In which Sid plays navigator in Ian’s ship of the desert, as Sweep 2 looking after competitors on the 2022 Dubai Baja desert race.
The role of the sweep team on a desert event is to look after riders and drivers of bikes, cars and buggies. We drive the same route. Sometimes we can help get them going again, sometimes we call in the medics or cart away the sad remains (just the vehicles, the medics come in a helicopter for the humans if they are very dinged up). Sid is going to be radio dude between Sweep Two and Race Control and has a local net to talk with the other two Sweep Two crews.
So Sid goes to school Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday flies Emirates from Stansted (how great is it that they fly from an airport 20 minutes away?) to Dubai. Dubai is four hours in advance of GMT and we get the full light pollution lumiere on our way in.
Ian is busy just now. As soon as Baja is done his Healey will be car 0 on the UAE’s first Mille Miglia, on a route set by John Spiller (long time navigator to the sheikhs of motorsport and big wheel at Subaru in their best days – who has also set this villainous hard Baja route).
First job on Thursday is to see why the Healey’s Monit (navigator’s trip meter and clock) isn’t working. First we use a pallet trolley to get under but soon go in with the big stuff and balance the car on some pallets. (Health and safety isn’t big around here.) The Monit sensor has been mounted securely in a place where it has nothing to key off. We do not have materials to fab anything better so make a new plan. The Garmin from the Ford Raptor SVT sweep truck will be fitted where the Healey’s rear view mirror is mounted on the dash.
The rest of the day is spent getting signed on, meeting up with fellow sweeps and gorming around the paddock. There is no secret made of what Abu Dhabi’s big, local industry is (though Dubai has no oil) and there are fabulous mobile filling stations that we will be using parked for us at the edge of the desert.
On the first morning we are a while running on piste roads before we get into the true desert. Camels are still farmed and shown. Though Mitsubishi Fusos now take most of the weight, camel racing is very big. We pass a group out on the gallops, just like Newmarket.
We are still on the edge of the dunes when we stop to drop tyre pressures for extra traction. On the road Ian’s Ford Raptor SVT tyres would be at 44lbs and on sand as low as 16. (A sad by-product is that you can easily roll a tyre off the rim, and later we do.) We do not go in the desert alone.
For one thing we need the Emirates Motor Sports Organisation’s Nissan Patrol Pickup that has 
been converted to carry motorbikes and so is called the Toast Rack. This is the vehicle that last year got stuck in reverse and was driven out backwards. It is no younger nor more lovely now, but that probably goes for most of us.
We are in lightly modified trucks so get stuck sometimes and are very glad of a short
wheel base Wrangler (less likely to get stuck on its belly at the top of dunes). We have winches, jacks, shovels, sand ladders and a lot of desert driving experience (except Sid).
The tower you see behind the truck is not a light house for ships of the desert or any others. 
Instead a very large array of mirrors Concentrate Solar Power on the 260 metre receiver tower where a salt and oil mixture is made so hot it stores heat to run steam turbines even after dark. Dubai has very little oil but lots of sunshine and needs electricity for air conditioning and desalination plants.
Once out in the desert proper, Control begins to call. ‘Our’ bike is a long way back from the field and though they have not pushed the emergency button have not moved for a few minutes. Then she is moving and we catch her on a pebbly plain between dune sections. On the plain she is getting on fine. We check she has water and ask if she is OK. Oh, yes….
We next find her with the bike stuck down the side of a dune. Sid goes for a chat. We have called for a medic car, no need for the heli. The rider is asterisked. Sid kindly points out that we are at kilometre 80 of 160. She takes off her helmet and takes on some water. The medics find us and we come to a nice compromise. We are not far from a road. The Toast Rack will escort her to the final control where she can get a stamp, a lot of penalties and a pass to start again on day two.
Sweep two spends the rest of the afternoon finding and shepherding lost competitors in a Nissan Patrol back to the rally. Sid chooses to make for the road that services part of the solar park. We unwittingly find ourselves inside their fences, but seeing a spot where sand has duned over a fence we make the asphalt. We are still inside the compound, approaching security to get out never having been let in. There are a few awkward moments.
For us the main excitement of day two was car 502. In the first picture the X-Raid Mini JCW rear wheel drive buggy is making good progress. And why not? It has a turboed three litre engine out of a BMW X5 (BMW own the Mini brand) and an X-Trac box with integral LSD. It puts out 350bhp at 3500 rpm with 770Nm or 570 lbs ft of torque at 2150 rpm and weighs about the same as a VW Golf. Top speed 118 mph.
A little later they are out on a plain trying to overtake but are unsighted by 
dust and sand. Hidden in the dust is a small berm which they hit at full speed. One front corner is ripped off and the rear opposite suspension also becomes a bit semi-detached. The bell housing is cracked so quite a lot of energy dissipated. It must have been going well because the wreckage is quite a long way from the sand wall. It is not going to make the road under its own power, or anywhere at all. Despite the oddly unfriendly ways of the crew we drag it backwards to the tarmac for collection. It still needs to be steered, so Ian tows while Sid jogs behind with hand signals to the backward facing pilot.
And so we come to the end of a busy couple of days. The Toast Rack takes its sad load away and we go to watch ‘our’ bike make the finish, a finish on a very tough event. The bikers are surely a breed apart.
Thanks to Ian and Sheila for the invitation and sweep two for their company. It’s a tough job, but…
