Harris Irfan. Driver's Diary. ARM GT3. Rd5. Yas Marina

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I can feel it slipping away. It’s been weighing on my mind ever since I ran out of fuel whilst in the lead at National Race Day 2. A great start to the season and the promise of more to come, I was king of the world. But halfway through the season, that self-doubt that plagues every neurotic wannabe is back. Perhaps I am just not good enough to win this championship after all?It’s post qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, a gorgeous riot of grippy black and turquoise asphalt, ringed by the future of motorsport: spotless steel and glass facilities set against the backdrop of a hotel from another planet, and the theme park to end all theme parks.This is the first time a round of the UAE national race days is being held at Yas, and the interesting lines we have just seen in practice and qualifying are testament to the GT drivers’ unfamiliarity with the circuit. I spent a very entertaining 15 minutes yesterday tailing John Simmonds in the DXB Racing Aston Martin Vantage, copying his every missed braking point and failed apex. I think by the end of free practice, we had both memorised the track, but extracting a competitive time from the multiple blind corners and the excruciatingly challenging corkscrew section would have to wait.

Yas is, in equal measure, both a technical and a speed circuit. With a couple of long straights (one being the longest in Formula 1 which we shall not be using this time round), and a narrow and jagged “street section” which passes under the Yas Hotel in a series of right angled second gear corners, it is all things to all men. The super grippy surface is something new for many of us – we are consistently braking too early and not carrying quite enough speed into the turns.

Free practice proved to be a tricky affair on the unfamiliar circuit – the red flag came out three times, with a fourth narrowly avoided as one of the Ginettas spun out of an off-camber turn metres in front of me. Both I and a following Ginetta took avoiding action by jumping off the circuit praying that the stricken car didn’t roll back into us. Food for thought for race day.

Qualifying proved disappointing and hence why I sit moping into the night. GTB class leader Paul Denby is sharing the drive of the Khaleji Motorsport Porsche with Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum who brings a touch of royal class as well as the breadth of his experience in karting and Speedcar, the homegrown NASCAR equivalent. His fear glands were removed at birth and his appetite for risk is prodigious. As we stepped out together for practice on cold tyres, he had no hesitation in elbowing past on the tightest of corners and proceeded to give it death until the session ended. The net result was a laptime some 2 seconds quicker than both me and Paul. Marvellous – this is really going to wreck my weekend.

But what is really eating me up post qualifying is the discovery that I have totally misunderstood the start/finish point for the two flying laps I put in, resulting in me coasting for several corners in the actual timings. Instead of assuming the traditional start/finish point at the gantry in front of the main grandstand (as has each of my competitors), I have spuriously imagined the start/finish timing beam to be at the gantry in front of our pit lane. D’oh, and double d’oh.

Still, when the data trace comes back, I discover that the gain would have been merely a second, so something’s still lacking. As luck would have it, Alex Renner Motors have enlisted the considerable experience of FIA European GT3 and Porsche Cup Champion, Sean Edwards, as official team coach for the weekend. It’s a rare privilege for an amateur to be coached by such a renowned motorsport talent and despite his tender 23 years of age, his maturity and patience is exemplary.

15 minutes with Sean is all it takes for enlightenment: he unplugs the data card, downloads the data, and with the bewildering speed of youth, slickly manipulates the data to bring up a Minority Report-style series of graphs and spreadsheets describing my qualifying laps. As we examine the data trace, I recall a conversation I had with Barry Hope of Gulfsports only a couple of weeks back. Barry convinced me that I would never make the jump from seat-of-the-pants amateur to tech-savvy ruthless pro unless I took the time to digest and analyse circuit data, and adapt my driving technique and car set up accordingly.

So here I am with Sean doing just that: he tells me I need to carry more speed on a number of the grippy corners, particularly the blind ones where I am overly cautious. Often I am tapping the brakes where a mere feathering of the throttle would suffice. I seem to be getting the complicated corkscrew mostly right (modelled on its infamous namesake at Laguna Seca), but my exit from the corkscrew is spoilt by too late an apex. I will have to adapt accordingly for race day tomorrow.

