Aysedasi's Le Mans

Le Mans 1991 - Ayse's Story

Page 3 - Watching from Hunaudières

After this excitement, we began the usual meander around the spectator areas, heading firstly down towards the Ford Chicane.  A beer was taken there, which was very welcome, bearing in mind that, by this time, it had become very warm indeed!   From here, we headed to the inside of the circuit, pausing for a while at the "Criterium de Jeune Pilote" (where very little appeared to be happening!), and then on to the Dunlop Curve.  Again, I was in the right place at the right time, and caught Cougar 47 spinning into the gravel trap.   From here it was on over the Dunlop Bridge and down through the fairground, where Alan took great interest in Irta, supposedly the world's largest women.  Not a sight for the faint-hearted!  What made Alan's day, however, was the fact that a number of scantily-clad Marlboro girls decided to have a go on one of the fairground rides.  We managed to drag him away, eventually! 

The tour continued on down to the Esses, where I managed to get some pretty good shots of the cars, including my only picture of a Peugeot (No.6).  Both of the Peugeots would go out of the race even earlier than most had expected, managing only a disappointing ninety laps between them.   As the evening drew on, we made the by now mandatory trip out to the Hunaudière Restaurant, to lean over the fences there, and watch the cars rushing past.  Despite having two chicanes on the straight, the cars still seemed to be travelling very quickly indeed, and I managed to take quite a few pictures of them, even from such a precarious vantage point.

One rather important event from 1990 was repeated in 1991.  The four of us had been so impressed with Le Belinois restaurant, that we considered it a must for 1991.   A table was accordingly booked in advance, and, once again, at about 9.00 p.m., seven rather dusty and unkempt Englishmen descended upon this rather posh establishment, making full use of the plentiful supply of hot water and towels to freshen up before taking dinner.   If truth be told, in comparison to 1991, the meal, or to be more specific the service, was quite poor.  There was nothing wrong with the food, but the service from the staff left quite a bit to be desired.  Our meal must have taken a good three hours to be served and eaten, and when you consider that little more than an hour of that time was spent eating it, you can see how long we were kept waiting.  Slightly disappointing, but it didn't dampen the spirits for very long.   At a distance of about four or five miles, the sound of racing engines is just beginning to be muffled by the wind, the trees and the buildings.  It is quite exciting then to drive back to the circuit after an evening meal, and to hear the sights and sounds (and the smells) becoming ever stronger.  We also had about three hours events to catch up on, courtesy of Radio Le Mans!