Dubai 24 Hours 14- 16th January 16

[NICK ALLISON]

Dubai 24 hours this weekend live on Motors TV. Worth a look.

[Deleted]

Oh god no.

The only thing I like about this (or rather, don't hate with passion) are the camels at the end. And I guess V8 Racing has the GT1 Corvette back again - ??? - but they won't really be allowed to win with the extreme handicaps anyway

Mario Kart Jokers, reference lap times and post-Q penalties still in full force I presume?

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Oh god no.

The only thing I like about this (or rather, don't hate with passion) are the camels at the end. And I guess V8 Racing has the GT1 Corvette back again - ??? - but they won't really be allowed to win with the extreme handicaps anyway

Mario Kart Jokers, reference lap times and post-Q penalties still in full force I presume?

There haven't been reference lap times for the outright class (A6pro) in quite a while - though they do get a worse deal BoP-wise than the cars in A6am that need to stick to a reference time. Having covered two Creventic races in person last year, I must say I am very impressed with their series and it is perhaps the closest thing to real old school endurance racing that we have these days.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

There haven't been reference lap times for the outright class (A6pro) in quite a while - though they do get a worse deal BoP-wise than the cars in A6am that need to stick to a reference time. Having covered two Creventic races in person last year, I must say I am very impressed with their series and it is perhaps the closest thing to real old school endurance racing that we have these days.

But essentially it's still either/or
A) Sack of BoP penalties
B) References and jokers

Which races have you covered, Barcelona and...?

I don't know about the other Creventics, but personally, I still have this particular race numbered as my least favorite anywhere in the year, any genre. Everything about it stinks to me, I'd rather even watch snore-happy DTM or boogity NASCAR or some spec Nigerian Formula Renault 2.0 than this. Flat parking lot circuit without even effort to hide it doesn't help it's case either, although it's minor point in the shadow of the 'show'

[Rodger Davies]

Always like this one for the fact it starts early on a Friday so the commentary tends to be in my ears all day at work. Then, if it's a good race, I'll pick it up in the night.

[Speed-King]

I also covered Zandvoort.

To be honest, I don't think the BoP is that bad... it's not like A6am cars can realistically compete for overall wins - and all the cars within A6pro get the same BoP so no one gets an unfair disadvantage there. We've seen much worse at the N24, with single car BoP measures implemented during race week.

[Deleted]

http://www.creventic.com/uploads/fil...2016_Final.pdf

Umm, yet regs confirm in side sentence, that *individual* entries may get bopped basically *whenever* during race week as well. So that possibly comes on top of your event-specific pre bops + automatic post-qualifying bop penalties / reference-joker lap designation

There's also minimum reference lap times in A2, A3, D1, SPX, SP2, SP3, SP4, in addition to said A6-AM - whom have two different levels of in race references/jokers...

Barfs

[fieldodreams79]

I like this little "warm up" to the endurance season. Track has something to be desired, but it gets me in the mood for racing.

[RoeDent]

With the Dubai and Daytona 24 Hours in January, it breaks the year up nicely while waiting for the two big early-summer races, the Nürburgring and Le Mans 24 Hour races.

[rich07]

I've always had a soft spot for this race, is there streaming available?

[rdjones]

Originally Posted by rich07

I've always had a soft spot for this race, is there streaming available?

yes via the Dubai 24 Hours website and radiolemans.com

[fieldodreams79]

From my recollection, the coverage of the event is fantastic.

[MGDavid]

I shall follow it closely as there's personal interest for me, two of the am / clubbie teams are based within a few miles of here. One of my pals is out there, he does all the electronics support for #99.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by rdjones

yes via the Dubai 24 Hours website and radiolemans.com

In the past couple years I saw that the camera work at the Dubai race is much to be desired. It just pans around with a single cam throughout most of the circuit?

[rich07]

Originally Posted by rdjones

yes via the Dubai 24 Hours website and radiolemans.com

Cheers. From memory the Dubai cameras of past years haven't been awesome but with RLM at least I can follow what's happening.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

In the past couple years I saw that the camera work at the Dubai race is much to be desired. It just pans around with a single cam throughout most of the circuit?

My remembrance was this was only at night, which in my timezone, was the majority my viewing. The daylight running was decent enough. I've been wrong before, though!

