eReports from the Dubai Motorsport Festival

14 November 2009
Supplied by House of Portier/TAM Auto Engineering
Strong results for "House of Portier" at the Dubai Motorsport Festival

The Total UAE GT Championship has turned into a battle ground for the big guns of UAE motorsport. House of Portier with TAM Auto Engineering emerged victors once again when Karim Al Azhari powered to victory in the premier GTA Class, at the wheel of the team’s impressive Corvette Z06-R GT3, in front of a record crowd at Dubai Autodrome. In the late stages of the race he fought off the challenge from Tarek Elgammal and Cabell Fisher (Khaleji Motorsport) who finished second. Emirati driver Khalid Al Qubaisi (Porsche) was third.

Julian Griffin (DXB Dodge Viper) challenged Al Azhari early on, even taking the lead briefly. But the House of Portier Corvette with Al Azhari at the wheel was too strong in the end. Al Azhari, who also set the fastest lap in the race, said afterwards, “It was good race and win for our House of Portier team. I was surprised with the pace of the Viper in the early stages. And in the later stages of the race Tarek really pushed me hard and I had to work all the way for this victory.”

In the highly competitive Cytech UAE Touring Car Championship Khalid Al Mutawaa in the House of Portier SEAT, who won the first two races of the season last time out in October, was involved in battles for the lead in both races. He managed second in race one and third in race two.

Sixteen year old Mohammed Al Mutawaa continued to impress behind the wheel of the House of Portier Renault Clio in the Cytech UAE Touring Car Championship. He drove maturely in both races to finish fourth behind three pace setting Honda’s and best of the Renault Clio’s in the field.

House of Portier/ TAM Auto Engineering team manager Motaz Abu-Hijleh said of his team’s performance at the Dubai Motorsport Festival, “It was avery good weekend for our team. The battles between the teams were very intense and we feel pressure from teams in both categories. Thus we are very pleased to have Karim Al Azhari win the second race in a row in the Total UAE GT Championship. This was a good team effort with our crew providing a strong car for Karim. He in turn delivered when it mattered.”

Supplied by Khaleji Motorsport
Khaleji Motorsport dedicates podium to their fans

Tarek Elgammal and Cabell Fisher fought hard from start-to-finish to claim second place in Round 2 of the UAE GT Championship on November 13, 2009.
Employing a similar strategy to round 1, the team decided that Elgammal would qualify the car, Fisher would start the race and hand over to Tarek at the pitstop for a dash to the flag.

Qualifying went very well for the team as, on his single flying lap, former Supercars Middle East Champion Elgammal set a blistering lap time a full second faster than the car had produced in practice. For most of the qualifying session the time was good enough for pole, however, Al Azhari put in a quick lap late in the session and ultimately claimed pole position for the race.

As the race day dawned, the Khaleji team began preparing for a big day both on and off the track. Cabell Fisher went out briefly in the warm-up session to scrub some tyres in preparation for the race whilst the rest of the team prepared for Khaleji's partners and fans and to arrive.

The team invited all of its fans through the Khaleji Motorsport Facebook page to come visit the garage, meet the team and participate in a competition to win a ride in the team's stunning Ferrari F430 GT2. A large response was expected, and sure enough the fans came out in force taking photos with the cars, drivers and promo girls and uploading them to the Khaleji Motorsport Facebook page for a chance to win hotlaps in the team's Ferrari.

With so many fans around, the team garage was very upbeat and as the time came to strap into the car Fisher and Elgammal got down to business. Fisher took the car to the grid and prepared for a rocket start, however it was not to be as Julian Griffin in the Team DXB Viper with 700 NM of torque easily got the jump on everybody and led for the first two laps.

Fisher pressed on regardless and drove a flawless and consistent race handing the car over to Elgammal on the 11th lap in perfect condition and within several seconds of the leader.  An upbeat Fisher said “Once the Viper challenged the Corvette, I decided to save the tyres for Tarek in anticipation of the two cars slowing each other down and coming back to the field. Julian did a great job of pushing the Corvette, which is essentially what I was going to do, but a Code 60 was thrown which gave two laps for everyone to cool their cars and tires down while debris was cleared from the track.  I pushed hard the next few laps after the Code 60 and brought the car safely in the pits for Elgammal to take over.”

