The 10th edition of the 24H of Dubai saw a record number of 97 entries, promising to make this race  particularily challenging. Weather was ideal with temperatures in the low 20's and no wind. Good news all around. 

The GC team came well prepared this year with a significantly upgraded SP2 car. Last year they had over expended themselves with three cars and learned a lesson in the process.

The cars handling and balance was further  improved since I last drove it two years ago. 40 more HP and a paddle shift transmission coupled with a further improved suspension set-up allowed us to use the full range of power available without having to over expend ourselves.  Excactly the way one wants a car to be set up for  a 24 hour race. 

Regarding the  driver line up I will say it was one of the best in a long time. Alban Varulffi a semi professional  who has been running the  GC 10.2 all year was able to set a blistering pace from the  very start, managing to break into the  top class .  I tried hard to get myself down to his lap times (2 seconds off his pace) however there is no placebo for practice, practice and more practice. As the last time I sat in a race car was 7 months ago I consider my performance very honorable. In fact at night my average lap times were less than a second off of Albans!  Our  other two drivers, Lionel Amrouche and Mathieu Pontais  were running between 2 and 4  seconds off my pace. That having been said this made for a a very good average for 4 drivers. It was evident we all had the same goal, make it to the end without a scratch, so after qualfiying was over we were all very pumped up!!

After an uneventful start  from row 7 we very quickly worked our way into the lead managing to stay with the pace of the top class, running a cool 1st in class,  eventually 17th overall with a ten lap lead over our next competitor by about 1:00AM.  I was one lap from the end of my midnight stint, powering out of one of the slowest turns on the track next to slower entry to my left and  a Porsche RSR to my right when all hell broke out.  Three cars abreast out of a turn was a reoccuring happening throughout the race so at the outset I had no concern.  That was not counting on the Porsche all of a sudden loosing traction on exit. His rear swerved into my front right. I tried to avoid contact as I saw it coming but I was sandwiched between the slower entry and the Porsche.  In a split second the outcome of our race was decided....my front end was damaged, loosing the front right wheel , rim, hub, brakes and brake line. In no time I had no brakes but still managed to limp back to the pits. 45 minutes later we were back in the running in P3. A big sigh of relief by all we settled back into our race pace.  Until 4:00 AM everything was looking good having managed to get back into P2 when bad luck struck again in the same turn and in the same manner with our Nr. 3 driver!!  This time while he also managed to make it back to the pits on his own power it took over two an half hours to get us back on track.  We even had to wait an agonizing 45 minutes for the track officials to find our ' missing wheel assembly' for the team to complete the repair not having enough spares!!!  

From that moment on it was clear a podium finish was not in the cards.  Team stayed committed however and put in a stellar performance to the bitter end. We ended up 6th in class in terms of number of laps completed however on the last lap our fuel pump gave up so we did not cross the finish line so not classified.

Needless to say a very dissappointing end to the race!! That having been said we all felt pretty good about ourselves and the teams overall performance.  With a bit of better luck next time a strong podium finish should be in the cards!!