[Rcz]

So what are the classes for this race? I assume there's a Pro, and Pro-Am classes for GT3 cars.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by Rcz

So what are the classes for this race? I assume there's a Pro, and Pro-Am classes for GT3 cars.

entry lists are all on the Hankook Dubai 24 website... along with live commentary (RLM feed) and everything else...

[Deleted]

Post-Practice, Post-Qualifying balancing is always fun.

***There have been two further revisions to Balance of Performance today, with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 receiving a 3mm larger restrictor, and both the new Audi R8 LMS and Lamborghini Huracan GT3 getting a 40kg weight increase.

***The Audi was initially handed a 20kg increase with ride height adjustments but a further bulletin was issued in the afternoon, bumping the weight up a further 20kg but eliminating the ride height mandate. Weight adjustments were also made to the Renault RS01 and Porsche 911 GT America cars.

***As part of the BoP process, all A6-Pro class cars must add 30kg to their base weight. A6-Am class cars, meanwhile, are limited to 2:03 lap times but have 5 liters of additional fuel capacity. A total of ten “joker” laps are permitted before penalties are issued for the Am cars that go under the lap time limit.

[Rodger Davies]

Urgh, BoP after qualifying is one thing, but how on earth can they justify such a huge amount? Surely adding half the weight of a person after 4 or 5 sessions is admitting a large degree of incompetence?

This reeks of result manufacturing for the Abu Dhabi team to be honest. Otherwise, you've had plenty of sessions to make adjustments, making such drastic ones between qualifying and the race is just massively taking a stab in the dark and it will end up being decisive. At this rate, it won't be long until they're changing BoP halfway through the race.

Leave a single set of BoP or, if needs must, a few different options for circuit types. Please stop this insane over-'balancing'.

Presumably the combinations of the above mean the Audis at the front will be 70kg plus a full fuel load heavier than today?

(OK, I'm not in Dubai and I don't have access to the reams of data the organisers do)

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

This reeks of result manufacturing for the Abu Dhabi team to be honest.

Conflicts of interest you say, how could that possibly be?

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-dai...0UM18620160108
Mercedes sales rose 13.4 percent to 1,871,511 cars, compared with a 3.6 percent jump to 1,803,250 luxury vehicles sold by Volkswagen subsidiary Audi last year, figures on released on Friday show.

http://www.motorward.com/2015/02/bin...tted-in-dubai/
Mercedes CLK GTR was recently spotted out and about in Dubai with the Sheikh behind the wheel. Traveling in company of a blacked-out Rolls-Royce Phantom, [Mohammed ben] Sulayem’s CLK GTR looks even cooler, mostly because of the contrast between the characters of these two cars.

http://www.thenational.ae/sport/moto...endurance-race
Al Qubaisi and Mohammed ben Sulayem, the president of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE and FIA vice president, took the covers off the new vehicle at the Autodrome yesterday ahead of Wednesday’s qualifying session. The car will make its international race debut this weekend with Team Abu Dhabi Racing Black Falcon.

[Victor_RO]

Does everything have to be a conspiracy?

[Adam43]

Yes, how else do we prove we are clever?

OT: it would be a surprise if Daimler's sales didn't increase more than Audi's due to the changes in their operation in some countries and expansion of their range.

[Rodger Davies]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Does everything have to be a conspiracy?

No, you're correct, I don't think it is that, but if it isn't then surely there must be a degree of incompetence involved for such drastic changes to need to be made, with no sessions left between now and the race in which to actually test it or see the outcome.

My main frustration with it is that the changes are often so large, that they clearly tip the scales in the other direction rather than balancing them. Instead of 'taking' a bit from one side, they 'take' from one side and simultaneously 'give' to the other; no different to Spa a couple of years ago, where the Audis got penalised before the race and most of their rivals received performance breaks. IMSA have also been experts in this BoP technique in recent years, sending cars from way out front to well at the back, rather than acting gradually to find a middle ground.

The most disappointing thing is that I really enjoyed watching the qualifying session on my lunch break today and it really had me enthused for the race; with the crews they have, Mercedes would have been the favourites anyway IMO. Now, if they do win, there's always going to be a nagging "well, was it because...?" question hanging over it.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Does everything have to be a conspiracy?

Oh Scully you're such a non-believer.

Anyway. It was a joke. Half-Joke =)

In any case, when you mix in pressure from manufacturers, money, no real rules, and initiatives that enable such Wile E Coyote buffoonery to happen, the result is this.