Race Day

Whenever my family turns out to watch me race, I consistently disappoint them, so perhaps the sensible thing is to ask them to stay home as we get to this critical stage of the season. But it would be cruel to deny my youngest boy, a Lightning McQueen-obsessed 3 year old, a chance to enjoy the incredible facilities and atmosphere on offer here in Abu Dhabi. CEO of Yas Marina Circuit, Richard Cregan (father of hotshot Ginetta pilot, Robert), reckons 10-15,000 fans may turn out this weekend to watch the raucous Aussie V8 Supercars and the Porsche Middle East Cup racers, so our support act should see quite a crowd.

And so to business. As always, it’s a rolling start out of the pitlane, but we now have the added thrill of negotiating a much tighter turn 1 than we are used to. So tight in fact, that the fear is one car throwing caution to the wind here will trigger a multiple pile up.

After the customary one and a half laps of weaving and braking, I’m down to second gear and crane my neck as far to the right as my HANS device will allow so I can catch a glimpse of the overhead gantry on the start/finish straight. The safety car has peeled off into the pits and the pack is tight and controlled. Too tight in fact. So tight that I’m finding it difficult to keep one eye on the gantry, and one on the rump of Robert Cregan’s Gulfsport Ginetta in front of me.

The light are out and I slam my right foot to the bulkhead. It’s my best start all season – I’m right in the power band, and for once Robert is napping. His front engine/rear drive combination doesn’t develop the best traction off the grid anyway, so I squeeze through the inside and block him into turn 1. John Simmonds has not been shy, either, in his DXB Racing Aston, nor has team mate Frederic Gaillard in his evil carbon black Mitsubishi Evo X. We are almost three abreast into the turn and for a moment, I fear John and I will come to blows on the exit.

I have the inside line, which is tricky up the hill on this long sweeping curve. Despite the high friction surface, the car is keen to float on cold tyres across the tarmac, and John’s Aston is worryingly keeping pace with me. We simultaneously brake hard into the corkscrew and I ride the kerb in to avoid touching. Thankfully, we all make it through the corkscrew in an orderly fashion and down onto the longest straight in the Formula 1 calendar.

Up on pole, Paul Denby has similarly made a perfect start in the Khaleji Motorsport Porsche GT3. So good that he’s overtaken the trailing GTA Porsche Cup car off the line, and bought himself a couple of seconds by inserting a buffer between him and the chasing GTB pack.

I force myself to replay Sean Edwards’ advice in my mind. Be brave, have faith, measure the throttle scientifically and attack the corners. It’s coming together: the battle for P2 is nasty and brutish, but not short. At the pace that we’re driving, one wonders if any of us are giving thought to managing our cars to the end of the race. The determinant might well be who has the stamina, both mental and physical, to last the distance.

John Simmonds told me afterwards, “We were driving like savages out there. I had nothing left to give.” And indeed, we are scrapping like cornered alley cats with nothing to lose. Robert Cregan’s Ginetta, in particular, is proving quite troublesome. In a desperate attempt to take P2 and chase down the leader, the Ginetta makes a series of lunges down the inside of many corners, touching once with me, then finding a way through to battle with Paul.

Despite Robert’s obvious talent and raw pace, his lack of patience will prove to be his downfall. Occasionally, he overcooks the throttle on the apex, particularly after late braking to take an advantage into the corner, wags the tail on the exit, and loses speed on the straight ahead. With a slight power deficit, unless the Ginetta maximises its natural cornering advantage with a smooth entry, it will struggle to compete on the straight. As a result, it is a matter of time before he loses the battle to Paul, and then to me, leaving me to focus on closing down Paul for P1.

It appears I’m quicker than Paul in the corners. Despite a coming together at the end of the back straight as I attempt to outbrake Paul into the tight left-right which sees me punch a hole in his rear bumper, Paul is able to hold station, trying every trick in the book to hold me at bay. Indeed, he expertly catches the car in our collision, as it swings awkwardly the other way, caught off balance and at speed. Perhaps that might be a defining moment of this championship – that Paul was able to keep his nerve when it mattered most? I hope not…

If the crowd came here to watch the Aussie V8s, then they should certainly be getting their money’s worth in this gloriously vicious five-way dogfight in GTB. As the two Porsches scrap for P1, and the Aston and Ginetta scrap for P3, Frederic Gaillard’s Evo has been a sinister and brooding carbon-clad presence in P5, content to observe and plot its move…

We approach the mandatory pit stop window, and I observe the Ginetta lunging at John’s Aston in my rear view. This is good. Let them hold each other up. But it’s worse than that: the Ginetta makes one lunge too many down the inside entering the grandstand straight, and the two cars collide and come to a rest broadside in the middle of the corner. Whilst the Ginetta gets going again, (only to suffer a drive-through penalty), the Aston is beached and the safety car is brought out whilst the mess is cleared up.

