ever around the clock race in the Middle East and with 67 entries from international racing teams and more than 300 drivers from around the world, the event was a true success although festivities were subdued due to tragic passing of His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates.

This encouraging result is great news for Matt Alhadeff and Gene Sigal who will compete next week in the 2006 Rolex 24 at Daytona. This is also the second podium finish for Matt and Gene in two races. The American duo finished second in GT class in the final round of the 2005 Rolex Series in Mexico City last November.

"We are very happy with this result" commented Sigalport team owner Gene Sigal. "we decided to compete in this inaugural 24 Hours of Dubai to make sure we got the right training for next week's Daytona 24 Hours. Matt Alhadeff did a great job and again proved that he can race strong and achieve great results. I am very excited about next week's race and I am certain that our Dubai race will be beneficial in our next week's performance at Daytona. The team has been working very hard since the tests at Daytona and I anticipate that we'll be ready for the biggest endurance race in North America" declared Sigal.

Matt Alhadeff and Gene Sigal are now back in California and they will head up to Daytona next week for the first round of the 2006 Grand American Rolex Series where Sigalsport BMW team will race two BMW M3 in the GT class.

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