Dubai 24hrs 2010. Night Time Practice

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Well we are here. Dubai 24 hours has arrived! I managed to get down to the Autodrome just after another gorgeous sunset, just in time for the start of night practice.

As you can imagine night practice is a vital aspect of 24 hours endurance racing and if the session in darkness this evening at Dubai Autodrome is anything to go by then Porsche teams, including last years winning outfit Land Motorsport, are looking potent.

Now, if you think that at least 12 hours of the race will be held under darkness you can get the picture.The Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche, which hours earlier qualified in pole position for the race, again topped the timing sheets by over two seconds and go into the race as favourites. However last year’s winners Land Motorsport 1 and Land Motorsport 2 Porsches were next up, in second and third respectively, and showed their intent namely to repeat their 2009 victory.

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Big news for local fans was the strong performance by UAE based teams particularly the Al Qasba Lap 57 UAE Team Honda of Omran and Mohammed Al Owais, Umair Khan and Saeed Al Mehairi who were quickest in Class A2. The team had problems in qualifying which forced them to change a gearbox in one hour.

A couple of hours later Al Mehairi went out for the first time and set the fastest lap time in the class.The second fastest Class A2 car was the UAE based Duel Racing Renault Clio with the Moutran brothers Ramzi, Sami and Nabil partnered with Bahrain’s Sheikh Slaman Al Khalifa.DXB Racing Aston Martin recovered from a modest qualifying performance to set the fourth fastest night time lap in the SP3 Class ahead of local rivals AUH Racing Aston Martin.

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997RSR – The car that puts you on pole, the IMSA team were firmly on it! Even though this wasn’t the car that did it.

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Karim was enjoying his time in the Mustang GT3.

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The coolest car on the grid – No question!!!

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Duel Racing were working hard with their Clio Cup Car.

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The Seat Leon seems to be the weapon of choice. Not surprisingly really when you realise just how fast they are.

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A BMW 1-Series with a V8? Insane.