Unfortunately for the DXB Team, the Viper suffered electrical gremlins and came into the pits for an extended pitstop to resolve the issue during the Code 60.
Elgammal then set about the tough task of keeping pace with the all conquering Corvette, which he did admirably, posting consistent fast laps less than a second off his qualifying pace on used rubber and all the while applying the blowtorch to Al Azhari in his Corvette.  Al Azhari, to his credit, held it together and collected a well earned win with Elgammal/Fisher finishing 0.6 second behind him in second place.

Further back in the field, rising star and fellow Alex Renner Motors driver Khaled Al Qubaisi finished third.

After the podium ceremony Elgammal said, “It has been a great day. I wish we could have won it for all our loyal fans and partners who came out to support us today, but unfortunately we have had no answer as of yet for the Corvette. We gave it our all and pushed from the second the race started to the very end, so I’m satisfied that we did the best we could with the equiptment we had. We would like to congratulate Karim and the House of Portier Team on the win as well as the guys from DXB Racing who showed great potential and speed in a car they have built and developed from the ground up. What they have achieved has impressed us the most, so hats off to them. Also thanks to the organizers and staff for putting on such a great event and, of course, the guys at Alex Renner Motors who prepared and ran a wonderful car for Cabell and I to race this weekend."

The second Khaleji Porsche of team owner John Sinders and Paul Denby unfortunately suffered an issue during the pitstop and finished fourth in the GTB Class while the other ARM prepared Porsche of Harris Irfan ran out of fuel on the second last lap.

You can keep up with all the latest news and events of Khaleji Motorsport by joining the fan page on Facebook. Simply log into face book and search for Khaleji Motorsport.  As always, we look forward to seeing our fans at the track!

After A disappointing NRD1 we were looking forward to a good weekend now that we had the correct ratio gearbox back in the car, even though the new engine parts still had not arrived from the USA. Practice got off to a good start as the car and driver found a new lease of life and put a personal best time in on the international circuit. Qualifying late on Thursday afternoon was even better when we secured P3 in class.

Race 1
The big concern would be getting enough heat into the tyre’s for the mayhem that is usually turn 1, fortunately this didn’t happen. I had lost 1 place off the start but tucked in behind Aslam Moola and the race was on. There was plenty of cat & mouse between myself and Aslam but the racing was generally clean and tidy and we managed to avoid swapping paint, after a few laps Aslam dropped out with car troubles, this left me in 3rd place with a nice healthy gap between myself and the 4th placed car. The leaders were too far in front so I decided not to try and catch them and play in safe to secure 3rd place. My 1st podium finish and what a great feeling.

Race 2
This time the plan was to stick with the quicker LAP 57 cars of Ummer and AlOwais off the start. Out of turn 1 I was were I wanted to be and stayed there for the rest of the race. There were a few hairy moments coming into the bowl for the 1st time to discover oil all over the racing line. Finshing in 3rd and securing the 2nd podium of the day was a great feeling. Now its time to get the new engine built and tested to try and give the boys from Lap 57 drivers a run for their money.

Spencer VanDerpal, UAETCC Class 2 – Honda Civic Type R - 44
Race 1
After some issues in qualifying with the car not delivering the expected performance from the modifications since round 1, Spencer found himself in the middle of the 30 car grid, but a spirited drive got him up to the finish line, 5th in class, albeit with no clutch for the last 2 laps. Unfortunately for Spencer the damage to the drive train was such that he was unable to make the Grid for Race 2, however we look forward to seeing him back on the track for National Raceday 3.

Phil Anson, UAETCC Class 2 – Renault Clio 182 Cup – 27
Race 1 
The a2b Garage team spent the time between Qualifying on Thursday and warm up on Friday chasing down a front end vibration in Phil’s Clio, which resulted in changing the brake set up before race 1, with that in mind, and not wanting to arrive at turn 1 with 29 other cars with untried brakes, he elected to start from pit lane. He used a couple of laps to bed the brakes in, and with no sign of the vibration issues he set off after the field. After an uneventful race he finished 13th in class.

Race 2
Starting back on row 12 with the Suzuki’s, Phil got boxed in on turn 1 with some slower cars, and lost a bit of time to the other class 2 cars, then he had a big moment in turn 14 on the oil slick, but he caught up to, and then had a great battle with Mike Scott in the Astra and Mark Turner in the Honda, all three cars swapping places on a lap by lap basis. He finally managed to pass both of them, crossing the line 7th in class. Once again we would like to thank the a2b Garage mechanics and all those that helped out over the weekend.