Dubai 24hr 2011: WRC Developments ‘Tales from the Pit Wall’ a teams eye view

This is the ‘fly on the wall’  story of grit and determination from WRC Developments and their entry in the 2011 edition of the Dubai 24hr race. The elite team of drivers included BTCC drivers James Kaye, James Nash, Mike Brown, Mark Lemmer and Dubai’s own fun loving UAE Touring Car driver, Jason O’Keefe.

Day 1: Wednesday 12^th

The car, spares and field kitchen arrived at the circuit at 5am. So by 9am it was all hands to the pumps in unpacking the container and setting up the garage and mess facilities. So job done then, time to put our feet up until practice tomorrow then, Err not quite! You know how the wife gives you a list of jobs to be done in the garden and around the house, well we all seemed to be playing wife as we all kept gaily adding to the list of things to be done to the car / garage / pit wall. Hang on guys we have to complete all of these tasks before scrutineering tomorrow.

The proverbial sleeves were rolled up and the team got cracking. With a spring in our steps we slowly but surely the ‘to-do’ list was whittled down. Wheels were sorted with new dry and wet weather tyres fitted (well the forecast predicted a spot of rain, hard to believe we know), pit perch erected with TV and computer, gantry with air lines for wheel changing erected and doing the final fettling of the car. In the mean time Andy “Mr.  BBQ” and his very able assistant Charles, set about setting up a 5 star outdoor café (menu to be sampled later).

The financial green light had been given weeks ago (ie when the entry fee had been paid) and the green light to participate in the race was given by the technical inspectors. After finishing a few odds and ends, the team left the garage around 10pm. Better get some sleep while we could, as was proven the following day….

Day 2: Thursday 13^th

8am and the garages are alive with the sound of air powered tools, spanners and engines. You could feel the tension in the air building as the time to get the cars out on the track approached. Today is practice and qualifying. The revised rules stated that each driver needed to complete a minimum of 2 timed laps in either practice, qualifying or split between these sessions and 2 timed laps in night practice. A strategy was devised to ensure that all the drivers completed their minimum number of laps. In order to help / refresh the drivers minds on the layout of the circuit, they took a road car out in the taxi laps session. Perhaps the taxi driver who brought the mechanics to the circuit in the morning thought he was taking part in the race by all accounts.

The practice sessions were going great. The weather was nice and cool, the drivers were driving well (the taxi rides obviously worked) with all 5 of them lapping with very similar lap times. We were not looking for a one off banzai lap time but more consistent laps times that put less stress on the car. Mark ultimately produced the fastest lap time of the 5 drivers, with his fastest lap giving the team class pole position. The car was running beautifully……. right up to the point where the gearbox decided it wanted a little siesta.

Now the mechanics did give me a technical description of what had happened, in simple terms it had become difficult to change gear. The mechanics sprung into action like coiled vipers (hope they are as quick at 6am in the race if needed, edit- perhaps I shouldn’t have wrote that). After a few “linkages”, “pivots” and “cables” were mentioned, it was decided that “discretion was the better part valour” and the wise action would be to change the gearbox. Man the battle stations as we had 1hour before the night practice started and 2 hours before we would need to be back out on track in order to give enough time for all the drivers to complete their minimum number of laps.

Well stop the clocks, 1 hour and 45 minutes after it was decided to change the gear box, the car rolled out of the garage and out onto the track. A job very well done, but it does ask the question why does it take so much longer for a normal garage to do the same job? A big thank you must go to James Kaye’s 2 boys who provided regular updates on the time before night practice commenced and then how long before it ended. This saved us having to look at our watches (well those of us who were still wearing theirs) or the clock.

Given that ‘time waits for no man’, we could only let the drivers do the minimum number of laps to required to ensure that there were no issues with them complying with the regulations. Still, we ended up with the quickest time in class. So the car is quick, the drivers are consistent, can we produce a result?  Time will tell once the race starts. With that, the drivers could go back to the hotel, shower and go to sleep. The poor mechanics however would have no such luxury as they had plenty of work to do.

