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Le Mans 2003 - The Tourists' Story

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After an excellent first meeting of the Ten Tenths members at Le Mans, it was time for Fab and I to take our places in the pits grandstand to watch the pre-race parade.  Once again I was hugely indebted to Fabrice for his generosity in buying me a grandstand seat.  

And what a seat!  I must confess that since the new pit buildings were built before the 1991 race, I'd never much fancied sitting in this very high, very steeply-raked stand (I've always suffered terribly from vertigo...), I had the idea that the view wouldn't be particularly good - but how wrong can you be?!  The view was superb.  And, best of all, no blessed debris fencing to get in the way!  

After the Ten Tenths meeting, it was time for Fab and I to find our places in the pits grandstand......

I've said before many times, but the driver parade and the lining up of the cars before the race starts is one of the best parts of the weekend as far as I'm concerned.  Unless you've been there and witnessed it, you can't appreciate just how tangible the rising sense of tension and anticipation is.  

I always try and get as many shots of the drivers as possible (at least as many as I take of the Hawaiian Tropic girls - although Mrs. Ayse always doubts that....!).  

With two thirds of the winning team from 1988, the 15 Dome-Judd wasn't lacking in driver strength.      Sitting in the pits grandstand gives plenty of photo opportunities - even for the "HT" girls...!

Fab and I got chatting to an American couple sitting next to us.  The man wasn't impressed with the weather - not because it was hot ("We're from Texas, that's hot!"), but because it was so humid, while they were obviously used to much drier heat.  It was only after we'd been chatting a while that they explained they had come over to watch their son race - son happened to be driving the 23 Pilbeam - if I remember rightly, they were Chris McMurry's parents!

I guess the 7 Bentley was the favourite, Kristensen looking for his 5th win and Capello looking to break his unlucky duck. Smith was sure to provide good back-up....       But if truth be told, I was hoping for victory for the 8 car, with Herbert, Brabham and Blundell.

There was a rather nice touch during the parade, as two of the main contenders, Tom Kristensen (Bentley 7) and Emanuele Pirro (Audi 6), winners for Audi in the previous three years, joined up for a walk down the pit-lane with two other Le Mans legends, Henri Pescarolo and Derek Bell.  

Pescarolo was of course running his two Courages in the race, while Derek was undertaking "ambassador" duties for Bentley.  With Tom's 4 wins, Pirro's 3, Henri's 4 and Derek's 5, that made a total of 16 wins at Le Mans between them!  The only other question was whether that figure would increase to 17 with a win for either Kristensen or Pirro, and, of course,  if Kristensen could equal Bell's 5 victories.   

I suppose I could call this shot - "16 Victories" - because that's how many these four guys have between them. Kristensen, Pirro, Bell and Pescarolo salute the crowd.

So, what were the other Tourists up to, I hear you say?  Well, to be honest, I didn't have a clue, as I hadn't seen any of them since I left them in the Village to go and meet the other Ten Tenthers.  But it wasn't all that long before we saw each other again.

I knew that Chief Tourist Ian would head for the tribunes for the parade and the start of the race, so as the time went on, I started scouring the ranks of spectators to see if I could spot them.  

Eventually I picked them out and, as it happened, they had got themselves into a very nice spot, well down to the front of the tribunes, almost immediately opposite Fab and I in the grandstand.  It wasn't long before their eagle eyes spotted us too, and we were soon exchanging waves and laughs across the start/finish straight!  

So there I was, sitting in the grandstand, looking out for the other Tourists down on the tribunes. I found them and they found me! Alan, Paul, Howard and Martyn give me a friendly wave!    

But the real business of the weekend was soon to start as the cars finally left their echelon positions and completed a lap before moving into their respective grid slots.  The start of the 2003 Vingt Quatre Heures du Mans would soon be under way!

 

Moments before the off, the 8 Bentley moves into its place on the grid for the rolling start.

