It’s the time of year when I really should be getting ready for Christmas, but instead I decided to spend a bit of time sharing with you some of my experiences in Kuwait at the recent 12-hour race there. I have already written about how we achieved the success that we did; the aim of this article is to take you behind the scenes to give a flavour of what it was like to be there.
The Kuwait 12 hours, organised by Creventic, was ground-breaking in that it was the first international circuit motor race in Kuwait, although I understand that there had been a rallycross event there in 2021. It was a somewhat late addition to the calendar, taking place as a substitute for the 24h of Sebring, which was originally intended to bring the 2022 Championship of the Continents to a close. Creventic felt that the logistics of getting the cars to and back from Sebring were too challenging, however, and it was decided that Kuwait would be a simpler option.
It was somewhat ironic then, that the logistical challenge of getting the cars to Kuwait proved just as tough. I am not aware of all of the details, but I know that the cars were being transported via Saudi Arabia (from Jeddah) by road, and some arrived earlier than others.
I was there at the behest of the Red Camel-Jordans.nl team, and for the second time this season, their regular Team Manager, Thomas, could not be there. That meant, as at Mugello, that I was required to step up to the task. My flight landed at Kuwait International at one o’clock in the morning of Wednesday, November 30th, so having landed, I went straight to the hotel and to bed. By this time, I not only knew that our car was not at the circuit, but also that it wasn’t expected until the afternoon – at the earliest.
Hence breakfast on Wednesday morning was a fairly relaxed affair, followed by a half-hour drive to the circuit, and sitting around in our empty garage, awaiting developments. As it became clear that the expected arrival time of 2pm was actually far too optimistic, some of the team decided to return to the hotel to try out the pool. I used the time to prepare some runsheets in Excel instead, but still managed to get sufficiently distracted to almost miss the Team Manager’s Meeting at 5pm.
Our drivers for the race would be the usual ‘family’ team of Ivo Breukers (also the Team Principal), and his sons Rik and Luc. In addition to the drivers, there were just eight of us, including myself. However, we had two student helpers from the local technical college, whose names, I am ashamed to say, I never established! We also had Ivo’s wife, Ria, and a family friend, Mark, providing moral support.
At 6:15pm, the first session of private testing began, and still we had no car. We weren’t alone though: ARC Bratislava, Wolf Power, HRT, Leipert and Lionspeed were also still waiting for the delivery of their containers. Also missing were the containers carrying the TV equipment and refuelling gear. At 10pm, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the hotel, having been promised that the car would be delivered sometime after 11pm. After some discussion, we decided to leave the hotel at 5:30 the next morning and unpack the container then, aiming to be ready for the first private test of the morning, which was scheduled to start at 9am.
I drew up a ‘Plan B’, in case it took longer than we thought, which involved missing the first session at 9am and only going out at 10:30, the downside of which meant having much less time to work on the car. As it turned out, we opened the container doors shortly before 6am, built the garage from scratch, and were out on track at 9:10am, Luc at the wheel.
It was a busy day: the Private Test went on until 12:15pm, drivers’ briefing at 1:30pm, another Private Test from 2:15pm to 3:45pm, then we had about an hour and a half to make any changes to the car before the official Free Practice / Night Practice session from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, and the three 15-minute Qualifying sessions (in which each driver was required to set a lap time) to round things off. There was then an optional 45-minute Private Test at 9:15pm, which could be used for final set-ups if required. If all went according to plan (Plan A), then we would not use this session.
We had two significant problems: first that the car was not handling quite to the liking of Ivo or Luc, and second that Rik, our quickest driver and the one best-able to set the car up, was otherwise occupied dealing with the transporters bringing the containers to the circuit. The good news, though was that our tyre degradation seemed to be very low; which was also frustrating, as we expected to be able to go quicker on new tyres, but the better lap times just weren’t to be found.
We spoke to the engineers from Hankook and adjusted the camber settings at the back, and the rollbar settings at the front, and eventually got the car as good as we could, although somehow still with the feeling that there was a better configuration out there somewhere. With Night Practice requiring that Rik set two timed laps, as well as doing his laps during qualifying, I was more than a little concerned that he was still pre-occupied getting the still-missing containers to the circuit. At least we had ours. At the last minute, Rik arrived, did his laps, announced that the car set-up was good (enough) and went back to his phone.
