Supported by

1st Tickets are a booking service for popular motor racing events. Their specialisation is the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race. They aim to offer tickets at competitive prices to race enthusiasts and novices alike.

 

 

 

Le Mans 2008 - The Tourists' Story - Page 4

Friday Evening - The Driver Parade

 

In 2006 we ate in the centre of the old Le Mans town for the first time, managing to catch the very tail-end of the driver parade.  Last year we went a step further and came into town to see the entire parade for the first time, after which we again took dinner in a restaurant in the square opposite the Hotel de Ville.  Ian had been sufficiently impressed by the location and the fare on offer that he had booked us in again at Le Fontainebleau. 

So we headed off to the town knowing that our biggest problem would be to find parking for five cars this year, with parking spaces being at such a premium on Friday evening when the town centre is absolutely packed prior to the start of the parade, the local population swollen by thousands of race fans eager to catch a glimpse and maybe even an autograph of their heroes.  John, Mark, Allon and I were extremely lucky as a car pulled out of a car park right in front of us.  Ian also found a spot just up the road and eventually Nick bagged a place, squeezing his BMW into a nearby spot.  We waited a while for Martyn and Jeremy and I called him just before 5 pm, but in the end we just assumed they had managed to get parked somewhere and we would catch up with them later.

Well, I managed to catch one car in the parade - the first and only....... ;-)         

So the occupants of the three successfully parked cars wandered off down the road, the obvious objective being to find ourselves a suitable spot from which to watch the parade, however, almost without realising it, we found ourselves alongside what was clearly the ‘collecting area’ for the vintage cars that would carry the drivers on their trip around the town.  As the drivers began to arrive, we were able to photograph the early birds, such a Yojiro Terada, making his 29th race start and David Brabham who was looking to repeat his GT1 success with Aston Martin in the DBR9. 

Bob Berridge - 5th start at Le Mans - 5th start with Chamberlain     The first ever husband and wife partnership in the same car at Le Mans. Bob Berridge and Amanda Stretton.      An incredible 29th start at Le Mans for Yojiro Terada....     Ollie Gavin, hoping for better luck this year in the #64 Corvette     28 consecutive Le Mans starts for Terada     This was to be Amanda's first start at Le Mans - it's a good job she couldn't see into the future.......

Tomas Enge, making his 7th start at Le Mans in the gorgeous Lola Aston Martin. All hail the coupes!     Klaus Graf, sometime racing school instructor making his 3rd start at Le Mans     David Brabham, looking more like his old man every day - making his 15th start at Le Mans     Vanina Ickx. Related to some other driver who raced at Le Mans once upon a time...... ;-)     Now there's every chance of me getting this wrong (!), but I think this is (left) Daisuke Ito and (right) Yuji Tachikawa... Like all of the Dome drivers, making their debut this year     Brabham was hoping for more of the same after Le Mans 2007 - another GT1 win....     Vanina was making her 4th appearance in the great race, back with Rollcentre after a two-year absence     Heinz-Harald Frentzen was making his second appearance at Le Mans - 16 years after his first....!

As the clock ticked on towards the formal start of the parade at 6 pm, drivers started to arrive from all directions including the entire Audi crew walking across the road behind me.  But the funniest moment for me was when Stefan Johansson walked across the road with one of his team mates.  I heard him say very clearly. ‘I wonder what pile of crap they’ll put us in this year?!’ 

Mr. Bibendum puts in another suitably pneumatic appearance at the parade....     Niclas 'Nic' Jonsson with to his right, Tracy Krohn, drivers of the #83 Risi Competizione Ferrari     No, not a clue who he is, or why he was there.......!     Andrea Piccini - second in the GT1 class in 2007 at his first attempt     Tim Mullen, driver of the #96 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari     Stefan Mücke, making his second start at Le Mans, again for Charouz Racing System in the #10 Lola Aston Martin     Just 20 years old, Jan Charouz was also making his second start for his father's team     The alphabetically challenged Jaime Melo, looking for his first finish at Le Mans in his third start - #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari

Lucas Luhr, 4 start at Le Mans, second for Audi.      Marco Werner, making his 7th appearance at Le Mans - every time in an Audi.      Mike Rockenfeller, making his 4th Le Mans start and hoping for better luck after crashing his Audi in the wet last year.      To the left, Alexandre Premat, starting Le Mans for the second time. On the right, some Danish guy who's won the race a few times...... ;-)     Werner has a great record at Le Mans, having won in the previous THREE years.....

