Dubai: Just minutes before the start of this weekend’s ninth annual Dunlop 24 Hours of Dubai, all the drivers, technicians, officials and fans at Dubai Autodrome will pause to remember two-time winner Sean Edwards, who was killed in an accident in Australia last October.
The 26-year-old British driver was a member of the Team Abu Dhabi by Black Falcons set-up that won the UAE endurance race in both 2011 and 2012. Two of his teammates during those successes — home driver Khalid Al Qubaisi and Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen — will be back on the grid hoping to make it a hat-trick of victories in his memory.
Edwards, the son of racing driver Guy Edwards and who had the fortune to play his father in the 2013 film Rush, died while in the passenger’s seat of a Porsche 996 supercar that crashed at Queensland Raceway in Willowbank on October 15 last year.
FIA vice-president Mohammad Bin Sulayem said: “You feel very sad when [there’s a death] even if it is not here, because we are a very small family when it comes to motorsport. We will have to go on with the sport and improve it also.
“This is part of the sport. We are definitely sad, but to look at the sport now, it is much more sustainable when it comes to safety. Efforts have been taken by the FIA and I am very impressed with the Autodrome.”
The former Middle East rally champion also touched on Team Abu Dhabi’s chances of making it three wins in a row. “We hope. As an official, I support everybody, but I will support our team. They showed over the last two years and now this hopefully will be a hat-trick for them. They have a good team, good experience, so I don’t see why not.”
This year’s 24 Hours of Dubai will run from 2pm on Friday to 2pm on Saturday.
