For Dunlop, the relationship with teams and drivers is critical. As well as making sure teams and drivers are happy with the compound of tyre being used throughout the weekend, ensuring the tyres are maintained is just as significant. Ignoring Dunlop recommendations could prove costly come the chequered flag.
“The tyres are prepared here but the responsibility for everything else stays with the team: we just can’t supervise 81 cars. Most teams though will change tyres at the first pit stop so we can have a look. I have between eight and ten guys up and down pitlane who inspect the tyres coming off. If anything looks strange they bring the wheels back to the fitting area, and when the tyre is stripped, they’ll check structural integrity. We’re looking for the tyre to wear evenly. If it’s wearing too heavily in one spot, that can be dangerous, and can cause a spike in the temperature.
“We can’t make the teams do what we tell them, but we’ll take the pressures and temperature when they come back in, give the team manager or engineers the data, and say ‘our recommendation to you is this’. We have to do is reassure the teams that we’re not trying to make them go slower, we’re just trying to make them safe.
“During the race, tyres pick up a lot of discarded tyre marbles. ‘Chewing gum’, we call it. All the tyres have depth slots in them, so that we can measure wear along any particular side. There are four slots – one on each shoulder and two in the centre – and sometimes these get covered with chewing gum, so we get the teams to use a hot gun and a wallpaper scraper to scrape a six-inch opening along the tread. It’s more professional than it sounds!”
During the Dubai 24 Hours build-up, one unusual problem has caused concern: rain. The risk of a flooded pitlane, paddock and track after a strong albeit brief downpour is a genuine concern at the Autodrome, and even a mild shower could cause problems for Gary and the Dunlop team. Wet weather tyres aren’t exactly a hot property in the Middle East, even for a 24-hour endurance race.
“If it rains for 24 hours heavily, then we’d have a problem,” Gary explains. “We don’t have enough tyres for everyone for 24 hours: we’d need 30 containers. But we do guarantee to bring a minimum of three sets of wet tyres per car which, if it’s raining pretty heavily, will last 12-16 hours. If teams feel they want more than that, they can order more.”
When a surprisingly eventful Dubai 24 Hours is finally in the bag, the workload is still not over for Gary and the team. While teams and drivers pack away their temporary home from home, the Dunlop boys and girls begin the task of finding unused tyres and excess rubber to ship back to Dunlop GHQ. Again, with 81 cars to deal with, it’s a tall order.
“We’ll spend two hours after the race bringing unused tyres back: we won’t keep the boys any longer than that. We’ve got to have all the containers ready the following afternoon so that the customs can check what’s being shipped. Any spare half an hour we get during the race, we’ll get the process started: nobody’s in the mood to start that at 6am!”
It’s an exhausting process, one that Gary and Dunlop have experienced six times since the Dubai 24 Hours sponsorship was first signed. The horror stories are kept moderately in check, but Gary is pleased to see though that, despite being only in its ninth running, the Dubai 24 Hours has developed significantly since Dunlop first took on the challenge.
“So far, this year has been a walk in the park. I mean, when Dunlop first started, the race was a nightmare for us. Primarily – and with the greatest of respect – the quality and professionalism of a lot of the teams was quite poor. Some of the cars were little more than road cars, the people running them had very little experience in terms of racing, and they had very little resources. We had a lot of teams in the first event who only had three sets of wheels, so every time the car came in, we’d have 50 guys queuing for the tyres they needed before the next fuel stop. That’s just not acceptable.
“But this is a great event for us, as good as any race in the world, including Le Mans. As far as I’m concerned, Dunlop could do this forever.”
– Shots courtesy of David Benson
