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As
Alan and I moved along the pitlane, with our pit visit in mind, naturally enough
we started to gravitate towards the Embassy Racing pit. The drivers from
the Embassy Zytek, Warren Hughes, Jonny Kane and Joey Foster were at a table
signing autographs. As it happens, aside from a couple of other individual
drivers, this was the only team we saw during our walk down the pitlane
that had made the effort to make it's drivers accessible to the public. As I
was to learn later, this was just another example of the refreshing approach the
Embassy team have towards their fans, particularly the British fans.
The
time was fast moving and our pit visit was fast approaching. Before long, Allon
and I were approached by the familiar faces of some of the members of the
Ten-Tenths forum, including Batmobile, GT6, Dominique, Bernard B, and Bentley 03
himself.
There were so many that it was clear we had gained quite a few speculative
'temporary' Ten Tenths members (!) who thought they might as well join us in
search of the Le Mans 'free lunch' that was a visit to one of the pits! In
fact there were so many interlopers that the visit had to be divided into two
sections, which was a bit galling when it became obvious that the freeloaders
had managed to get themselves on the first half of the visit!
Our
visit was conducted by refueller Andy Holt, who understandably spent a little
time explaining to us the intricacies of the refuelling system.
It
was quite tricky for all of us in the confined area of the pit as we didn't want
to get in the way of the guys who were working feverishly on getting the car
ready for tomorrow's race. Even more so as the team had been stationed in the
newer extra garages – rather unfortunately christened the ‘row of woe’ by
the Radio Le Mans team! Eventually, after 15 minutes or so, we found our way at
the back of the pit in the area where tyres were being prepared.
Although the pit tour was relatively brief and limited by the fact that we
needed to keep leaping out of the way of mechanics coming and going doing their
essential work, we were all very grateful to the team for allowing us such a
great opportunity. Hopefully we may be able to have a similar chance next
year?
Time
was pressing on pretty rapidly now and as Allon and I had not managed to get on
the first part of the tour, we needed to leave in order to meet up with the rest
of the Tourists in the garage rouge at 4 o'clock. So we were actually able to
save quite a bit of time by leaving the Embassy pit by the back door, so to
speak. This took us straight out to the back of the paddock avoiding the need
to walk all the way back down the pitlane and back up again at the back of the
grandstand. It also meant that we walked straight out to where one or two of
the cars taking part in the Group C race on Saturday morning were paddocked.
It
was now 3:30 p.m. and we set off back towards the garage rouge, however our
progress was interrupted again when we found the main paddock for the Group C
cars. We just had to spend a few minutes there admiring some very beautiful
cars indeed, before we realised we needed to press on to meet the others.
Unfortunately at this point there just wasn't enough time to stop and take as
many shots as I would have liked!
We
finally met up with the rest of the Tourists, having received a reminder call
from Martyn that the time was pressing on. As it happened, we were by no means
that last to arrive in the garage rouge.
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