Gulf Championship: a new international GT series launches in the region

A new GT and touring car championship will open its inaugural season in December 2026, bringing GT and touring-car racing to five of the region's flagship circuits.

The Gulf Championship has been confirmed as the region's new GT and touring car racing series. The inaugural season opens on 2 December 2026 and runs five rounds across four GCC states, putting GT and touring car machinery on track at the most significant circuits in the Gulf.

For a region whose appetite for performance cars is among the most passionate in the world, the championship arrives with a clear ambition: to give the Gulf a racing property of genuine international stature — one that drivers want to win, teams want to enter, partners want to back, and fans want to follow week after week.

Built to feel international from round one

The series has been designed from the ground up to meet the standard of established GT championships in Europe and beyond. That means consistent race control, professional event delivery, broadcast-quality presentation and a sporting structure that holds up to international scrutiny — not a local meeting that grew by accident, but a championship property engineered to travel, partner, broadcast and scale.

Every touchpoint, from the grandstands and signage to the timing screens and the on-track product, is being held to that benchmark. The goal is simple: a visitor arriving at any round should feel they are at an international motorsport event, whether it is the season opener in Kuwait or the finale under the lights in Abu Dhabi.

A grid for every level of the sport

The championship is split into two groups and four classes, so that the field is deep and the racing is close at every level. Group A is the premier tier, headlined by manufacturer-built GT3 cars — the same machinery that defines endurance racing worldwide — alongside a one-make Porsche Cup that puts the spotlight squarely on driver craft. Group B is the proving ground: accessible, closely-matched GT4 racing and door-to-door touring cars that consistently deliver some of the most entertaining action of the weekend.

Layered on top of the class structure is a driver categorisation system. Silver-rated drivers — fast semi-professionals and rising talent — form the competitive core of the grid, while a Bronze gentleman-driver category opens the championship to the region's growing community of accomplished amateur racers. The result is several championships running inside a single race, and a clear path for talent to progress.

Five rounds, four nations

The inaugural calendar takes the championship to five of the region's flagship venues, opening under floodlights at Kuwait Motor Town before the title is decided at Yas Marina in March 2027:

• Round 1 — Kuwait Motor Town, Kuwait · 2–5 December 2026
• Round 2 — Lusail International Circuit, Qatar · 16–19 December 2026
• Round 3 — Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain · 21–24 January 2027
• Round 4 — Dubai Autodrome, UAE · 4–7 February 2027
• Round 5 — Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi · 11–14 March 2027

“GT and touring car racing across the Gulf.”

— Gulf Championship

For the region's car culture

The championship is built around the young GCC car-culture audience as its primary community, with affluent gentleman drivers as a key secondary audience. It is a platform designed not just to be watched, but to be joined — and a dedicated paddock marketplace connects teams with available seats, drivers looking for a drive, and the race engineers and mechanics who make a weekend run.

Registration is open now for teams and drivers across all classes. The countdown to the first ever Gulf Championship race weekend has begun — and history will be made in Kuwait this December.