There was one other nice touch for me as I was waiting for the final preparations to be done before the start.  I got a text message on my mobile from Paul Truswell.  Now, if you don't know the name, you should!  Paul is one of the main commentators for Radio Le Mans - even more so this year with his usual co-commentator Ian Titchmarsh sadly missing (and I think I speak for many thousands of British fans when I say we want Titch back in the commentary box above the tribunes with Paul next year - please!).

Paul's message was actually to say that he'd spotted me in the grandstand!  Unfortunately, with the reflection from the windows of the commentary boxes (which, eye-line wise, were directly in front of us), I couldn't see him, but I was delighted he'd found the time at a very busy moment to send me the message.

A timely moment to remind anyone who might be contemplating a first visit to Le Mans next year to make sure you take a radio with you to listen to Radio Le Mans - it really is essential!  

As you can see from the next pictures, Le Mans 2003 is underway.  In the early stages it was Bentley all the way and even by the end of the first hour, the three privateer Audis were already a lap adrift.  An early casualty was the rather good looking Pagani Zonda but it was the demise of the Audi UK car in the second hour which really set the tongues wagging.  You'll all know the story by now, I guess, but poor Frank Biela ran out of fuel when he failed to make the pit entry.  It was a shame to lose one of the front-running prototypes, but, in a way, it was about time that an Audi showed some kind of fallibility at long last.  

The 26 DBA (Den Bla Avis) of Nielsen, Shimoda and Elgaard was definitely one of the best looking cars in the race. It was fast too, qualifying well up in 16th place, in amongst the slower LPM900 cars.      If the DBA was pretty, what about the TVRs? Cracking colour-scheme on this, the 91 car of Stanton, Hay and Barff.  

As the two Bentleys began to stretch their lead, it was surprising how few cars followed the Audi and Pagani into retirement.  The 91 TVR (above) disappeared after a shunt in the third hour but the next retirement (according to the official ACO stats) didn't come until the seventh hour when the Pilbeam 23 was officially posted as a retirement.  In truth, this car had done relatively little running, completing only 27 laps, which meant that it was already nearly 70 laps down on the LMP675 class-leading Reynard.  Rather sad for McMurry's parents who had travelled a long way to see him race.....

The nine-hour mark brought a small flurry of retirements with the Lola-MG 27, Saleen 66 and the Norma 21* all biting the Le Mans dust.  (*And as for the Norma, was there ever a car less deserving of a place on the Le Mans grid?  I may make fun here and at Ten Tenths about the Deboras that we've seen at Le Mans over the years, but the Norma should never have been granted an entry - IMO ;-)

Panoz were back again, although realistically, there was little hope of a really good result in a field with Bentleys and Audi R8s. This is the 11 car of Beretta, Jeannette and Papis.      The quirky orange Spyker C8 still attracted a lot of attention. It also boasted a strong driver line up with Coronel, Simon and Hugenholtz.

After a couple of hours, Fab and I went our separate ways.  Fab had a meeting with his sister and brother in law for a meal (which was subsequently followed by a meal in the evening with the Griffins, before returning to savour the night action).  As for me, I stayed in the pits grandstand for a bit longer, moving down to the front balcony to get some shots of the cars as they came in for their pitstops.  

The Tourists, as usual, were due to rendezvous a little later.  As we had done for many previous years, we were due to return to Le Cheval Blanc at Le Grand Luce for dinner (yes I know, we're still softies!).

I guess by the time of this picture the race was already an hour or so old, and already several cars including the Pagani, the Pilbeam and the Nasamax Reynard were having problems..... 

I still had plenty of time before the rendezvous to take a walk up to the Dunlop Curve (I still prefer to call it that rather than refer to yet another circuit-blighting chicane), where I was able to take some shots from the inside.  

The 53 Corvette of Ron Fellows, Johnny O'Connell and Frank Freon was always going to struggle to keep the Ferraris in sight.

For me, the Pescarolo Courages were the best looking prototypes at Le Mans 2003. This is the 18 car of Ayari, Helary and Minassian.      Its always nice when you can catch two cars in the same shot. Here the 7 Bentley passes the 75 Perspective Porsche of Neugarten, Smith and Khan.

Despite the ever present debris fencing, I was able to get some reasonable pics from there.