Drivers Blog. The Festival

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“I’m not sure whether I’m an actor who races or a racer who acts.” So said prototypical cool American alpha dog, Steve McQueen. Well, there are days I’m not sure whether I’m a banker who races or a racer who, er, banks.

Yeah, that doesn’t quite sound right, does it? Plus I don’t really have that broody, pouty thing going on.

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The Motorsport Festival means only one thing to me: massive stress. Three days of testing, qualifying and racing, somehow squeezed in around a full time job.

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Luckily for banker me (though not for racer me), the test day is over the moment I arrive at the Autodrome: Paul is instructing track marshals at the side of the start/finish straight loading our TNT-liveried Porsche onto the back of a trailer. The driveshaft has sheared but is readily fixable.
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Despite this minor setback, Paul is bullish about the car – he is chuckling about passing a 2011 Cup car a few moments earlier, something that should be several seconds a lap faster. It means not only that our car is healthy, but also that we’ve really improved our skills in the Cup car. The 2011 car is here to test for the forthcoming and high profile Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, so Paul can’t help looking like the cat that got the cream – he knows he’s cruelly crushed some poor bugger’s self confidence, which is kind of worth breaking a driveshaft for.

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It’s interesting how the national media continues to focus on well funded, well connected drivers in high profile series, who don’t necessarily have the outright pace that some of the less well known and less well funded drivers in the paddock on national race days are able to demonstrate. There are some hidden gems down in class 2 of touring cars, for example, who might never get discovered, but that’s motorsport I’m afraid. Later on this weekend, this truism will be played out once more, but meanwhile we have a job to focus on.

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In the next day’s practice session, I am running a pleasingly quick 1.48 on old tyres on this, the 4.29 km International Circuit. Touring Car Champion Simmo is hunched over a data trace on Alex’s laptop, looking a little concerned as he points out I am only 0.2 seconds off his time in the MSW 997 Cup from a class above. But he should be reassured that he is still very much in a learning phase – there are a number of precedents of Formula 1 drivers entering as guest drivers in Porsche Cup races only to find themselves off the pace of the regular front runners. Once Simmo’s picked up the basic grammar of Serbo-Croat, he’ll find himself speaking like a native in no time.
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Paul sees that I am taking a chunk of time out him in sector 7, the left hand bowl after the fast back straight with the dogleg kink (the Zuhour Kink, named after fellow touring car racer Nader Zuhour’s wipe-out crash there a couple of years back). I’m braking deeper into the complex turn (indicating a somewhat terrifying 210kph just after the kink and into the braking zone), and taking a middle line through the banking, then allowing the car’s nose to sniff naturally towards the apex, throttle closed. The moment the nose rides the kerb, I can get on the power but not too hard, until the car has straightened up. Paul has been running a higher line through the bowl, and if he experiments with this line, we will undoubtedly run similar times. For now, we opt to have me run the qualifying session.

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As always, our strategy for quali is “keep it simple”: two slow laps to warm the fresh tyres up without overheating them, two fast laps, then straight back in to have the tyres checked. Paul, Alex and the ARM pit crew are beaming as I roll in – I am bemused at all the hand pumping going on but it turns out my quick laps both came in at 1.46. The laps were stress free and calm affairs, cerebral and smooth rather than ballsy and ballistic – I had simply aimed to put a reasonable time up on the clock rather than chase every microsecond. It seems I am P1, though this is short lived: guest driver Rob Barff in the Lotus Evora and Gulfsport’s hotshoe Robert Cregan in the Maserati Granturismo are going toe to toe on the circuit for a good 10 laps each, with Barff eventually edging Cregan by a mere 0.04 seconds, and putting me third in class.

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No matter. I am still lined up alongside Cregan on the grid, our only real rival given the gulf in pace between us and the following pack, and given that Rob Barff is not entered for championship points. Shadowing Cregan and Barff for an hour could work to our advantage.

Let them fight like alley cats, say Paul and I. Let them grain their tyres, glaze their pads and roast their diffs. They can’t change their tyres after quali, so the longer they scrap out there, the better it is for us.

In fact, come to think of it, why not persuade the young Cregan to go back out there and steal P1 back from the celebrity pro? Paul has a glint in his eye and can’t help himself as he strides off to the Gulfsport garage to work his mojo. The Maserati is not garaged yet, and Cregan is still strapped in, so clearly he’s thinking about it. Go on, son, get out there, you know you want to.

I must admit to trying the same on Gulfsport team principal, Barry Hope. Barry is one of the most astute team principals you will find and won’t succumb to crude mind games from a mere amateur like me. “Shouldn’t you be trying to push your own way back up the grid?” he counters mischievously. For a brief fraction of a second the thought does cross my mind that perhaps I can do better than P3, but the Jedi master’s powers are weak today, and I slink away before he can work his psycho-magic on me.

