Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours – JW’s Hour 1 Round-Up
Bullish Start

A most professional field took the start in typical Middle Eastern desert weather of clear warm skies, with an edge of light blowing sand. The combination of this dust and some hard driving contributed to a slight rash of tire issues during the opening hour. But the real story was the opening battle between the Ferraris of Rob Barf (No. 12, AUH  / AF Corse) and Matt Griffin (No. 2 AF Corse). Peter Kox’s Lamborghini (N. 25 Reiter) moved into the mix when Griffin spun. Mika Vahamaki (No. 29 Leipert Lamborghini) moved up as well.

Barff soon took the lead leaving a battle for second between Kox and Vahamaki. This was soon joined by possibly the real star of Hour 1, Fahad AlGosaibi. The Saudi driver of the No. 5 BMW Z4 first merely kept pace and then did a stellar job of holding off the Mercedes of Bernd Schneider. He was able to do this even while struggling with fading tires.

The SP2 class started with the No. 101 Viper of Aaron Scott with a ten second lead over the No. 103 Renault Megane Trophy entry of Equipe Verschuur. Their positions swapped during the latter half of the opening hour. The 997 all Porsche class was led by No. 40 Besaplast entry of Sebastian Asch some 12 seconds over Robert Nearn in the No. 41 Carworld entry. The SP3 featured an hour long tight battle with the Lotus Evora of Alistair MacKinnon barely holding off the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta of Joe Osborne as well as the No. 118 Nova Ginetta of Matteo Cressoni. The No. 50 Küpper Racing BMW of Bernd Küpper was all alone in A5 with Martin Tschornia (No. 80, Besaplast Mini) holding off the Racing Divas Clio (Sheila Verschuur) for the A2 lead.

The Nissan assault was under threat as the No. 32 JRM GT-R made several stops after some early contact. Later the No. 100 370Z had a long stop. Another team in trouble was the 3-car Aston Martin entry of Hamburg Racing. The No. 31 car stopped on course.  The Viper lost time with a long stop and then the engine appeared to quit entirely on the No. 9 Gulf Lamborghini.  The Audi diesel powered Saker had shifter problems and the forlorn Suzuki Swift has still not started the race—replacing an engine that blew out all its oil during the morning warm-up. Another Creventic regular, the Audi CR8, has spent much of the hour in the pits.

It was a strategic opening hour that ended with the leaders making clockwork stops. Just before then Barff set the fast lap, just under his car’s reference time and thus requiring the use of a “joker card.” The second hour began with Bernd Schneider inheriting the lead.

Janos Wimpffen