Today I went to my first ever 24 hour motor race. It was a treat for all those there at the Dubai Autodrome in Motor City. The track is seriously impressive with large stands and excellent viewing. It was an amazing feat that the organising committee managed to do combining state of the art motor racing with traditional arabic history.
Behind the pits was the most amazing example of bedouin tents laid on by the Dubai Tourism Authority. There were hawks, free tea and food laid on. Many of the tents had exhibitions in and several team members were taking advantage of the comfortable traditional seating to catch up on a bit of sleep to get over all the excitement.
As the winners drove in to celebrate they were greeted by traditional emirati dancers singing and dancing, and then once they had disembarked from their cars and started celebrations a representative from each of the first 3 teams rode back on a camel to rapturous applause before receiving their trophies.
The noise was loud and the teams were weary when the chequered flag finally came down on what had been a thrilling race with the leads in all clasees hotly contested from start to finish. With open access to the pits there was a carnival atmosphere and certainly worth the efforts of the teams and race organisers.
I interviewed a young Emirati Driver Humaid Massoud of the HMR team. He said "I have been racing for two years and I am hugely ambitious. The race has gone well and we were second in our class which is excllent". He aims to progress further and hopefully one day get a F1 drive. Despite hailing from Abu Dhabi, the son of an Emirati father and an English mother is a product of the training and facilities at Motorcity in Dubai. With the UAE desperate to have a F1 driver as soon as possible could I have met him?
The official results are on http://live.24hseries.com/
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