UAE National Racing // GTs // Rd 2

After all the incidents and drama of Round 1 of the Cytech UAE GT Championship two weeks ago, there were high hopes for the second round during the Dubai Motorsport Festival.

Teams had been working feverously to get cars back up to race fitness in time for the pre race day test session on Wednesday with practice and qualifying taking place on Thursday.

Making its first outing in the UAE GTs this weekend was the ex Ferrari Challenge F430 which would be driven by John Sinders and Cabell Fisher.

The car only cleared customs on Wednesday night, so it was a race against time for the ARM team to get the car cleared through scrutineering and prepped for action.

Finishing second in GTB was a great result for the guys, but the guys need to up their game if they’re going to battle with the TAM / HoP GTB Corvette which finished a clear two laps ahead.

With a Ferrari now sharing the grid with the assembled Corvettes, Porsches, Lotuses, Maseratis, Ginettas and the like – GTs is certainly proving to be the most glamorous championship in the UAE.

But there was one rogue entry on the field that doesn’t quite meet the glamour quotient.
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As rapid and impressive the Seat Leon Supercopas are out on track, and believe me, if you want to win in Touring Cars, you need a Seat – the five door hatch stood out amongst the crowd of two-door (or no-door in the Lotus 2-Eleven’s case) stunners.

This beasty is going to be one to watch as the season progresses.

After romping to class victory last weekend, the MSW/ARM Porsche 997 Cup Car had everything to play for this time out.
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Despite qualifying second in class, the race didn’t go Jon and Tarek’s way with the car retiring after just five laps.

In a way, it was probably a good thing for Tarek as he was suffering from a sciatic nerve problem in his leg and wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of a long stint in the car anyway.

So it was up to Paul Denby and Harris Irfan to fly the Porsche flag in their 996 Cup car and the boys did themselves proud.

The guys had to replace a driveshaft on Thursday evening, but once this was done, the car was set to make up for the DNS from Round 1.

They’d qualified third in class behind the Lotus Evora and Rob Cregan’s Maserati, but ahead of the Ginettas and the rest of the field.

After a strong first stint by Harris, Paul went on to post consistent times and squeezed himself into third place overall ahead of TAM’s GTB car and second in GTC at the end of the race.

It’s an excellent result for the guys and proves that the strategy of putting last year’s rivalry behind them and pairing up together was the right path. No doubt they are eyeing up the top spot on the podium with greater interest now.

Sitting proudly up there this time around was Rob Barff who drove the Lotus Evora to victory in GTC and second overall.

Not only that, but we expect to see not one, but two Evora in the upcoming Dubai 24hour race in early January.

Frederic Gaillard didn’t have such a good time out on track with an unavoidable incident on Turn 1 on the second lap which saw the 2-Eleven make contact with Rob Cregan’s stationary Maserati MC.
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As a result of his car being stranded on track, a Code 60 was called for whilst the recovery guys made their attempts at moving the car to a safe place off the track.

With all the cars running at a constant 60kph speed to maintain their positions on track, the teams on the pitwall were trying their best to inform the drivers over the radios as to what the score was.

Most of the drivers were trying their hardest to keep some heat in their tyres by weaving down the straights, however for one car keeping heat in the tyres was the last thing on their mind.

Bassam Kronfli wasn’t having a good time out in the Zytech Ginetta as he rolled into the pits four times before the mandatory pit stop window had opened. There was an issue with the throttle cable that meant that at times Buzz couldn’t use more than 50% of the loud pedal’s travel – not exactly ideal considering the long back straight of the International Circuit.

The Gulf Sport guys eventually fixed the problem for good in the main pit stop when Raed Hassan took over driving duties, but the five minutes the car spent in the pits put the boys out of contention. They still finished on the second step in GTA, but it wasn’t exactly the outcome they were after.

NFS Racing were hoping their Viper would capitalise on the 10 points it picked up in Round 1 with a strong showing this time out. However, an issue with the brakes saw Julian retire on lap 10.

It was all set to be a battle royale between the Viper and the TAM / HoP GTA Corvette. Karim and Julian had been dicing throughout the early stages of the race with Julian passing Karim on lap 8. However, the aforementioned brake problem gave Karim the lead and he went on to hand over driving duties to Italian driver Diego Alessi.

Alessi brought the Corvette home to a comfortable victory. It was a great result for the TAM team who had been pulling all nighters to get the car back to race form after the fire that happened in pre-race day testing in Round 1.

The GTA win was made all the sweeter when 17-year-old Mohammed Al Mutawaa brought his Corvette back in first place in GTB.

Though some might raise eyebrows due to the fact that the Vette finished fourth overall behind two GTC cars, at the end of the day, Mohammed was racing for class victory and not overall position and therefore didn’t need to push the car too hard to secure his win.

Al Mutawaa has been working hard on his fitness in the past few months and this effort was certainly required as a visa issue with his driving partner Jiri Skula meant that Mohammed had to drive the full 60 minutes on his tod. For someone who doesn’t yet have a road licence, this boy’s certainly got some skills and is going to be someone to keep an eye on in the future.

It’s a shame that Khalid Bin Hadher’s Lotus Exige didn’t make it out to the start of the race to give Mohammed someone else to race against. Let’s hope the Performance boys can get the evil looking Hethel machine up to race fitness for Round 3 in three weeks’ time.

Joe Ghanem had a strong result in his Ginetta G50, finishing third in GTC.

The driver pairing of Khaled Al Mudhaf and Jan Vanmeerbeek finished not too far behind in their G50.

The Ginettas might not be the prettiest cars out on track, but they are certainly proving themselves to be a dependable and effective racer.

A couple of cars that certainly are pretty are the pair of Maserati Granturismo MCs driven by Dave Field and Rob Cregan.

Dave was posting very consistent times with his car throughout the race and is certainly enjoying his time out on track.

Rob unfortunately didn’t have such a good time as after being caught up in the Turn 1 melee on lap 2, eventually had to retire on lap 25 due to a driveshaft failure. It is well worth saying though that Rob hustled his way back up to second in class prior to the impending failure.

Saad Salman was making the most of every possible bit of track time in his KTM X-Bow as it looked like whenever there was an opportunity to be one track in testing, practice, quali and warm up, his was pushing the X-Bow to the limits.

He needs to find a little bit more pace out there though if he wants to start troubling the Ginettas and the like.

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage – that doesn’t wear Gulf colours, honest… – driven by John Iossifidis

…and Martin Baerschmidt was suffering from a gearbox issue that effectively locked out fifth gear which meant they had to shift from fourth to sixth on the long straights.

No doubt the car will be back to fine fettle for the next round. It needs to be as the rumours in the pitlane are that there will be another three Aston Martin V8 Vantages appearing on the grid for the next race.

That takes place on Friday November 26th at the Dubai Autodrome around the National configuration with the GTs sharing the billing with the Sportscars, Sportsbikes and the inaugural outing of the Suzuki Swift Cup Middle East.

And, last but by know means least – Our race transport! Thanks again to Tim, Mark and the team at KTM Middle East for the monster 525! It certainly keeps us mobile around the track and is a barrel of laughs along the way. If you want your own road legal ATV, you know where to go.

UAE National Racing // GTs // Rd 2

Tom Bird

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UAE National Racing // GTs // Rd 2

Tom Bird

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