In the end, our qualifying time was good enough for second in our class on the grid, behind the unfeasibly fast Willi Motorsport car, driven by Sergiu Nicolae, Sabino de Castro and Fabrizio Broggi. The class was full of quick cars – it would be a tough race.
Even tougher for Leipert and HRT, whose containers were still en route throughout Thursday, with the race scheduled to start on Friday at 12 noon. As we left the circuit on Thursday evening – around 11pm, Leipert’s container was just arriving: they would have 12 hours to get the car ready for the grid!
So raceday came along. We got to the circuit at shortly before 9am, and had a quick meeting with the crew to establish what everyone would be doing. Rob was chief mechanic – he knew the ins and outs of the car better than anyone. Gert-Jan, Patje, Daan and Justin (making his debut with the team) would be changing the wheels. Roy would look after the tyres, making sure that we had the right set in the oven at the right time, and that the pressures were right. And Darren, as usual, would be our refueller – assisted by one or other of our local students. The other student had to dive in the passenger side of the car at pit stops and change the drinks bottle. Roy would also operate the lollipop, simultaneously with Daan bringing the tyres to the front of the garage.
What about me? I was doing everything and nothing. Everything in the sense that I had to coordinate everyone together, track fuel consumption and decide when and how much to refuel, evaluate the risks versus benefits of pitting under a Code 60, monitor tyre usage and make sure the drivers knew when they were required for their next stint. My only other job was to stay out of the way.
Under normal circumstances, Rik would be our start driver. But having had very little sleep in the preceding five days, he didn’t want to start this time, so that job fell to Luc. After that, I planned to put Ivo in the car, then Rik.
Luc had a good start and led our class (fifth overall) at the end of the opening lap, but against faster drivers in our rivals’ cars, he fell to fourth by the end of lap 3. On lap 19, 37 minutes into the race, the purple code-60 flags waved for the first time. We had used around 45 litres of fuel, so it was worth using the period of slow-running to refuel, but I decided to leave the car on the same set of tyres, and not take valuable time changing them.
Anders Fjordbach (in the no. 930 HRT car) stayed out and thus kept the class lead, but we were now only 18s behind Sabino de Castro in the Willi Motorsport car. Inevitably, Fjordbach pitted for fuel on lap 41, but one lap later de Castro also came in after a stint of just 22 laps. We were now leading the class, and had fuel enough to take Luc to his two-hour drive time limit. In fact, with an hour and three-quarters gone, and the leading GT3 cars having to stop for fuel, we actually led the race overall for a few laps!
I decided to call Luc in a lap early, just in case we had radio communication difficulties. Remember, this team is used to working entirely in Dutch on the radio, so to have an Englishman coming in and telling them what to do was not without risk, particularly when it comes to the strict limit of two hours’ driving at a time. Luc pitted with his driving time at 1h 57m 25s: one lap to spare!
Ivo was next in: a very different character to Luc. Unlike his son, who likes to be left alone on the radio, Ivo likes a constant stream of information, what is his position, who is in front, who is behind, what are the gaps. He also tends to take a little while to get used to the car. Crucially, he is not as quick as either of his sons. Whereas Luc’s average lap time was around 1m 59.7s, Ivo was lapping around more than a second slower.
The pit stop was quick and as Ivo came out, we still led the class, with a one-minute cushion over our nearest class rival. After 25 minutes, we had another code-60 – just as with Luc’s stint, my decision was to refuel but not take tyres. Once again, this meant that we would be nudging the two-hour drive-time limit before we ran out of fuel. I brought Ivo in at the last possible minute, after 1h 58m 09s – one more lap and he would have been over the maximum permissible drive time.
