Abu Dhabi / Dubai 1992
20 years on....
I recently got back in touch with Johnny Fay, who raced with Geoff Purves back in '92 in the 4 litre Puma cat Hospitality Inn, and subsequently did a couple of the Middle east races with Geoff in 6 litre, and made the initial trip to Abu Dhabi with Geoff & I in the United Arab Emirates Airforce Hercules C130 along with D6.
He has just sent me the pictures he took on that first trip (we had about 5 trips out there in all) and I've scanned a few to post here.
Johnny was probably better known for racing Fay's One, a 27' Class II Cougar cat, with John 'Hammy' Hampton, that boat went on to become 'Simply the Best' in the hands of Cliffie Smiff. (after Colin Stoneman had it for a while).
Sequence:
RAF Lynham, boat loaded and we (Geoff, Johnny and myself) join the boat & 7 aircrew for the long flight to AD..
Somewhere between here and AD @ 26,000 feet.
We stopped over in Cairo en-route, and managed to wedge in a midnight tour of the Pyramids on horseback (they were only little horses!).
Then on to Abu Dhabi, some testing, lunch on Sheik Sultan Bin Kalifa's private island (the Sheik, eldest grandson of Sheik Zyed, so second in line to his throne) who was the real sponsor, drove D6 out to the island), along with the Ambassador to Morocco & others, then the boat was sign written up with it's new pretend sponsor (Abu Dhabi Tourist Club)
Last pic is in the pits in Dubai after our road trip from AD.
All in all an amazing trip. The UAE C130 crew were awesome. An experience I won't forget.
Thanks to Geoff for including me.
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"I Agree with everything you say really!" - John Cooke to Jon Fuller - 26-01-2013
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