The Prologue

(insert random Frankie Howerd reference here...)
Today has been overcast, and considerably cooler than most of last week. The team decamped from Dubai to Abu Dhabi for Drivers Briefing at Yas, followed by the prologue opposite Marina Mall. Only 30 cars made the start list as result of 6 being stuck on the Jordan/Israel border en route here, and other pre-start retirements. Several vehicles have been relegated to 'national class' after failing scrutineering.

The track was similar to last years, but clockwise (last year's was anticlockwise) and with a water splash near the start and lots of hairpin bends. Some I nailed quite well, but most were pretty scruffy. Not however, as scruffy as the current championship leaders, Messrs Vasilyev and Yevtyekhov, who - as is traditional with the G-Force team - rolled their pickup. As seeded drivers, they will start ahead of us notwithstanding the ignominy of their DNF in the prologue .

We were 14th fastest in 2 mins 11.7 secs, a,nd start 15th at 1043hrs tomorrow. Team Saluki are right behind us and Team FJ start 22nd.

Somewhere in Cyberspace lurks The Phantom Blogger, so this evening I hand over the cyber-baton to this shadowy figure. We, however, have work to do. As Sherlock Holmes would say, 'The game is afoot!'

Long Way Out

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. My business partner and part-time blog-napper knows a few people. People who know…people. A certain celebrity was visiting, and would like to go out in a race car. So when he asked if the Beast would be ready, I naturally lied and said yes. This was before I realized that the pump would take two days to fit and that the oil line had been sabotaged.

But by dint of ignoring anything vaguely work-related for a week or so, it all came together, and on Wednesday we were out in the desert with that star of stage, screen and TV – Charley Boorman! He and his sidekick, Billy ‘Biketruck’ Ward were out for an appearance at the Dubai Literary Festival, and had a day free. So Dave Mabbs (Team FJ), Mark Powell (Team Saluki) and I shared the arduous task of blatting round the desert for the best part of a day with them, which was great fun.

Well, most of it – except the bit where I managed to prop the car up on a damn great rock near the Saddle, and the bit where the alternator packed up and the battery went flat, and we had to be towed. Both times with Billy ‘the Jinx’ on board. So I explained that they’d actually been on a shakedown, and as bikers accustomed to things going horribly wrong, they took it in their stride. And a nicer couple of blokes you couldn’t wish to meet.

We ended up seeing their show on Friday, which was great fun, and then meeting up again on Saturday at a charity fundraiser for Tony Jordan, a biker involved in a horrendous crash at Dubai Autodrome in November.

Anyway, the race car is back at the Al Quoz Hospital for Poorly Race-cars, the alternator is allegedly being fixed elsewhere and I’m starting to panic because the DC looms ever closer.