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Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours – JW’s Hours
10, 11 & 12 Round-Up It is settled if you call three cars in contention at 12 hours settled. That is, the winner will in all likelihood come from these three. This means that it will be a German car. Of course nearly all the cars in the top ten are German. In reality, it will be either the #3 or No 6 Mercedes (1-2 on the lead lap) or the now very slightly trailing #1 Zee (for ‘mericans) Zed (for the rest of the World) Fore. The biggest drama of the period has been the meltdown (near literal) of the erstwhile 997 class leading #43 Förch 997. That had been a close contest, but now the #41 Carworld entry is firmly in control. The Optimum Ginetta still leads SP3 but its previous wide margin has shrunk thanks to a near trouble free run by the thus far anonymous #23 Black Falcon BMW as well as a resurgent #54 JR Bimmer. The positions in A2 are fairly stable with the #80 Mini well ahead of the Lap 57 Integra—the name of the team is Lap 57, not a reflection of their distance. The semi-Renault is back atop SP2, having overtaken the Mustang some time ago (yes GG it is a [de-tuned] Multimatic). The Küpper Racing E46 has had some long stops, dropping it in arrears of the dominant Le Duigou 130i Cup. Among the not so swift, the #127 Aston Martin’s gearbox electrics have turned to Hamburger. The #61 Duel Seat will eventually go back out once its gearbox is thoroughly rebuilt. The #87 Suzuki is kind of, sort of, still going. The #105 Gomez thing is retired after deciding that the earlier accident caused damage to too many components. The ladies have had to dance for hours with their Clio. First it was the driveshaft, then it was the left wheel bearing, then the right wheel bearing. The #31 Aston is having its pedal box rebuilt and will return. The #32 Nissan died the death of a thousand cuts with overheating eventually leading to a blown head gasket. The #14 Autorlando Porsche had a traditional Porsche problem—fire. The No 46 Porsche has lost some love of speed after being dinged on the right rear. The #131 Marcos BMW had a very long stop. When asked as to the nature of its problem one crew member exclaimed, “Problem?” while driver Alistair MacKinnon exclaimed, “there’s an American driving.” I repeated the question and said, “but seriously?”—the crew member screamed, “Problem? Problems!” MacKinnon added, “There’s a bloody American driving!” Nice to hear that the Radio Le Mans crew likes the Code 60 system. I waxed compliments on it back in my Dubai 24 Hours report of 2008. Anybody read this stuff? Janos Wimpffen |