A lengthy catch-up with Creventic, the organiser of the 24H Dubai, this morning added significant detail to the story of the issues that have forced the postponement of the race until the final weekend of January, and a clash with the Rolex 24 Hours.
The emerging issues around the political and military situation in the Gulf region have been a ‘known known’ for some time and Creventic was far from idle in workshopping the problems with its contractors and customers.
That included an assessment of whether paying the not insubstantial sums to its shippers (Hapag Lloyd) to purchase additional fuel to speed up the ship that is currently en route would make enough of a difference to make it a worthwhile tactic (it won’t) and also an assessment of the alternatives with air freight (way too expensive).
At present the issue there are two ships en route from Europe.
Ironically, the first ship set to arrive is carrying cars that were set to take part in the Abu Dhabi 6 Hours, followed a couple of days later by the ship carrying c.38 cars for the 24H Dubai. The second vessel was delayed by having to turn back from its initial Mediterranean course to avoid the conflict zone as the security situation in the region worsened.
There are further cars en route from the Asian Le Mans Series at Sepang and others that were despatched earlier too.
The Abu Dhabi race will go ahead as planned and should see additional cars added to its entry that are already in country for the 24 Hours. “This will give the teams the opportunity for track time and testing that they will miss earlier in January at Dubai,” said a senior Creventic source.
There are some teams and drivers that now have emerging clashes and issues because of the switch of days, but at present those numbers are small with at least one team having lost some of its original drivers but having already sourced replacements.
As things stand at the time of writing, there is only one confirmed withdrawal with multiple teams having confirmed their participation.
Other teams are known to have difficulties that are being actively worked upon.
Amongst the declared teams only one – Heart of Racing – is currently slated to take part in both the Dubai and Daytona enduros with a number of drivers also set to be affected.
The Christmas break is never a long one for Creventic, but suffice it to say that it has been cut shorter this year with the team very actively in discussion with their customers to assess the current situation and to assist where possible with information and solutions.
Watch this space!
