Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours - JW's Hour 3/4 Round-Up
Settling The Desert Dust

Hour 3 saw Thomas Jäger lead most of the way with the #3 Mercedes, but this merely masked an excellent stint by Abdul-Aziz Al Faisal in the trailing #1 Saudi Falcons / Schubert Z4. Newcomers to this race may be miffed by the complex balance-of-performance that includes a “breakout” [drag racing term] lap time. While this may stifle some top end drivers, it allows the supposed second tier to shine.

Speaking of which, Heinz Bruder slipped into the lead part way through the hour with the #18 Fach Porsche. This change, as with all since the first lead change, has come from pit stop exchanges. Another star has been the little Lotus of the Marcos team, solidly atop SP3 and into the top 25 overall. (Sadly, a suspension component broke a bit later—the #54 JR BMW took over the class lead)

SP2 had featured a continuing battle of the Silhouettes, but this came undone when the #105 Gomez GC crashed and brought out the first “Code 60.” This left the lone Mustang, the VDS entry, in the class lead. This car is a veteran of nearly every Creventic race and won overall last year in Hungary.

The Besaplast entry had some delays which has left the #43 Förch with a long lead in the Porsche Cup class.

Among the growing number of problem children the #9 Lamborghini was having its clutch and gearbox rebuilt. There was yet another Bonk to the #121 BMW, leaving a large gash on its right side. The Thai team has lost its electrics. The crew is working hard while the team manager has ordered out pizza—long distance delivery from Bangkok. The #119 Gulf Lamborghini was stranded in the pits for a quite long time for no discernible reason. Suddenly the relief driver appeared, sans most clothes, civilian or racing—probably doing something other than waiting for pizza. Speaking of problem children, the #32 Nissan is back again. The repairs made early in the race have themselves caused damage to the cooling system.  Although not caused by contact, the #31 Hamburg Aston Martin is stranded in the pits with a leaky radiator. The Slovakian Porsche was towed in, its left rear wheel bearing frozen.

Most importantly, one of the defending winners of the race, Claudia Hürtgen, has established a solid but far from overpowering lead overall. It is far too early, however, to even toy with the possibility of a Z4 repeat.

Janos Wimpffen