Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours - Wrapping Up That One

Waking up on Monday morning and scraping ice off the car with the thermometer reading minus 2 once again crystallised the point made by myself and many others over the weekend that the Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours is the right event in the right place and at the right time of year.

A large and mainly high quality grid entertained us royally for the whole weekend with, perhaps predictably, the teams with proven machinery and professional drivers grabbing most of the headlines.

It was a good race for Creventic, the Dutch organisers finally getting, courtesy in the main of Nissan Sportscars, a much bigger media reach for their premier event but aside from that, showing that hard work and an appreciation of the wishes and needs of their customers and those that bring news of their efforts to a global audience will be rewarded with loyalty and goodwill - Very many of the other series and Championships that we cover would do well to examine their modus operandi.

It was a great race for Mercedes Benz, all four AMG SLS's home and a clean sweep of the top three, the first 24 Hour race win for the big Merc.

Black Falcon Abu Dhabi will be delighted with this one, not only because of the additional silverware for the team's already groaning trophy cabinet, but also with a very effective regional tie in that takes their reach well beyond their traditional hunting grounds. Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Thomas Jager were a mightily convincing trio here, as was the fuel saving strategy employed by the team which gave them an advantage over even the other SLS runners for much of the race.

Despite losing their 2011 title it was a good race too for the Schubert BMW squad, racing this year with a Saudi Falcons banner which was far more than just a moniker, Faisal Bin Laden proving to be one of the Stars of the race with some real battling displays as the race order took shape into and through darkness.  The final lead battle may have been slightly artificially affected by Bin Laden playing a subtle but nonetheless very effective interference role in the sister car but that should take nothing away from the charge of Edward Sandstrom in the #1 car, the Swede another star of this race with speed, consistency and aggression.

It was a massively good race for Nissan, despite the major issues suffered by the new JRM-run GT-R, a car which showed massive pace, and astounded its drivers with its balance under braking, but the real achievement was in the profile that Nissan squeezed from this event.

Well over 100 journalists were brought to the Gulf in support of the Nissan programme and there was barely a moment when there wasn't a story opportunity offered for them - track time in GT-RS, 370zs and/ or the extraordinary Juke Rs, interviews with the Pros in the Champions GT-R and the youngsters in the 370Z, the #100 car's class podium an astounding achievement for four guys whose introduction to Motorsport was the purchase of a computer game, in some cases just over a year ago!!!

The breadth and depth of the comment DSC and Radio Le Mans were receiving during the race showed very clearly indeed that the fans embraced both the coverage and the event - Big thanks are due to Nissan's team for that result too.

And Dunlop's 45 staff deserve massive plaudits too, 70+ cars, hours and hours of track time even before the race, baking heat and a technically demanding circuit add up to a cocktail that could spell disaster for those responsible for the black circles at each corner.

Albeit aided in no small part by the lack of gravel traps at the Dubai Autodrome DSC observed not a single puncture that could not be attributed to contact during the meeting. Dunlop will go away happy that they served the whole field (with the exception of the DNRT stocker which ran on Hoosiers), very well indeed.

Even those who fell by the wayside can take some real positives from this event.

The AUH/ FF Corse Ferrari squad put their Gulf experience, their ex Highcroft strategist, their pro drivers and their hugely experienced Team Manager to very good use, grabbing pole and leading the race in the hectic first hours.  They left disappointed after gearbox problems sent them to an early bath (or more likely bar) but Rob Barff's final statement to Radio Le Mans left few in doubt that we'll be seeing much, much more from this team.

AF Corse too had real ups and downs, another team to lead the race, show real pace and show too what their almost unrivalled international GT racing experience could bring to the party.  Matt Griffin starred here, another emergent force in our sort of racing, He, and they, will be back for very much more!

The Lamborghinis had mixed fortunes, the Reiter engined car saw Peter Kox in typically sparkling form, a fantastic start saw the red Gallardo grab the lead into turn one from three rows back.  Dennis Retera too was quick, but the car spent too long in the garage to make that pace count. The rhino's Leipert Gallardo too had flashes of real pace interspersed with  delay that took the edge from their attack whilst the JLOC car ran steadily inside the top 20  before briefly catching fire on the weigh bridge.

The Gulf Team cars were both delayed too, the #8 cars plan to provide two man driving squad Giroix and Fatien with plenty of endurance racing practice ahead of their planned LMP2 programme in the 2012 WEC saw the car consistently in the top 20 until the V10 expired.  The sister #9 car hit trouble early on but flew thereafter, particularly when Stuart Hall was driving.  Both young Archie Hamilton and Mike Wainwright impressed too though.

The Porsches were typically reliable, economical and, just rather less ambitious than the rest in A6, their predicted lap times gave them no real opportunity to attack when attrition bit less deeply than perhaps some of their number had hoped, their evident relative fuel economy justy not enough to make it count this time when the purple flags, for the most part stayed unfurled and the race distance stretched far beyond the previous record distance. 

Amongst the other classes there were some very classy performances too, none more so than in SP3 where an early delay for the Optimum Motorsports Ginetta had put the #116 car almost to the very back of the field - their fight back though was a very convincing one indeed, the toughest nut they had to crack was the Marcos Racing International Lotus Evora, Cor Euser's car had dominated the running into darkness and was running in the middle teens of the overall order when a lengthy pit stop after contact damage delayed the car beyond reasonable hopes of recovery.  The little Ginetta came home victorious, fending off the challenge of the BMW M3 of Black Falcon which found too many niggly issues to stay on the ultimate pace – The Optimum car too was the first non A6 car home – 14th overall

SP2 saw a Silhouette Megane score the win after a fine run from the GT3 Racing Viper ended in disappointment with gearbox failure and the VDS Adventures Mustnag, another first generation GT3 machine, faltered.

The Pony car would still come home in second place ahead of what, for many, was THE result of the race, the #100 RJN Nissan 370Z scoring a podium for a truly unique group of drivers – Graduates all from the Nissan GT Academy!

This was, in summary, a good, and at times very good, race and this is a good event that could become a great one.  Opinions are very mixed indeed about the predicted lap time rule but for this year at least, despite the injection of a yet more impressive and international field, it produced something rather special.

GG