A New Chapter Opens Under the Yas Marina Lights
Lamborghini’s Squadra Corse division is planting its motorsport flag on a fourth continent. The Lamborghini Super Trofeo Middle East kicks off at the 5,554-meter Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi from February 9 to 11, 2017, joining existing championships in Europe, Asia, and North America. Eleven teams and over twenty Huracán Super Trofeo cars are expected on the grid for the inaugural round.
The detail that lifts this debut above a routine calendar addition: Race 1 is scheduled for Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. local time, running under floodlights on the same circuit that hosts the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix. A dedicated night practice session on Thursday gives teams a chance to calibrate for conditions most Super Trofeo entrants rarely encounter. A grid of identically prepared, naturally aspirated V10 race cars charging through artificial lighting on a Grand Prix venue is a spectacle Lamborghini clearly intends as a statement piece for the region.
Why the Middle East, and Why Now
According to one report, Lamborghini motorsport boss Giorgio Sanna described the Middle East as a “strategic” market for the brand. The Gulf region represents one of the world’s densest concentrations of supercar buyers, yet for years Lamborghini’s customer racing program stopped short of offering them a local series. Ferrari’s Challenge and Porsche’s various regional cups already operate in the region, making Lamborghini’s absence conspicuous for a brand that sells so well there.
Launching a dedicated Middle East championship serves a dual purpose. It gives established Super Trofeo teams, most of them European outfits, a competitive warm-up several months before the European season opens at Monza in April. And it plants the brand’s motorsport presence in a market where visibility among ultra-high-net-worth buyers translates directly into showroom traffic. The timing is compact: three rounds across Abu Dhabi and Dubai in under a month, keeping logistics manageable while still delivering a full championship structure.
For buyers in the region who already own road-going Huracáns and Aventadors, watching the brand compete locally creates a connection that a European race broadcast cannot replicate. Customer racing, at its core, sells the next car.
How the Middle East Series Fits the Global Super Trofeo Network
One source claims the Super Trofeo program grew to become the world’s most popular one-make series, with over 80 cars competing globally across its continental championships. Adding a Middle East leg reinforces that scale, but the way it integrates matters more than the raw number.
The competition structure reportedly accommodates Pro, Pro-Am, Am, and Lamborghini Cup driver classes, mirroring the format used in Europe, Asia, and North America. Two 50-minute races per round, rolling starts, mandatory pit stops, and two 20-minute qualifying sessions on Friday form a weekend template familiar to any team already running the series elsewhere. That consistency is deliberate: a driver or team can move between continents without relearning the rulebook, and results across regions feed into the annual Super Trofeo World Final.
The participating teams confirm how seriously the established outfits treat this expansion. Bonaldi Motorsport, which won the European team and Pro-Am titles in 2016 with Adrian Amstutz and Patrick Kujala, leads a roster that includes Antonelli Motorsport, FFF Racing Team by ACM, Konrad Motorsport, and Orange 1 Team Lazarus. For most of these squads, the Middle East rounds serve as pre-season preparation for their European and GT3 commitments, a chance to rack up competitive mileage before the stakes rise.
The Huracán Super Trofeo as Customer Racing Foundation
The series runs exclusively on the Huracán Super Trofeo, excluding older Gallardo-era machinery. That exclusivity keeps the competition tight and the car relevant. Stripped of road-car comforts, fitted with a full roll cage, competition suspension, and Pirelli racing slicks, the Huracán Super Trofeo distills Lamborghini’s naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 into a format where privateer teams can race competitively without factory-driver budgets.
One-make series accomplish something that GT3 programs alone cannot: they keep the brand’s name on every car in the field. When twenty Huracáns line up at Yas Marina, every camera angle is a Lamborghini advertisement. Ferrari understood this with the Challenge series decades ago; Porsche built an entire customer racing empire around the concept. Lamborghini’s version, which started in 2009 with the Gallardo, is now mature enough to sustain four regional championships, and that scale matters as the brand continues developing its racing efforts.
The Calendar and What Comes Next
The 2017 Middle East season is deliberately compressed. After the Yas Marina opener, the series moves to the Dubai Autodrome for rounds on February 16 to 18 and March 2 to 4. Six races across three weekends, all wrapped up before the European season begins at Monza on April 21.
| Round | Circuit | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi | February 9-11 |
| 2 | Dubai Autodrome | February 16-18 |
| 3 | Dubai Autodrome | March 2-4 |
Lamborghini has not detailed long-term expansion plans for the Middle East series beyond this inaugural season. The calendar reads as a low-risk, high-visibility test: three rounds on two proven circuits, leveraging existing F1-grade infrastructure and a concentrated window that minimizes travel costs for European teams. If participation holds and regional interest builds, extending the calendar or adding circuits in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia would be logical next steps, though nothing along those lines is confirmed.
Whether the Middle East leg becomes a permanent fixture depends on the grid staying full and the regional appetite for customer racing growing beyond these first six races. The teams are committed. The circuits are world-class. Now the series needs to prove it can sustain itself beyond the novelty of a debut season.
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