Shivering In The Sun.
Over the next few days, DSC will be looking back at its 2012 with a few personal highlights from the many trips made by its contributors during the year. We begin at the very first race of 2012, almost a full 12 months ago.
Events Covered in January
Dunlop 24H Dubai
Autosport International
Gulf 12 Hours
Rolex 24 at Daytona
January normally only means two things – failed New Year resolutions and Birmingham…oh and cold, miserable weather. Not only do you have the post-festive blues to contend with, there is also the prospect of a long and tiring trudge around the cavernous National Exhibition Centre just outside the UK’s second city to look forward to. For us media types, this usually yields some good news stories, but, Good Lord, you rack up the miles trying to spot the relevant people; while those poor souls on the two public days have to contend with ludicrous crowds and even more ludicrous prices for refreshments – although, to be fair, I do understand that this is a rare opportunity for most people to see and meet their heroes. But 2012 was different for (some of) the DSC pack – January this year would mean two trips to the sun, in the form of 24 hour races in Dubai and Florida.
The first of these trips saw the DSC Ed and Deputy Ed (along with Mrs Deputy Ed), plus snappers Dave Lord and Peter May, boarding at Heathrow for our first trip to the 24H Dubai; the plane touching down in the United Arab Emirates on a hot and sunny Wednesday morning. Marcus Potts would be handling the NEC for us and we raised a glass in his honour.
The first priority was to find the apartment we would be staying at before heading on to the Dubai Autodrome. We had hired a car for the duration, but the ‘map’ provided by the travel company that was intended to get us to our destination was missing a few key elements – scale, several key roads and, frankly, anything that would have served as a handy sight-marker. By the time we eventually stumbled across the correct block – and we’re still not sure how we got there – tempers were beginning to fray and we were a couple of hours behind schedule. Luggage and wife (there purely for a few days of sunshine) were offloaded and the remaining four of us rejoined the crazy roads of Dubai.
As it transpired, navigating from the apartment to the circuit and back again was quite straightforward and our only issue was roadworks in the town. This meant that we had the opportunity to look out of the car windows at what was out there – which was mile after mile of utterly abandoned construction projects!
The contrast between January 2012 and our (Dave’s and yours truly’s) previous visit in November 2007 was extraordinary. What had previously been round-the-clock construction work involving tens of thousands of (foreign) labourers, was now utterly silent. We quite literally saw no building going on anywhere – not in the incomplete towns near the circuit; not in the huge but incomplete office and accommodation blocks that we passed every couple of minutes; and not at the circuit itself, where the huge and glittering circuit buildings and grandstands revealed themselves upon closer inspection to be a long way from completion. Much had been built since our previous trip, but very little of it had been finished or occupied, it seemed.
The strange thing was, it became quickly apparent that the Emirate itself was still awash with wealth. The roads were busy, the huge and numerous shopping malls still had large occupancy rates, and the restaurants were doing a roaring trade. The conclusion drawn was that it was the external investors rather than the locals who had had their fingers (or their arms up to the elbows) burned when the property bubble – which was so obvious back in 2007 – burst so spectacularly.
But we were there for the racing, and the pits were full on the day we arrived. That day was an easy one for us, and to be honest Thursday wasn’t much harder. There were the usual free practice and qualifying sessions, but we were fresh at the start of the year and taking it all in our stride. What was aggravating us, however, was the wireless internet connection in the (windowless) media centre; for some reason, its firewall just didn’t like us and allowed only sporadic access, thus scuppering our plans for live reporting of the sessions. This wasn’t a huge issue, but had major implications for our race coverage. The very helpful circuit staff did what they could to resolve the issue, but their body language suggested they were as baffled as we were.
That night, Mr & Mrs Deputy Ed went out for a meal at a local restaurant to celebrate our birthday (both handily occurring on the same day) and were delighted when our lobster meal on the terrace was accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display from the nearby Dubai Creek. This wasn’t, alas, in tribute to our advancing years, but was to celebrate the month-long ‘Dubai Shopping Festival’ currently taking place. It seemed absurd to base a festival on such blatant consumerist behaviour, but then I realised that we do the same in the West – except we call ours ‘Christmas’.
Race day dawned the next morning, so we left Diane by the pool and headed off once more – taking in our now-traditional breakfast at the Caribou Coffee establishment across the road from the track (in case anybody from Caribou is reading this, we’d be more than happy to drop your name into our reports in exchange for regular deliveries of your really rather lovely product).
As the race began, Rob Barff reaching the first corner ahead of the similar Ferrari 458 of Matt Griffin, so did DSC’s live race coverage; and it wasn’t long before we realised that the internet issue from the previous couple of days was still very much there. The Ed, however, was on commentary duty for Radio Le Mans and across the track above the grandstand, and he soon reported that the internet connection up there was strong and reliable. After a couple of hours of frustration, your scribe finally gave in and decamped to the broadcast booth.
Finding a spot on the far side of the room – and well away from the impressive RLM set-up – I was soon basking in the joy of a reliable connection and began typing away; and, as it turned out, would remain there for the rest of the race. But it wasn’t long before the initial relief of the air-conditioning (it being very warm outside) turned into something more unexpected.
It was bloody freezing in there!
We were in the middle of a desert and yet were shivering during the day. The aircon was set to several degrees below ambient and wasn’t adjustable. The problem was that we were about to go through the night, and even in the desert that means the temperatures were about to plummet! As the race wore on the air became cooler and cooler, to the extent that the Ed resorted to resting his laptop on his hands to warm them up at various points in the night. I vividly recall stepping out of the booth just as dawn broke to be greeted by a blast of warm air – what a joy!
Dave and I decided to make an emergency coffee run to Caribou soon after, but returned to find the RLM crew knocking back fresh mugs of Starbucks – Tomas Enge had moments earlier appeared in the booth with coffees for all!
As the race continued, several other drivers and team personnel – Sean Edwards, Joe Osborne, Faisal Bin Laden and Nissan’s Darren Cox among them – made their way up to the booth to tell the stories of their race. Edwards would eventually take the win in his Black Falcon Mercedes, while Osborne would be part of the SP3-winning Optimum Motorsport Ginetta team in 14th overall; but, as ever with a 24-hour event, there were any number of fascinating stories to be told.
We eventually made our escape from the icy tomb as the world’s longest-ever post-race ceremony took place, and the next day would be heading back to Blighty. Dubai had again been a fascinating and enjoyable trip, but we knew what to do next time – bring a jumper!
MH
