“This is quite the setup you guys have here!” 

Our makeshift studio – a not-quite finished suite overlooking the Dubai Autodrome start-finish straight – has clearly impressed Jeroen Bleekemolen. So much so that, like Alfred Renauer before him, the Dutchman takes a few moments before his interview to check out the view and take a few smartphone images of the flurry of headlights flashing past. 

Daan, our camera operator and director, is happy to wait, as it gives him the opportunity to double-double check his lights, the blackout curtain pinned to the wall that acts as our backdrop, and the collapsible reflector inelegantly propped up on one of three chairs we hiked across from the paddock earlier that day.

Truth be told, I’m also happy for this short break to run through my questions one last time. Jeroen is a three-time winner of the Hankook 24H DUBAI (there are only two other men on the planet that can also make that claim!) and he’s missed the race just once since 2008. He’s going to have some great stories to tell.  

He won’t be the last either.

Sami Moutran, our first interviewee of the weekend, enjoyed talking about the 24H SERIES immensely at what has effectively been his home endurance for more than a decade. JM Littman, the ebullient series fan favourite barely paused for breath as he changed from his civvies into his racesuit for the interview – “…the camera’s off, right?!” – and Gregg Gorski was so enthusiastic, his paddock ‘entourage’ had somehow doubled by the time we got to the studio. 

It’s an overwhelmingly positive response to our documentary that, just a few hours earlier, director Daan, B-roll operator Martijn, and their production coordinator (yours truly) felt sure had collapsed before it had even got going. The afternoon prior, our original shooting location – one of two offices attached to the Autodrome’s Tech Bay at the start of the pitlane – had just been repossessed for scrutineering. A more pressing concern for the biggest 24-hour in the region than our little film, granted, but it still left us with only two, rather dismal alternatives.

One was the corner of the Autodrome’s dining area, where the clamour of several hundred knives and forks was only slightly drowned out by myriad V8s and flat-sixes screaming down the main start-finish straight. The other was a small storage closet off VIP suite 1, an area made even tighter and more cimbersome by the bank of modems taking up two-thirds of the floor space we'd have to work around.

Mercifully, a pleading phone call and an emergency meeting with the Autodrome’s dutiful management team eventually lands us the last VIP suite available above the main grandstand.

Done with his pics, Jeroen takes a seat in ‘the chair’ as Daan and I have now dubbed it, the Dutchman only slightly deterred by the surprisingly strong arc light stage left as he adjusts the microphone chord under his shirt (he’s a PRO, no need to worry). Just as we’re about to start, there’s a soft tap at the door followed moments later by documentary producer Robin: “sorry to interrupt, but Gustav Edelhoff’s going to be in the car next and wondered if he could do his sit-down sooner. Also, radiolemans is wondering if we’re still on for 6.15.”

Jeroen’s interview is now left in Robin’s capable hands as I dash down the corridor to double check on radiolemans’s progress – Eve, the appointed ‘responsible adult’, assures me that, once John Hindhaugh and Phil Anson hand over to London at 6pm, they’ll be happy to talk – before making my way back over to the paddock to re-arrange timing with Gustav. Heading into the lift, I almost clatter into Patrick, one of CREVENTIC’s photographers for the weekend, who, as it happens, does have a couple of minutes to get some behind the scenes images: "just don’t trip over the cable when you go in, or we’ll blow the fuse in the lightbox again…"

Passing pit box 2B, I spot Stéphane Perrin: “After your stint?...okay, how about 8.30?... cool, I’ll come back and meet you here.”

Actually, while I’m here, I’d better check in with Jean-Francois Brunot (Leipert Motorsport, 1C) to see if tomorrow at 11am still works. And local boy Saif Alameri should be out of the car by now, so maybe I can grab a quick word at the RABDAN garage too. 

Heading back to the studio, I almost trip over ST Racing team boss Ben Distaulo, who, as luck would have it, has some spare time and is happy to "do his bit to camera." Conversation on the way to the studio covers a range of topics: “no, apparently Jeroen doesn’t get jetlagged anymore…”

Robin’s already been and gone as she also has a few final details for the podium to hammer out – she’ll step back in again for Samantha Tan, Kim Holmgaard and Jasmin Preisig when I turn my attention to the post-qualifying press release – but a wry smile tells me that Daan is happy with Jeroen’s animated footage.

"Oh, by the way, Mirko Bortlotti’s on standby pretty much for the whole race, so we’ll need to do a candid piece with him at the Barwell garage."

Cue some audible microphone fumbling again as Ben gets himself ready in the chair. 

"No, it’s fine, there’s a ‘artistic’ tyre stack we could use as the backdrop, and…

“…did Robin take the laptop with her…?

“…okay, sorry Ben, we’ll have to wing this interview a bit!”

And so it continues, both late into the night and early into the next morning. Like a metaphorical hourglass, empty water bottles start building up in our designated ‘storage area’ (the suite’s not-quite-finished bathroom) as drivers and team bosses kindly dedicate their time and thoughts for the documentary. Khaled Al Qubaisi is finally tracked down early on Sunday morning and relives his finest moments at his home race. He's swiftly followed by Reema Juffali, Saudi Arabia’s first female racing driver, who’s more than happy to talk about her first endurance race. 

Sadly, there are some drivers we can’t quite manage to get into the chair. Rob Huff seemed keen enough but we could never nail down a time. Hubert Haupt had two Mercedes to worry about, so that was always going to be difficult. And, somehow, we manage to lose Shane Lewis altogether between CP Racing’s garage in pit box 1B and the CREVENTIC welcome centre (sorry Shane!). That a piece of loose tape meant our black backdrop ended up falling on Car Collection team manager Denis Ferleman during his interview was a little embarrassing too.