The main task was to open the gear box that had been taken off the car to see if the problem was either a) fixable or b) beyond repair. After a spot of “gentle” persuasion the gear box casing decided to open, all to find a small bracket had worked itself loose. So the 2 offending bolts were “loctited”(glued) in place. Those pesky little blighters won’t be working themselves loose anytime soon let me tell you. So now it was a case of removing the new old gearbox and installing the old new one. There were a myriad of other small jobs to be completed as part of the planned pre-race service. Despite the hour of midnight both approaching and passing, the team never considered stopping work to go and sleep. The gearbox change was completed just before midnight and to make sure everything was good to go, the engine was started and the gear box worked up and down through the gears. All that was left were a few minor bits and pieces which were soon buttoned up with the mechanics leaving the garage at 1am.

Day 3: Friday 14^th

After a long day and late night you would have thought that the drivers wouldn’t mind the tired and weary mechanics could have had a bit of a lie in. Wrong, yet again the hard working mechanics arrived in the garage before the drivers.

The warm-up session was going to be used to test the repaired and refitted gearbox, which was reported to be responding readily acceptable (sorry ran out of re’s.) A couple of sets of rear tyres were scrubbed in (on the track rather than with a scrubbing brush with soap and water as it is more efficient and a lot less work)  and new set for front brake discs.

And you will guessed correctly that we made a list of jobs that needed to be carried out before the race, by now we have this down tight. Luckily this wasn’t a big list as we had only run the car for 30 minutes. A team meeting was held between the drivers and the team manager to amongst other things agree the driver order for the race (of course this could be changed if circumstances dictated), tyre strategy and the pit stop strategy. Well would you Adam and Eve it, it’s time for the car to be on the grid ready for the 2pm start.

13:45, it’s show time. Just like entering the ark, this time it is cars going round a circuit 2 by 2, hoorah. 2 laps to warm the tyres and as Murray Walker used to say, ‘it’s go, go, go”. There is well known motorsport phrase along the lines of “you cannot win the race on the 1^st lap but you can lose the race”. Well, for one unfortunate Porsche, the phrase proved all to true.  One of the front tyres blew destroying the entire corner of the car, race over, thank you for coming.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with G > Green Flag

To save on writing the story of the race that would compete with the novel War and Peace for length, here is a concise(!?) report of the race as it happened:

14:00 – James Kaye to start the race. James two boys and I stand at turn one for the start of the race. After good safe start and safely round turn 1, we head back to the pits.

15:33 – Houston we have problem. The problem being that as a result of a racing incident (two cars wanting the same piece of track at the same time) the power steering failed. So the team changed the power steering system in 20 minutes. James Nash takes over for his 1^st stint.

17:31 – Pilot to control tower, request emergency landing we have high water temperature. This time a jubilee clip has worn a pin hole in a water hose (why the race and not in practice?). So another 20 minutes is lost while a repair is carried out. Mike Brown takes over for his 1^st stint.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with D > Dusk

19:46 – Time for Jason to drive his 1^st ever 2 hour stint and his 1^st racing laps in the dark.  Jason does exactly as required, consistent laps and he brings the car in 2 hours later with no damage. He gives nothing away to other cars in the class, a good job jobbed.

21:51 – Mark takes over and straight away he is banging in consistent lap times and continues to claw our way back up the class leader board.

23:54 – James Kaye gets back into the car for his 2^nd stint. More consistent and quick laps time draw us even closer to the car that is 2^nd in class.

01:43 – Due to an incident on the track a Code 60 is shown (all cars drive at 60 kmh round the track). As we needed to change the driver in less than 25 minutes time, the team took advantage of this by carrying out a driver change and refuelling the car under the Code 60 as we lose less time to the other cars in class as compared to when the cars are at racing speed. Just as James Nash exits the refuelling area we go back to a green flag and back to racing. The car we were fighting position for didn’t stop, which was strange as they had to carry out a driver change in the next 45 minutes. The net result being that we gained significant time back on them.

03:45 – We are up to second place in class, although we are 7 laps behind the class reader the race is not over until the large boned lady has sung (got to be politically correct these days you know). There is hole the top hose dear liza, dear Liza, there is hole the top hose dear liza, a hole.  Yep a hole has developed in the top hose. After a bit of splicing and dicing a repair was affected. It may not have looked pretty but in racing if it works, it will do. Mike Brown takes over the driving duties.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with C > Cold, 17^o celsius can feel cold

05:02 – A kettle is the preferred method for boiling water not a cars radiator. Mike reports that the water temperature has climbed from 85 to 100 (how does water climb?). Doc tells Mike to pit as soon as he can so that the team can investigate. Car into the garage, bonnet up, heads under bonnet, Umm, not good, it looks like the head gasket is leaking. The radiator is topped up and Jason is sent out to see if the overheating continues.

