Fun in the sun
This year's racing got off to an early start with a welcome escape from the snow and bitter temperatures of the UK in the more temperate climes of Dubai. Following our success last summer in the Spa 24hrs, the Jet Alliance boys invited me to join them in the Porsche again for an assault on the Dubai 24hrs. I rarely take much persuading when it to comes to racing (unless Sam is within hearing range...), but a chance for a bit of sun and 20-degrees-plus in January was too good to resist.
The Dubai event is a very relaxed affair - think Britcar 24 without the rain and fog - run by a bunch of crazy Dutchmen. ("If zer are any problems on ze track, we all get togezer for a chat and a shmoke and a pancake".) Despite this the quality of the grid has been growing every year and this year included a pair of IMSA GT2 Porsche 997 RSRs (including the grid's strongest line up of Porsche factory standard driving types Narac, Pilet and Holzer) and an AF Corse GT2 Ferrari 430. However, as with the Britcar24, refueling is done via a very slow petrol pump system which helps redress the balance to the less powerful but more fuel efficient cars. The grid is also huge with just shy of 80 cars turning up this year - traffic was clearly going to be a big factor. Our class was also the biggest with 20 Porsche 997s of various sorts lining up. Nonetheless, our goal was a strong top ten finish and hopefully a podium in class, if not overall.
Another interesting angle was the track itself. It's very twisty and undulating with wide, wide run off areas and very little in the way of landmarks to help guide you around. That's fine in the day, but it was clear that at night it was going to be very dark. OK, yes, I know that's partly the definition of night, but what I mean is that there's almost nothing around the circuit to cast any ambient light and a number of corners would be blind due to the approach cambers throwing the car's lights in the wrong direction. All quite amusing really. Oh, and because Dubai is much closer to the equator than the European endurance races, night was going to last much longer .. nearly 13hrs between sunset and sunrise...
Practice and qualifying all took place on a rather hectic Thursday. The team focused on fine-tuning the car's set up and giving the drivers plenty of time to remind themselves of the circuit - Lukas, Vitus and myself had all raced there before, but Marco (who had manned the pit wall for us in Spa) was new to the circuit. Being a Porsche instructor has its advantages though and he was setting the pace within a few laps! However, as you can see, he was very happy to share his skills by showing Vitus andmyself how to shove the slower cars out of the way without losing any time:
Our collective pace steadily improved throughout the sessions and we were particularly pleased with our night pace which looked like it would give us a substantial advantage over some of our nearest rivals. In the end we qualified 16th, comfortably in touch with those in similar machinery and optimistic that our fuel economy would play to our advantage over the more powerful but less efficient cars.
Here we are on the grid exuding confidence and enjoying the ambience and general bon-hommie-ness of it all:
Lukas was first in the car as the huge grid got going. He wisely stayed out of the early argy-bargy before steadily pulling us up into the top ten where we'd stay for the rest of his run despite a constant running battle with a number of similar Porsches.
Indeed, as our fuel efficiency began to come into play we climbed higher and higher until after nearly two hours we were 5th overall and less than half a lap behind the race leader. So far so good. (And when the very hot Lukas climbed out of the car he made me realise how pleased I should be that I wasn't going out until dusk!) Vitus took over and reeled off a steady stint that kept us comfortably in the mid teen placings as the fuel stops cycled around us.
The traffic was indeed an issue as I shot out of the fuel bay and set about getting some temperature into the new tyres. However, I was soon up to pace and able to maintain it as the sun vanished (surprisingly quickly) and the very long night set in. As expected, the night added an intriguing additional challenge to several sections of the track, with the unlit, fast, long corner three being particularly hard to get just right. But hey, that's why we love night racing!
It would be fair to say that the driving standards were quite variable with some surprising manoeuvers occurring from time to time. This led to a number of accidents but rather than use a safety car this event uses something known as 'Code 60' - a relatively simple concept where a purple flag is waved around the whole circuit and everyone slows down to 60kmh, with no overtaking. Once the incident is cleared, the flags are replaced with green waved flags and everyone sets off racing again. This works well on the basis of two assumptions - i) that the marshalls are actually paying attention to what they're doing, and ii) you don't need a telescope to see what the marshalls are doing! I missed the first restart courtesy of a complete lack of waved green flag. The second one I did much better, but only as I managed to catch a glimpse of what looked like a huge argument between the two guys in the hut - one of whom clearly wanted to wave his green flag and his friend who was quite happy waving his purple flag, thank you very much.
Towards the end of my stint we were safely back in the top ten and things were running smoothly. Famous last words... As I came down the hill towards the final complex I was surprised to overtake a somewhat erratically driven Mosler - not something that should be possible in a GT3 Porsche. The next corner is a banked 180-degree left-hander with a late apex and as I ran past this there was an almightly bang as the Mosler appeared from nowhere and slammed into my front left corner. It’s hard to say what he was thinking, but he clearly didn’t like the fact I’d gone past and was trying some kind of kamikaze effort to get back – which was never going to happen at that point on the track!
Thankfully the accident occurred right next to the pit entrance so I was able to limp the car back to the garage, but it was clear that the damage was quite substantial. And so it proved – the whole front left suspension was broken, the rear left was also bent and as a result the tracking and everything else was out of kilter. The team leapt to work and did a remarkable job, but we lost the best part of two hours before we could get going again. By this point, we’d dropped to around 58th place and the chance of a strong finish had gone.
Once the team was happy that the car was safe, Marco was volunteered to go and make sure on the track! He was soon up to speed and his pace proved that the car was fine again. Indeed, Marco was one of the quickest cars on the circuit for most of his stint, but the gaps between places were large and it was a slow crawl back up the leader board. His stint passed smoothly and he handed over to Lukas who did likewise before handing on the baton to Vitus for a short stint.
So at around 2am my turn came again and I was eager to maintain our momentum back up the grid. Pleasingly, despite the earlier knock, I was able to not only match my previous pace but push on and get progressively quicker. Indeed, for large parts of the run I was one of the quickest cars, even beating the second IMSA GT2! Ir efueled and continued for a second stint as we progressed up into the top 40. After a very good two and a half hours,the tyres were well and truly used and as the fuel light flickered on again I dived into the pits for a well-earned break.
Surprisingly though, the team were ready but there was no driver waiting to take over! However, it wasn’t a mistake. It transpired that given how far down the positions we were (38th at this point), the team had taken the decision to call it a day (night) and save the car.
So, some good positives to take away from the weekend, but certainly not the result we were looking for. We’ll just have to try again at Spa later in the year, then…