Andy Mollison today brings us the racers view from his weekend just gone, that saw him compete in an excellent 24 hours of Dubai. 
2016 has started with what has to be the toughest and most demanding race of my career so far, the 24 Hours of Dubai.
With a capacity 100 cars entered into the event, it’s a record grid for the FIA 24 Hour Series, with my entry being with Preptech UK’s Gen III Renault Clio Cup Car.
In amongst GT3 machinery, including the brand new Mercedes AMG SLS and new Audi R8 LMS, we were going to be needing our rear view mirrors a lot in order to stay out of trouble.
We’d previously debuted the car in the FIA 24H Series back in September at the Barcelona round of the Championship. We showed consistency and reliability, but lacked a bit of pace in comparison to others in our class – and so for Dubai, we came with improved engine performance and lighter car weight too.
In Practice and Qualifying, this had made an immediately noticeable difference, with our car qualifying P5 in class, just a second off Pole. A far smaller margin than we’d witnessed in Barcelona.
With a strong driver line-up, we had hopes of being able to push for a podium position by end of the race, with other teams not necessarily having the strength in depth of drivers that we had.
Unfortunately for us, lady luck was not to be on our side for the duration, with electrical gremlins setting in after just 4 hours of racing. A faulty ECU losing us 7 laps early in the race, dropping us to P12 in class.
Despite this issue, the team pushed on, and by half race distance we’d managed to reduce that deficit to just 4 laps, running P5 and being the leading Clio Cup car in the event.
During the night, I ran a stint between the hours of 2 and 4 am, where I was to set the team’s fastest lap of the event – a 2:23.172 – the car being so well set up that I was also able to do multiple laps within tenths of that lap time, despite the darkness and 99-car traffic.
With that amount of cars on circuit, the night stint is somewhat daunting to begin with, but very enjoyable and rewarding if you get it right.
With this sort of pace and consistency, it seemed sure that we would eventually work our way back to a podium position – but with 6 hours remaining, bad luck struck again, this time in the form of an alternator issue, resulting in the loss of all power and another lengthy pit stop.
Some strong final stints saw us complete the 24 hours, finishing in P7 in class and 55th overall.
Many cars had been destroyed in accidents over the event, so the fact that we finished with zero contact damage, shows the quality of driving on display by all in the team. The poor luck with electrical issues meant the team didn’t get the result we deserved.
However, the Dubai 24 Hour was just my and the team’s second ever endurance event, with many of the teams having competed in this championship for several years.
To be knocking on the door of a podium and beating established teams in only our second event speaks volumes about the quality of our team. I’m sure we’ll get our opportunity later in the year, and will take it with both hands when it comes about.
Dubai was just the start of our 2016 FIA 24 Hour Series campaign, with further races across Europe throughout the year. We’re also already looking towards 2017 plans, with long-term goals in mind.
You can follow Andy’s 2016 campaign at www.andymollison.com, or by following him on twitter, @andymollison
You can follow Preptech UK at www.preptech.co.uk, or on twitter, @preptechuk
Images courtesy of Dickon Siddall, www.dsdigital.co.uk