Back in 2006 in literally the desert, a 24 hour race was held at Grade 1 circuit in Dubai. At that time, there was no Yas Marina, there was no Saudi Arabian Circuits. Dubai was opened around the same time as the Losail Circuit in Qatar and the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain, it was always intended to be the premiere Grand Prix circuit in the UAE until the Yas Marina circuit swooped in and took that crown.
Creventic came along though and saw an opportunity and I am VERY glad they did. I watched this race back in 2015 and it blew my mind, i first made my trip over here in 2017 on an absolute whim and I can say it was one of the best things I did. 6 years later and i’m still coming back to this great race and it’s perfect way to blow the cobwebs off after the Christmas and new year break to kick the season off with a hot challenging 24 hour race.
This year marks 6 years of my cameras and they are certainly feeling a bit long in the tooth, they can still produce some great images but they struggle when it gets a bit low on light, so before heading out to Dubai this year I got my hands on a mirrorless body with a potential to buy. I needed something similar to what I have already and Canon’s R6 was just that. A day with that camera and it was a bit strange getting used to, I probably looked a bit ridiculous to others still naturally checking the screen to see the images out of habit, knowing full well I can just look in the viewfinder and I get a much clearer view.
Performance wise, it seemed such a leap forwards considering its substantially better than the old dogs I still carry around, the focus is so blindingly quick and pin point accurate, I couldn’t really find anything I didn’t like about it until later in the day when I realised the batteries do not last the longest but even then, the batteries I use in my current bodies are the same… again another big tick in my books.
The real reason to consider this camera though wasn’t explored until it got dark, shooting in a pitlane at night with 80 cars gets busy, its fast, very hectic and most of the time it’s dangerous. You have to have all your brain capacity balanced and your mind switched on if you want to get get some great work done but also not get hit by a big GT car or pushed out the way by some big mechanic carrying some fresh rubber. The R6 just made this easier though, you didn't have to focus on a little light meter bar at bottom of the view finder, you just see the image you’re taking and adjust accordingly and with how the ergonomics work, it was just so simple to do that.
Once I got used to the batteries and how to maximise them, I really couldn’t fault this camera body, I used it flat out from 9am Friday morning until 4pm Saturday afternoon. I am seriously considering purchasing a mirrorless body now, despite doubting for so long and potentially not having a mechanical based camera in the next year.
The 2022 Dubai 24 hours was another fantastic trip back out to the Middle East, Creventic pulled together their biggest grid they’ve had in 4 years, at one point it could’ve been over 90 cars but things took a downward turn worldwide and through no ones fault, logistical issues arose and cars were withdrawn. Even with those challenges, we still had 80 cars start the race, we had 60 GT cars alone on the grid which was just mesmerising. Covid really did soften the race last year, 2020 was a year to forget with only 7 hours completed before the floods arrived and most of us were stuck in the circuit for the night. 2022 has started and Creventic have set the bar high for this event, with the quality and variety of the grid and how well the event was ran even with stronger restrictions than last year in this part of the world it still felt close to normal. we have 300+ days until next years event for this pandemic to continue to fall away and I cannot wait to be back in this 24H paddock.
Thankyou to Razoon Racing for working with me at the 24h race, Thankyou for Creventic for putting this amazing event on once again, thank you everyone at the track for keeping me sane.
Here’s some highlight images from the event, some that I was quite proud of.