The tension is tangible. Unlike a Code 60 at the Dubai Autodrome, where all drivers are required to slow to 60kph, here at Yas Marina, a safety car period follows the recognised practice. Namely, with due caution, drive at speed to join the back of the queue behind the safety car. Whilst this affords me the luxury of being a malevolent presence in Paul’s rear view, unfortunately it also means the chasing GTB pack is able to catch me as we snake our way round.

The radio crackles to life: “All cars to come in, now”. The pit stop window is open and Alex wants to buy an advantage for his ARM-managed cars during the safety car period. Paul and I peel off at the pits to begin our mandatory 80 seconds.

As the pit crew count me out whilst I watch Sheikh Hasher strap himself in to change places with Paul in the Khaleji Porsche, I position myself strategically to pull away quickly. With 5 seconds to go, the Gulfsport Ginetta pulls in to the pits and inconveniently attempts to turn in front of me towards its pit garage. I’m not having any of this. I launch the car with a flare of the rear tyres, and enough noise to dissuade the Ginetta from blocking my path. Sheikh Hasher has stalled the Khaleji Porsche (Paul must be having kittens) and I get a clean break in front.

I’m P1!

But it is not to last. Sheikh Hasher and I rejoin the circuit during the safety car period behind the rump of the GTA class leading Muehlner Motorsport Porsche Cup car, driven by superstar driver Rene Rast. As the safety car peels off for a second time, the Khaleji Porsche gets a jump on me and we go into turn 1, side by side.

It is a well known fact that Sheikh Hasher does not recognise the emotion of fear. As we climb the hill out of turn 1, still joined at the hip, my car is fully loaded with lateral acceleration, and I simply cannot shrug off the Khaleji Porsche. This will not end well – at the direction change at the top of the sweeper, if I do not back off and let him pass, we will both be picking bits of ourselves out of the barriers. So I do, and he does.

For the rest of the race, I am content to hold a comfortable P2. Except that fate has something else in store for me.

Raed Hassan’s GTA class Ginetta V8 comes storming through to lap me, and almost immediately spins under the Yas Hotel immediately in front of me. I take avoiding action by slowing to a crawl and steering straight towards the barrier, as the Ginetta slides inexorably backwards towards me (to the delight of the blood thirsty crowd assembled on the terrace above). Those few seconds seem like a lifetime, but somehow I squeeze through the gap between rear-facing Ginetta and barrier. In the confusion, Fred’s DXB Racing Mitsubishi catches and passes me to take P2.

Alex’s voice counts down the minutes remaining, but I realise catching Fred will be impossible. He leads by a few seconds, and he has been smart enough to manage his car and stay out of trouble the whole race. His tyres and brakes will be in relatively decent shape, and I can only manage equivalent lap times in these closing stages.

It’s a proud day for teams and drivers in the UAE GT Championship: the first national race day at Yas Marina is a success, though a few fell by the wayside. Tarek and Cabell’s blown engine meant they were unable to mount a challenge to Karim’s dominant Corvette, privateer Steve Adams has not been lucky with mechanical issues in his Porsche 944, and the DXB Racing Aston was the unfortunate victim of foul play.

Podium finishers in both classes are bussed to the main grandstand on the other side of the circuit, surrounded by cameras and well-wishers. We are asked to sign the register (I’m tempted to flick the pages to confirm I’m in the exalted company of Vettel, Webber and Button!) and step out onto the podium in front of a crowd we are unused to seeing. And there I am, on a giant TV screen, standing to attention to the UAE national anthem, signifying Sheikh Hasher’s success here today. Paul, of course, will feel every right to claim the anthem for himself, and he goes into Round 6 extending his championship lead over me.

Watch your back, Paul, still three rounds to go…

Harris Irfan. Driver’s Diary. ARM GT3. Rd5. Yas Marina

crankandpiston

Harris Irfan. Driver’s Diary. ARM GT3. Rd5. Yas Marina

crankandpiston

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