Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours – JW's Hours 8/9 Round-Up
Edwardian Era

. . .at the expense of Italy. It remained the #1 BMW and two Mercedes at the front, both their positions swapped around. As noted before the Saudi Falcons / Schubert Z4’s lead was long on time held but tenuous on the margin. Indeed it became tighter and tighter and Edward Sandström gradually lost the BMW’s lead to the #3 Black Falcon Mercedes of Sean Edwards. A Prancing Horse played an important supporting role in this battle of the raptors, which in turn had a bearing on another class.

The #2 Ferrari, which led at the beginning of the race was hit by the oft-leading SP2 Viper. At first this merely inconvenienced the leaders and for that matter the Viper, which lost only part of its extensive lead. The other SP class, SP3, did have a major change when the #54 BMW, long in front, made a long stop and the #116 Ginetta took the Optimum position in the class. The Aussie Holden hopped forward several spots during the hour before encountering turbo problems. 

A bit further back both of the United Audis suffered with dis-united electrical connections. The #100 Nissan kept up its pace of innumerable stops. The DNRT V8 also hit trouble with a bad gearbox. This car is such a stealthy black color that it is hard to see it at night—but with a Chevy LS1 its sound makes it far from unnoticed.

The #2 Ferrari then produced some more drama when it spun and brought about the second full-course caution. The #1 BMW was just about to make a standard stop and took the opportunity to not only take on fuel but before pulling in at the depot he stopped for a very quick brake change. Note that here fueling takes place at a separate filling station located at the pit exit. The cars pull in there for topping up at what looks like your standard highway station. However, the work occurs too quick for the driver to hop inside for a Coke and a Mars bar.

Sandström came back out without losing too much time during the one-lap Code 60 and regained the lost lap from Sean Edwards and now lay a close third to the #6 Merc of Max Nilsson. Bernd Schneider ran just a tad further back in the #16 SLS AMG.

Elsewhere in the classes the #103 Renault Silhouette had a good run in the SP2 category. Another car in the top class, the #15 Mercedes, found a little less Gravity thanks to a fine stint by Tomas Enge and came up the order. The steadiest class position during this period was in A2 where the #80 Mini now has a major lead.  The other Besaplast entry, the #40 Porsche, has dropped to third in the 997 class, with the Carworld entry leading the Porsche group, surviving a couple of dings in the process. There is no real race in A5 at the moment, with the LD Racing BMW well out in front.

Janos Wimpffen