It was my first time on full slick - I’d been warned not to flat-spot the tyres

Following years of sitting on the sidelines of racing as a spectator rather than being on the track, my good friend Ala al Malak and I decided that we would partner up to buy a Golf GTI Cup car.

Having been the Design Manager for the Dubai Autodrome, you can imagine that I have gotten quite a bit of driving done on my circuit. I took part in every single Porsche Club UAE track day since April 2004 and have even instructed for the Dubai Autodrome Race School. Getting my FIA National Licence was the last step towards getting myself into racing.

Now, I’ve decided it’s probably a good time to run another car (my garage is already full with GT3s and 4x4s). After four years of procrastination, there was no way I was going to miss this opportunity. This was a great way to enter a national race series, and you couldn’t do it any cheaper either.

Just before the handover, I received calls daily about the car, trying to finalize the deal. It was only when I was in Cairo that I got permission from my wife (very important!) to buy the car. This time though, the approval was on the proviso that Ala and I would cover our costs via sponsorship.

Believe it or not, we couldn’t collect the car until two days before the first race, which is when the harsh reality of what we’d gotten ourselves into hit us. To make matters worse, having driven around for months with the documents and health check-up report in my car, I still hadn’t collected my race licence.  After entering the car online with the Dubai Autodrome the last thing to do was to drive to the ATCUAE to collect my FIA race licence at 5pm on a Thursday night. With just one more client meeting to get back to the office for at 5:30pm, the only thing remaining was a quick chat with the gentlemen at the Dubai Autodrome who needed my credit card details to complete the transaction related to entry fees (and the obligatory late fee).

All the friends and fellow racers that helped get me to the line need to be thanked, including Cabel Fisher, Tarek Elgammal who lent me an FIA approved race suit , Karim Al Azhari and Blair Cole who gave me some good tips on race protocol and race attitude. Being our first race, it was good to have help from fellow competitors. They lent us their jacks, tools and assistance as we fitted the new Dunlop slicks to the car.  Aside from the new tyres, we ran the car as it was. We had no time for suspension set-up changes and found the front-end to be too high. The car also had positive camber, a sure way to be uncompetitive. However, outright times and positions were not the main objectives of the day. My aim was to gain 10 national race signatures in order to qualify for an International race license allowing me to run in the next Dubai 24 hour race.

After we passed scrutineering it was time to get ready for the on track action. I would be doing the driving this weekend, and in practice I set good, consistent times, careful not to spin at the limit. It was my first time on full slicks. Ala had warned me not to flat-spot the new tyres, as we had just added $ 1,800 worth of rubber to the cost of the car.

I qualified 26th out of a field of 30 cars but got support from everyone in the paddock. The races were exhilarating and though we were no match for the other stripped-out and better prepared VW Golfs and the lightweight and more focused Seat and Renault Cup cars, I managed to finish 21st in Race 1 and 19th overall in Race 2.

Immediately after the race we dropped the car off at Octane Motors in Al Quoz, who are our first sponsor. The lessons learned on the day were avidly recorded by Ala and he prepared Octane for the process of lightening and upgrading the car to match the other GTIs. It is an addictive process, and no doubt one that you will read much more about in the near future.