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As for the chap on P1 today, Rob Barff is one of the UK’s leading driving coaches and has competed successfully against some of the world’s top drivers at events like the Le Mans 24 Hours. His background in LMP1 and GT cars means that you could drop him into virtually any race car on any circuit in the world and he will extract a time that would shame the local professionals. Quiet and unassuming, it’s difficult to get a handle on him, and we’re not quite sure what to expect come race start.

Despite my grid position, I’m actually extremely satisfied to have got within 0.4 seconds of him off the bat, in a car of similar power to weight ratio.

OK, here goes. Warm up lap, gantry lights out, pedal to the metal and we’re off.

The start is apocalyptic as Cregan gets boxed in by the Evora and MSW’s 997 on either side. From my perspective sitting on his tail, I sense that’s he’s gone into turn 1 a little too hot, and the subsequent rubbing has him broadside in front of me, inviting me to smash straight through the passenger door.

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I opt to steer off the circuit to the outside of the bend, and lose a couple of places to the following GTC class Ginettas, though Frederic Gaillard in the NFS Lotus 2-Eleven is not so fortunate, and the tiny British racing green Lotus is collected in the ensuing mêlée. The subsequent Code 60 as a result of the recovery effort for his stricken car means that every surviving car is now processing funereally around the circuit, with the now forward-pointing Cregan somewhere at the back, weaving to keep his tyres warm and itching to be released from the traps.

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Rob Barff has also lost his place at P1 in class, and I’m content that I’ve kept a calm head and got the jump on them. I’m now in contention for P1 – the Ginettas won’t hold me for long, I’m sure of it. Just before the Code 60 was flagged, I had nearly tapped the back of them a couple of times braking hard into the hairpin after the back straight, so I’m pretty sure I will find a way past soon enough when the green flag drops.

We pass the accident site a few times whilst the recovery is completed and debris cleaned up. It pays to pay attention here. A clean site can only mean one thing –the green flag will be dropped at the start/finish line.

On the final pass, I mentally commit myself to the restart as I come out of turn 16. Sitting pretty on the inside line, I can see clearly past the two Gulfsport Ginettas down the main straight. As the green flag drops at the gantry, I’m already running at the snoozing leaders, smashing my right foot against the bulkhead just as they’re waking up.

P2.…P1. Wakey wakey, lads.

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But it gets better: the MSW Porsche brakes on cold pads heading into turn 1 at the end of the straight, and I suspect my brakes are a little warmer, courtesy of some judicious pumping during the final minute of the Code 60. I squeeze through, and now, other than the House of Portier/TAM Corvette GT4 driven by 17 year old Mohammed Al Mutawaa, I’m sitting ahead of the GTB class. The Corvette is still in my crosshairs, and that can’t be bad. Crucially, as a sole driver, can the debutant teenager keep this up for an hour?

I’m out of the left-right flick-flack of turns 17 and 18, stepping onto the back straight. Wait a minute. Where the hell is my dashboard stopwatch? How the hell will I know when the pit window opens? With a malfunctioning earpiece, it’s difficult for me to hear instructions from Alex so I will need to be a little more self reliant today. Now I know how Steve Adams feels…

I guess I will have to rely on my trusty Casio (presciently worn on the outside of my sleeve). But try looking through a pill box Arai helmet whilst stabbing tiny buttons with a gloved hand at 220kph. Then do the mental maths to work out how much time has elapsed up until now (how many laps have I just completed at an average 60kph, is the International Circuit 4.29km or 4.56km or something else, dammit), and you pretty much have the dictionary definition of making quick decisions under pressure.

Radio communication is a series of distorted manic screams between pit and car:

– Alex’s voice mixed with some white noise –

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

– Alex’s voice again –

“I SAID I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

– More garbled noise, this time slower and louder, but it sounds like a shopping list, something about can you pick up some Diet 7-Up and Weetabix on the next lap –

I can’t hear a sodding thing through my malfunctioning earplugs. Never mind, I’m sure it’s not important…

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Rob Barff is sitting inches off my rear – he’s carved his way cleverly through the field and is holding off a challenge from Cregan behind him. Fight boys, scrap away.

But this guy’s really good. Not only has he eked out a gap between himself and the Maserati, but he’s gaining on me and forcing me to take a defensive line through each turn. This is tough, I’m really having to fight to maintain position, and furtively checking my mirrors for evidence of him darting through on either side.

