Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours - Wednesday Notes

Greetings from a very warm and sunny Dubai Autodrome. The DSC away-crew arrived safe and sound after a pleasant enough flight and arrived at the circuit late morning.

Two of our party (your scribe and Dave Lord) last visited in 2007, for the FIA GT3 meeting, and the area around the circuit has changed a staggering amount since that time. Where there was desert and various buildings under construction, now there is a thriving community of 20,000 souls in the neighbouring Motor City development and, er, various incomplete buildings no longer under construction. Much may have changed, but it is clear that things very quickly shuddered to a halt when the credit crunch bit.

As Messrs Goodwin and Lord headed off to the official race press conference (see further down), Howson and May went for a wander down a very busy pitlane.

One of the first garages we visited contained a very strange looking beast, known as a DNRT V8. What on earth was that? If we hadn’t known better, we’d have said it was a NASCAR machine.

“It’s a NASCAR,” said a VDH-Vermeulen Racing mechanic, “built by Howe Racing in the States.” A quick cross-check later on with SPEEDTV.COM’s John Dagys elicited the suggestion that it was likely to be a Late Model or ARCA car. “The original car raced in the Winter Endurance Cup in Holland,” continued the mechanic, indicating the vehicle at the rear of the garage,” but this car has been built specifically for this race. “

A few garages along, the multinational crew of the Marcos Racing Lotus Evora were getting reacquainted and awaiting their turn for a trip in the hire cars that were providing acclimatisation laps for Dubai virgins; “This is my first time here,” said Alastair MacKinnon, “ as it is for Simon (Atkins). “

This was the car that finished third overall at the 2011 Britcar 24 Hours after an epic duel with the #49 NMR Aston Martin GT4; “The car is in virtually the same spec as at Silverstone, but it’s had a few mods – more camber and more heatshields; there was a lot of heat in the rear of the car during the Britcar 24.”

So what’s the car going to do this time? “We’re aiming to win the class and we’ll also be looking for an overall podium. We made a few tactical errors at Silverstone, which cost us a fair amount of time, but we’ve learned from our mistakes.”

There was a distinct air of professionalism throughout the Dubai pitlane, with the vast majority of teams and cars very well presented. One team looking particularly impressive is the Autodrome-based AUH Motorsports, which is taking this race very, very seriously; “We can win this race, I’m sure,” said Rob Barff. “In fact, I’m trying to stop telling myself that in case I put too much pressure on myself.”

One thing is for sure, they’re nothing if not prepared; “We ran a 24-hour test here last month, which went very well,” said Jordan Grogor. “Leon [Price] hired the circuit for two days and the [Ferrari 458 GT3] ran flawlessly.”

Although South African by nationality, Grogor has been resident in Dubai for eight years and knows the team and circuit very well; “I’ve raced Radicals with AUH for three years, and shared one of their Aston Martin GT4s in the 2010 24 Hours here.” More recently, he raced a Genoa LMPC at last year’s ILMC rounds at Silverstone and Road Atlanta.

Charlie Hollings was also present at the recent test, which afforded him the opportunity to get to know the circuit, but he was more concerned about other aspects of the race; “There are two things I’ve got to get my head around,” he explained; “the Code 60 – where I’ve read you can make up a lap if you get it right – and the ‘balance of performance’ race laptime – which can lose you a lot of time if you get it wrong.”

Graham Goodwin will attempt to explain the amazingly-convoluted laptime rule in a moment, but AUH’s race-strategist Clive Calcutt is in for a busy weekend; “I’ve done plenty of 24-hour races, but the rules here are unique. What has happened so far is that (team manager) Ian Bickerton and I run through various ‘what if?’ scenarios, before we both end up laughing! It’s going to be an interesting race.”

We’re trying to get our heads around a peculiar rule that applies to the Creventic run events, a form of self imposed performance balancing.

Each team must declare a lap time they believe they are capable of achieving before Qualifying begins – If they undercut that time in qualifying then they can expect a performance penalty via ballast, ride height, or in extreme cases by having to run a fatter driver squad*

*This part is untrue

In the race each team is permitted a total of ten get out of jail free cards where faster than declared laps are not penalised – After that a pitlane penalty is incurred, with increasing vigour, every time they do so!

As for the press conference, the DSC Editor offers this round-up:

A very jolly affair, lots of people delighted to be here (as are we!) , and with excellent spring rolls accompanied by a sweet chilli dipping sauce – Oh you want to know what they said! Fair enough!

FIA vice president Muhammed Ben Sulayem spoke with pride of more international events being attracted to the region with a subsequent favourable effect on the development of a regional motorsport scene. He added too that it was a real pleasure to come to the Dubai 24 hours and enjoy a race rather than be embroiled in the stress of a Formula One meeting.

Dunlop’s Gary Wassell revealed that the company had brought no fewer than 45 technicians to service the race and a total of some 6000 tyres too – A massive logistical effort.

As we go to press, the first session of the weekend is underway. This is a private test session for those teams that have elected to take advantage of the opportunity, but you can see the timing for this and all other sessions by following this link:

http://live.24hseries.com/live-timing

The first official session begins at 11.30, local time, tomorrow morning, with the first of two Free Practice sessions.