Rik was ready to go now, but the pressure had been somewhat relieved as our competition had not been able to optimise things as well as we had. We had managed to go more than four hours before completing our fourth stop – Willi Motorsport was more than a lap behind before we came in for our stop, nearly half-an-hour later. And, Fabrizio Broggi, the slowest driver on Willi’s crew, still had to get into the car. Although Ivo was our slowest driver (I should say, least quick), we had no intention of reducing his time in the car to compensate.
Rik had been in the car for almost an hour, when we had the third code-60. It was well-timed for us, since Willi had had to pit less than ten minutes earlier, and could not take advantage. But it came as a result of our earlier optimisation of the driving time, which gave us maximum flexibility when we needed it. On our side, I really would have preferred to have left Rik in the car at this point, but he was too tired after his one-hour stint, so we did a full service, and put Luc back in the car. He re-joined on new tyres, still leading the class, in fourth place overall, with a lap advantage over the Willi Motorsport car, now with Broggi at the wheel, losing nearly two seconds a lap to Luc.
Luc had only been able to take on 55 litres of fuel, because the stop was under Code-60 conditions – enough for 34 laps, or around 70 minutes driving, so I decided to give him a double stint, enabling to still further extend our lead over the Willi Motorsport car, while it was in the hands of Broggi. That plan had to be adjusted though, as a little over half an hour later, we had another Code 60. This looked like being a longer one, so having got Ivo into the car, we then made a second stop for fuel, ensuring that Ivo had a full tank to play with.
Although Ivo’s times were very consistent, the 955 car now had Sergiu Nicolae aboard, and was flying, gaining three seconds per lap on us and halving the gap from over four minutes to a little over a lap in the space of an hour and a quarter. Rik was due in the car next, but had ordered a hamburger and didn’t want to go out on an empty stomach!
In hindsight, it was an unfortunate call, but after a 37-lap stint, we got the pit stop done, Rik into the car and refuelled (a hamburger for himself and petrol for the car!) and we were back out on track. But almost immediately, we had another Code 60 (the fifth of the race). Willi Motorsport had also committed to a stop before the Code 60, but got lucky, as their stop continued while the incident was dealt with.
There were three hours to go and Rik was lapping at full speed, but Sabino de Castro in the Willi Motorsport entry was lapping quicker, and managed to unlap himself. However, after a stint of just 17 laps, they were back in the pits to change the brakes, losing nearly three minutes in the process. Chief mechanic Rob had been monitoring our brake wear and was confident we could get through without a brake change.
So the pendulum swung back in our favour. With less than two hours of the race remaining, we were into the window in which Luc could get to the finish and our lead was just under seven minutes. The car had run faultlessly up to this point – but how many things could still possibly go wrong?
Well, for one thing, we would still need two stops to get to the finish and Willi Motorsport would only need one. Then Luc, getting up to speed after a code 60 period suddenly reported a “shaking brake pedal” – this was reminiscent of the brake problem we had experienced in Barcelona. After a few laps though, it got better. A few laps more and Luc reported on the radio that it was “OK”.
In the final hour, Nicolae was again closing at a rate of three seconds (and more) per lap, but Luc kept his cool and his lap times consistently in the 1m 59s / 2m 00s bracket, which was all that was needed to ensure our class win. The problems for the GP Elite GT3 Porsche were somewhat unexpected, but handed us an unexpected place on the overall podium.
So unexpected that Luc – having initially not seen the chequered flag – then didn’t realise that his finishing position meant that he would not have to go into Parc Fermé, but could stop beneath the podium and his delighted team were able to congratulate him properly. Obviously I am biased, but it was a great performance by Luc, who drove for more than five and a half hours out of the twelve, compared to Ivo’s 3h 19m and Rik’s 2h 36m.
Willi Motorsport’s car had been, in Ivo’s words: “unbelievably quick: braking later and carrying far more speed through the corners”. Without their brake issue, I still believe we would have won, but it would have been a far closer contest, and who knows, perhaps the additional pressure that brought might have contributed to something else going wrong for us?
In less than a month, we will be back in the Middle East – to Dubai for the 24 hours and the second (of three) round of the Middle East Trophy. Red Camel will have their regular Team Manager back and I will be concentrating on getting our strategy right. Hopefully, we will be blessed with similar car reliability as well.
