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The negotiations are over, it is official now that the 2014 Hankook RCM Cup champion Gábor Tim will enter the 2015 24 Hours of Dubai race with the British APO Sport team. The driver of Apex Racing received this opportunity from the organizers of the Hungarian one-make series as the final prize for winning the title. Tim won five races in 2014 and eventually beat Bálint Hatvani by 22 points.

Negotiations with the possible teams have started right after the season finale on the Hungaroring, and RCM Cup finally agreed terms with APO Sport, a British team with remarkable national and international results. The squad from Northamptonshire entered the GT4 category of the prestigious British GT championship, but also has formidable experiences from endurance races, finishing third in their category in the 2013 24 Hours of Dubai race.

As far as the car is concerned, Tim will drive 2.0 liter Renault Clio RS III Cup car prepared for endurance racing. This is a highly popular car in Europe, numerous national one-make series were based on this reliable a relatively cheap vehicle. Its top performance is around 207 HP, with a 223 Nm maximum torque and 7500 rmp top rev. The RS III is equipped with six-gear SADEV sequential gearbox, plus a 310 mm (front) and a 290 mm (rear) Brembo brake.

The Dubai lineup of APO Sport will consist of four drivers, and three of them are already finalized at the moment. Tim will join two British APO regular, Alex Osborne and James May, while the fourth driver is yet to be confirmed. The British duo finished fourth in the British GT championship GT4 category last year, and Osborne also has a long history with Renault cars, racing in the UK Clio Cup for four years between 2007 and 2010.

The Clio RS III Cup car will be familiar to Tim as well, after the Apex Racing driver entered a round of the Central-European ESET Clio Cup in September. He found his rhythm very quickly and won the race beating a number of newer 1.6 liter Clios. His car will race in the A2 category in Dubai, which is one of the largest categories in the 90-strong field with 15 entries at the moment. His rivals will mainly be other Renault Clio cars however there is a Honda Civic, a Peugeot 207 and even a Toyota GT86 among the current entrants.

The 2015 Dubai 24 hours race will be held between the 8^th and 10^th January, and the on-site team of RCM Cup will publish regular updates about Tim and APO.

RCMCup - András Lantos