As I witness the first car bolting for its mandatory pit stop, I realise the window is open and assume Alex will call me in, though I cannot tell if his voice is addressing me when he calls in the other ARM cars.
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Having Rob Barff on my tail for more than half an hour has proved both mentally and physically draining, and perhaps the smart move would be for me to make way and let him go. He’s not up for championship points, after all, why on earth should I fight it? But racing is racing, and besides, he gets his call and dives in. Maybe I can dine out on that small (perhaps even pyrrhic) victory for a while, that I held off Rob Barff for 35 minutes.

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It is pyrrhic, as it turns out. My rear tyres have miraculously mutated into Bakelites. I decide enough is enough (sorry Paul, maybe they’ll improve after a rest in the pit lane!), plus by my calculations I must be at the end of the pit window so it’s time to radio ahead and dive in at the next pass. It turns out I scrape the window with 5 seconds to spare and Alex is not at all happy.

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The driver change is flawless and I warn Paul about the tyres. For a brief moment as I come in, we are P1 overall – it’s a spectacularly wonderful feeling. I wonder if Karim Al Azhari ever gets tired of seeing his name up on the screen at P1 overall?

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By the time the change is completed, we have dropped some way behind Barff who goes from strength to strength, running an incredible second quicker in the second half of the race than the first. So that’s what endurance racing is all about then.

Paul has a herculean task ahead: wrestle the wayward rear and stay on the black stuff whilst keeping Cregan behind him for maximum points.

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Paul tentatively feels his way around the track for his first lap, just to make sure he knows where the limits are, and he finds the equilibrium he’s looking for. This is not enough to keep Cregan at bay, and after ten minutes Paul finds the gaping maw of the Maserati bearing down on him, clearly pulling some yards on him on the long straights. There’s no sense in holding the Maserati up – the difference in pace is clear and Paul wisely makes no attempt to block. A better strategy lies ahead: make life difficult.

Paul excels at being a thorn in the side, both on and off the track. I know – I spent a season trading punches with him. Almost immediately, Paul squeezes through to retake position, though this, too, doesn’t last long. Stay close now, get inside his head, and hope for a bit of luck.

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And luck does indeed come calling. I suppose you could argue you make your own luck, and sometimes a wily and cynical old head can put a certain kind of mental pressure on younger shoulders. Whatever the underlying reasons, the stresses and bumps sustained by the Gulfsport Maserati over the course of a gruelling hour have killed the suspension, and just three laps before the chequered flag, the hapless trident outbrakes itself at the end of the main straight, ploughs straight on, then a few turns later, locks up a rear wheel, twitches and slows to a stop.

Denby/Irfan are P2.

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The GTB Corvette is still visible in front, and you would think Paul might rest on his laurels at this point, but the opportunity to pass is just too tempting. The 17 year old ahead has done a superb job of marshalling a physically demanding car to the end of a one hour race, but whilst the straight line pace of the youngster’s car is obviously immense, Paul finds himself bearing down on the Corvette into braking zones and through the turns. On the final lap, he helps himself to a passing opportunity into the off-camber high speed turn 1, and romps to a P2 in class and a P3 overall.

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Karim Al Azhari’s GTA class House of Portier/TAM Corvette has wrapped up its maiden victory this season, and, incredibly, two GTC class cars have taken the second and third overall spots today. Of the three GTB class cars, the MSW Porsche suffered a gearbox failure on the fifth lap, and the Khaleeji Ferrari 430 has essentially had a test session today, having only just arrived off the boat, so the GTB Corvette has been competing with cars from a lower class.

The media interest is intense today, no doubt catalysed by the debut of a local teenager. A number of different media outlets are interviewing drivers and teams today, all carrying the kind of gizmos unseen a few years ago, all palm-sized fully functional outdoor mobile video camera crews in a microchip. These will soon be converted into podcasts and YouTube videos, flashes of pure racing sounds and testosterone-charged sound bites for the global online petrolhead community to gorge on.

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As a footnote to what has in fact been an amazing day for me and Paul, I must say it’s been bewildering for many of us who worked hard and succeeded this weekend to see how the media have (from our perspective) disproportionately focused on the success of the GTB Corvette.

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I can’t deny the youngster has done a superb job of making it to the end of the race, and without exception every single competitor sincerely wishes him a bright and successful future, but at an average surplus of some 150bhp against GTC class cars, I’m struggling to see the GTB Corvette’s fourth place overall as successful by any absolute objective measure. Indeed the story syndicated to the local papers indirectly suggests that he brings the car home second overall, though when the mistake is pointed out, later online versions of the story in the specialist press do correct the error.

So there we have it, folks. After a stuttering start, Denby and Irfan are back in the championship hunt, and we mean business. See you again on the 26th for round 3 of the UAE GT Championship.