BAH! RAIN! A wet and entertaining Middle-Eastern enduro.(Motorsports)

Byline: PATRICK C. PATERNIE

A Porsche won and it rained. You could say business as usual for a sports car endurance race, but this was far from the usual enduro. For openers, it was the first 24 Hour Race of Bahrain, held Dec. 15-16.

Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One troops have traveled to Bahrain since 2004, and with good reason. The Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) is a $150 million world-class racing oasis where the eight-story Sakhir Tower rises above the (normally) arid landscape. The approximately 3.4-mile grand prix course was designed by Hermann Tilke, a man either praised or vilified for creating long straights punctuated by tight, twisty sections that signify "modern' tracks''-his portfolio includes Shanghai, Malaysia's Sepang and the modern Nurburgring F1 circuit. Tilke raced at BIC for the first time in a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR entered by Land Motorsport.

For this race the GP course was extended by a half-mile loop to accommodate a field of up to 150 cars. This extra room was believed necessary because the race organizer, Germany's automobile club (ADAC), undertakes the annual 24-hour race at the vintage Nurburgring. The 'Ring's round-the-clock spectacle is a diurnal automotive free-for-all that sets as many as 220 cars loose around the fabled Nordschleife each June.

Other than barring open-wheel or single-seat racers, the ADAC rules provide classes for everything with fenders ranging from FIA-GT spec machines to safety-prepped street cars. The ADAC promised Bahrain a diverse field of around 80 cars. It delivered a diverse grid-Porsche 997 GT3 Cup models and 996 RSRs, a Ferrari 360 GTC, BMWs including a wild Z4 M coupe, a Lotus Exige, Aston Martin Vantage V8, a brace of Alfa 147s and a pair of Volkswagen Golf diesels-but the car count fell woefully short with 28 entries, including six locals, for the 2 p.m. start.

The ADAC also failed to deliver a highly anticipated rolling start. Instead, Tilke's pole-sitting Porsche led the field on a "spread-out'' lap. Though the start lacked drama, the race was anything but boring. Partly because any 24-hour race by nature (Mother and human) is guaranteed its share of drama and excitement, primarily because of the enthusiasm and diversity of the competitors. Tilke's Porsche maintained the lead for most of the first six hours in a tight dogfight with the Porsche 996 of Franz Konrad, a Red Bull-liveried Z4 coupe of Dieter Quester, a shrieking black Ferrari and a couple of other Porsche Cup racers.

Most notable of the latter was the No. 1 996 decked out in the red-and-white national colors of Team Bahrain and entered by Le Mans veterans Konrad and Walter Lechner. Its driver lineup included Sheikh Salman Bin Isa Al Khalifa and Sheikh Salman Bin Rashid (Bahrain is ruled by the Al Khalifa dynasty), plus Fahad Al Musalam and Hamad Al Fardan, who Salman Bin Isa described as his country's "young guns.'' Prince Salman is part of the BIC management team headed by Martin Whitaker, former boss of Ford's European Motorsport division. Whitaker is also impressed with the 19-year-old Al Fardan, who will test for an F3 ride.