Dubai 24 Hours - Hours 13 to 17
More Showers
Janos Wimpffen

The No. 104 Renault Trophy has retired with a bad wheel bearing. The drivers simply shift to No. 105 as they are same lot.

The rain—purple—green pattern continues. The problem is manifold. The rain comes in spurts but this being a land where it seldom rains, the road designs don’t take drainage into consideration. Thus the water doesn’t dissipate but simply collects between showers. Then there is the cocktail that results from Casadei’s equation, R + S = M (Rain + Sand = Mud).

It’s 04:00, ten hours to go, and there are five live and three comatose bodies in the press room. To keep awake I visited the fuel depot—what an odd setup. The cars leave the pits, slalom to the right (paddockwards) and maneuver past a gate and some barriers, make a 180-turn and stop at the pump, all at about 20 kph. After fueling they reenter pit lane for a few meters before hammering onto the circuit.

Most teams send a few men down to the depot before their car calls at the pits, but those who don’t have enough crew need to improvise. Typically, a couple of guys will trot out with the car toward the area. It looks like any petrol station, minus the snacks and newspapers.

The No. 14 Jetalliance Porsche is another recovering 996. It had dropped off the order with a 40-minute driveshaft replacement. The No. 37 Escuela Espanola Porsche went for a lurid spin in the wet back section of the course. It simply never dries there, no matter how long the rain holds off. The No. 10 Bergh Motorsport Porsche has had a strange tale. Markus Lonnroth crashed it earlier. The car has been repaired but the Swedish amateur is in a hospital with a wrung bell. The No. 72 Ebbing Renault also crashed earlier in the race and was also repaired. No injuries this time but the electrical system has not been the same since and is being fixed in the garage. The No. 45 Mad and Daring BMW has popped its turbo. The team has semi-retired it, planning to emerge when (if?) it gets dry. The No. 20 Bovi Motorsport Porsche has retired with a broken water pump while crash damage has scuppered the No. 53 Duller BMW’s advance in the A5 class.

The most important delay has happened to the lead contending No. 26 Juniper Porsche that lost time with a bad gear selector. The car is back out and the team is monitoring the new components. This leaves the No. 39 Porsche in a slightly more comfortable first overall, with the tubeframe No. 105 in second.

The showers returned shortly before 5 a.m. but it took a good 45-50 minutes before we had another Code Purple Rain. This came when the No. 92 VW Austria pancaked into the barriers and somehow made it back to the entrance to pit row.

At just before 7, the sky suddenly lightens. It rises fast here at the low latitude (15 degrees North). However, it is only daylight, not sunlight as the sky remains fully overcast. The light also reveals a stranded No. 61 BMW Coupe of the erstwhile A4 class leading Bas Koeten Racing. The timing is perfect—off to breakfast.

Link to positions every hour