Motoring

Season starts as era finishes

Barry Hope sees the end of the amateur era of racing as teams are becoming more professional.

Barry Hope

October 30, 2010

The days of entry-level club racing may be behind us given what transpired with the first round of the 2010 UAE GT Championship. The paddock looked like a European GT event: the drivers were experienced and the teams professional - in fact, three of them turned up with huge race transporters that cost half a million dirhams each. Some teams flew in specialist engineers for the two-day event.

Drivers compete in one of three classes based on the power-to-weight ratio of their cars, most of which were built for the European GT4 and GT3 Championships. You have to see it to believe it.

I think soon we will see UAE drivers competing in the GT2 European Cup that starts next year, or perhaps in the FIA GT1 World Championship, which was won this year by Maserati. Modena recognises the racing revolution that is taking place here and has provided GulfSport with two factory Maserati GranTurismo GT4 cars to run in Class C of the UAE GT Championship.

The high humidity on race weekend proved to be extremely challenging for both teams and drivers. My team would work non-stop, 12-hour days preparing and running five red-hot race cars in open garages. They ran both factory Maseratis for the first time, the incredible exhaust note from their 4.7L V8 engines generating a lot of interest.

We were also running two Ginetta G50s in Class C. Joe Ghanem, one of the region's most experienced single-seater drivers, was to race in GT for the first time, and Kuwaiti driver Khaled al Mudhaf was sharing the weekend with Jan Vandenbeek in another Ginetta G50.

Raed Hassan and Bassam Kronfli had entered the 2010 series in a mighty 4.5L V8 Ginetta Zytek, a car that should be able to take the fight to the current champions in their Class A Corvette. But as it happened, the test day didn't go well for either of these sophisticated and mega-quick cars and both were withdrawn from the event.

The race day went much better with a trouble-free warm-up session in the morning and a 30-minute qualifying session. We now had four cars competing in Class C in the one-hour endurance race. One of Abu Dhabi's most experienced GT drivers, Robert Cregan, was immediately very quick in the Maserati and positioned himself behind the faster Class A and B cars. Coming from the discipline of Formula Renault Eurocup and British F3 single seaters, Ghanem was driving beautifully in the Ginetta G50 and was tracking Cregan. Al Mudhaf pitted at the halfway point to hand over to Vandenbeek, who did a remarkable job in his first race in the Ginetta, and Radical driver David Field was getting to grips with his first GT drive.

All the hard work and planning paid off. GulfSport's drivers dominated Class C and we had the joy of seeing Cregan take the win for Maserati, Ghanem taking second place and al Mudhaf and Vandenbeek on the third step of the podium. Cregan went straight to the airport he was racing next day at Hockenheim to try and secure second place overall in the Porsche Sports Cup. We didn't even have the energy left to celebrate.

Barry Hope is a director of GulfSport Racing, which is seeking the first Arab F1 driver through the FG1000 race series. Join the UAE racing community online at www.singleseaterblog.com

THE SPECS

Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine 

Power: 420kW

Torque: 780Nm

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Price: From Dh1,350,000

On sale: Available for preorder now

The team

Photographer: Mateusz Stefanowski at Art Factory 
Videographer: Jear Valasquez 
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory 
Model: Randa at Art Factory Videographer’s assistant: Zanong Magat 
Photographer’s assistant: Sophia Shlykova 
With thanks to Jubail Mangrove Park, Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi 

 
The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

  • be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
  • not be younger than 25 years old
  • not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
  • be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
  • have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
  • undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
  • A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458. 

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Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
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MATCH INFO

Inter Milan 2 (Vecino 65', Barella 83')

Verona 1 (Verre 19' pen)

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Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu

Director: Hansal Mehta

Rating: 4 / 5

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Al Jazira 3 (O Abdulrahman 43', Kenno 82', Mabkhout 90 4')

Al Ain 1 (Laba 39')

Red cards: Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain)

'Top Gun: Maverick'

Rating: 4/5

 

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

 

Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris

 
Fight card

1. Bantamweight: Victor Nunes (BRA) v Siyovush Gulmamadov (TJK)

2. Featherweight: Hussein Salim (IRQ) v Shakhriyor Juraev (UZB)

3. Catchweight 80kg: Rashed Dawood (UAE) v Khamza Yamadaev (RUS)

4. Lightweight: Ho Taek-oh (KOR) v Ronald Girones (CUB)

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6. Bantamweight: Vinicius de Oliveira (BRA) v Furkatbek Yokubov (RUS)

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8. Flyweight: Shannon Ross (TUR) v Donovon Freelow (USA)

9. Lightweight: Mohammad Yahya (UAE) v Dan Collins (GBR)

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The National Archives, Abu Dhabi

Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.

Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en

THE SPECS

Cadillac XT6 2020 Premium Luxury

Engine:  3.6L V-6

Transmission: nine-speed automatic

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Torque: 367Nm

Price: Dh280,000

if you go

The flights

Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.

The hotel

Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850

 Events and tours

There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com

For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art. 

More information

For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”