05:58 – Jason reports that the engine is proving to be a better sauna than a race engine, so Doc calls him in. Up goes the bonnet with cries of, “that’s not good”, the head gasket has split. Game over? Not on your life is it game over. 2 choices are discussed, 1) change the head gasket and 2) change the engine. Now as we don’t know if the engine has been damaged by the overheating, it is decided that the best course of action is to change the engine. Did I not state before that I hope the mechanics are as awake and active at 6am as at 6pm? So we had to remove the engine and gear box from the car, remove the gearbox from the spare engine, fit the clutch and gearbox from the recently removed engine to the new engine, fit the new engine, fix a rear brake calliper bracket, bleed the brakes.

09:40 -Low and behold, Jason is back in the car and heading back out onto the circuit. 2½ hours to change and engine/gear and clutch.  OK so Jason doesn’t have any dashboard information or lights, this will be investigated at the next driver change. The fact the garage lights repeatedly failed during the night didn’t help, nor did the washroom / toilet running out of water help. But then we are a hardy bunch.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with H > Hope that we finish the race

10:30 – A decision is made to give all the driver one more stint in the car so Jason is called in and Mark takes over for his last stint. The dashboard issue was fixed so at least we knew what the water and oil temperature and pressures were.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with S > Sandstorm, oh come on weather, we have a hard enough time as it is without a sandstorm blowing directly into our eyes.

11:20 – Time for James Kaye to take over. The car sounds great and is running well, we are lapping in the same times as at the start of the race.

12:10 – James Nash takes over and by accident (so he says, but racers will be racers!!) sets the quickest class lap of the race. Not too many cars are setting fastest laps after 22 hours of racing.

13:00 – Time for Mike to get into the car to finish the race. 1 hour to go, a nice easy run to the finish. Oh no. An oil pressure problem rears its ugly head with 15 minutes to go. Don’t tell me we are about to be slapped in the face by a big wet fish and not finish the race, NO WE ARE NOT. A drop (or two) of oil is added and Mike is told to “drive that car over the finish line, how you do we don’t care, but get that car to the chequered flag”. We think he got the message.

13:55 – Time for the team to get onto the pit wall and climb the fence to celebrate the end of the race. We will make it.

14:00 – The chequered flag drops and the team celebrates as Mike drives the car past the chequered flag and passes by close to the pit wall.  This definitely called for a team celebration. We may not have won a trophy but just finishing the race itself is an achievement. All that is left to do know is take down everything that we put up and then pack everything back in the container. So one last burst of energy is required.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with C > Chequered flag, the end of the race. Thank goodness for that.

So now that the event has finished with the sun setting over a quiet track, we are sitting down enjoying a cold can of liquid refreshment reflecting on the past four days.  It is safe to say that we are all tired, dirty, probably smell a little none too pleasant and are desperately looking forward to a shower and a bed. People outside of motor racing find it hard to understand why we do what we do, especially if there is no trophy to reward our efforts.  The simple fact is competing in 24hr racing is like a drug, one dose and it becomes addictive.

So after experiencing all the highs (class pole position and quickest in class during night practice) and lows (2 gearboxes and 1 engine changes), the long sleepless hours, the hard sweaty work put in dealing with adversity (changing gearboxes and engines), power repeatedly failing in the garage resulting in no lights, no water in the bathroom, when the simple option would have to give up, you ask yourself, would you do it again? Steven Redgrave once said after winning another Olympic rowing gold medal, that if he was seen in a rowing boat again he was to be shot. There is no point me stating something similar to this because I know I will be back for another 24hr event. Just let me recover from this one first.

So on that note, everybody in team wish to thank the event organisers, the Autodrome and fellow competitors for making the event what is and I am sure discussions have already started on planning to come back year to finish higher then this year.

The drivers were supported by Team Manager – Andy Scott (aka Doc), Mechanics -James Chown, Corey Ashley, James Poulton and the Dubai connection, Pit wall – Ian Rodgers, Max Nalborczyk, Mechanics – Maynard, Ex, Dante.

Additional general support was provided by Tim Ansell (photography) and James Thomas (gofer / window cleaner).

Report submitted by Ian Rodgers, Images supplied by Tim Ansell at SLRPM.com