A special debut for Proton Huber Competition in the Dubai 24 Hours – Kalle Rovanperä, 2022 and 2023 World Rally Champion, will compete with the Bavarian team.

The season from Proton Huber Competition will begin as early as the second weekend in January 2025, when the team will once again compete in the Dubai 24-hour race, fielding a Porsche 911 GT3 R. A special driver will take his place at the wheel of the Porsche: two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä will compete with the team from Hofkirchen in Bavaria for the first time. In 2022 and 2023, the Finn was crowned the world's best rally driver and, at 22 years of age, was the youngest world champion of all time when he won his first title.

Rovanperä has already contested a few race weekends in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux in 2024 and was able to impressively demonstrate that he is comfortable with Porsche cars and circuit racing. He has already celebrated a victory in the Italian Imola in the strong field of the one-make series. Now Rovanperä will compete for Proton Huber Competition for the first time and contest his first endurance race.

Together with Kalle Rovanperä, his two fellow Finns Jukka Honkavuori and Jani Käkelä will be at the start. The quintet of drivers of the Porsche 911 GT3 R will be rounded off by Mark Wallenwein from Germany – who was German Rally Champion in 2012 and has focused on circuit racing in recent years – and Joel Monegro.

‘I met my fellow countrymen Jukka Honkavuori and Jani Käkelä during the last season of the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux. We talked about competing in an endurance race together. Now the three of us, together with Mark Wallenwein and Joel Monegro, will compete in the Dubai 24 Hours before my WRC season begins. I am grateful to everyone involved for making this possible,’ said rally ace Rovanperä, full of anticipation. ’I am really looking forward to racing a GT3 car for the first time. Of course, there are new things to learn about a GT3 car and it is also the first time that I am sharing a car with other drivers. However, I am confident that I will find the right speed this weekend together with Proton Huber Competition, as the 24-hour race allows us a lot of driving time."

Proton Huber Competition team principal Christoph Huber is looking forward to his well-known debutant: ’It's great to have such an extraordinary driver as Kalle with us in Dubai. He has proven his versatility as a driver with impressive results in his first circuit races in the Porsche Carrera Cup last season. I am excited to see how he performs in this new step with a GT3 car and how we at Proton Huber Competition can support him.’

The Dubai 24 Hours will take place from 10 to 12 January – the race at the Dubai Autodrome starts at 10:00 am German time on 11 January. Fans worldwide can follow the race – which has gained more and more prestige in recent years – via a YouTube livestream.

The team ended the 2024 racing season at the Gulf 12 Hours during the third weekend of Advent. Porsche ace Sven Müller competed with Sergey Stolyarov and Sergei Borisov. After a good performance by the trio, they finished the race in third place overall with their Porsche 911 GT3 R. A positive end to the season for the whole team! But it wasn't just the drivers who performed well in Abu Dhabi; the whole team did too. After an accident in qualifying, the mechanics worked a night shift so that the car could take up the race the next morning.