Rockenfeller did have a victory at Le Mans under his belt. He won the GT2 class in 2005     This was Premat's second season for Audi and his second start at Le Mans     Werner seemed to find himself in front of my camera quite often......team-mate Frank Biela is also with him here     Allan McNish had won Le Mans for Porsche on his second visit, but the last 6 years had been unlucky for him. Could he gain his second win on the 10th anniversary of his first?

As the others wandered off to try and find a vantage-point for the parade, I could see it was pretty pointless as the crowds were already 5 or 6 deep and all the best spots from which to watch and tale photographs were already long gone.  So I decided to hang around the area in which the drivers continued to congregate.  In fact, the parade seemed very slow to get under way, giving me that much extra time to pick out some well-known faces.  So I had a very enjoyable time snapping away, taking dozens of photographs, the best of which you see here.  But there was one Tourist who just had to go one better……

It wasn't just me taking photographs! Tim Sugden was making his 5th start in the Virgo Ferrari F430     A 20th start for Andy Wallace in the RML Lola. Andy was a winner at Le Mans, first time out, for Jaguar 20 years before....     I'm open to correction here, but I think this is Christian Montanari of the #78 AF Corse Ferrari     The very experienced Alain Ferte starting for the 13th time in the 99 JMB Racing Ferrari. He made his debut in the race 25 years ago. To his left is team-mate Ben Aucott     Andrea Belicchi would be driving the pretty Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola coupe #33 with Xavier Pompidou and Steve Zacchia     Marc Gene had made his debut at Le Mans for Peugeot in 2007. This year, Jordi's brother was again driving with Jacqes Villeneuve and Nicolas Minassian     As Stefan Johanssen walked across the road past me, I clearly heard him say to his team-mate, 'I wonder what pile of crap they'll put us in this year.....? ' :-)     No camera-shyness from Paulo Ruberti of the #97 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari - making his Le Mans debut

Third appearance at Le Mans for Mika Salo, back for Risi Competizione in their #82 Ferrari     Stefan Johansson had received a last-minute call-up to drive the #21 Epsilon Euskadi, which was added to the entry list at the beginning of race-week     Sascha Maassen was starting Le Mans for the 6th time, in the #31 Essex Porsche RS Spyder     Team-mate to Maassen was Casper Elgaard, also making his 6th start and back to the Nielsen fold after one race with Larbre     Allan Simonsen of the #44 KSM Lola is here in discussion with Warren Hughes, Joey Foster and Jonny Kane from the #45 Embassy Racing Zytek     One of those very familiar Le Mans faces! Jan Lammers was preparing to start Le Mans for the 21st time     Seen relaxing here before the parade, this was the first time since 2000 that he hadn't driven a Dome at Le Mans     And here is Lammers' 1988 co-winner, Andy Wallace again, drving for the third year in succession with Erdos and Newton

The #35 crew - Pierre Ragues, Matthieu Lahaye and Cong Fu 'Frankie' Cheng - the first Chinese driver to compete at Le Mans     Johannes van Overbeek, despite the name, an American, was driving the #80 Flying Lizards Porsche in GT2     Van Overbeek again with team-mate Jorg Bergmeister, who set the fastest time in practice for this car     Olivier Pla, Miguel Amaral and 2003 Le Mans winner Guy Smith - drivers of the #40 Quifel-ASM Lola     The third 'Lizard', team co-founder Seth Neiman     Joey Foster, Jonny Kane and Warren Hughes, drivers of the #45 Embassy Racing Zytek. Hughes and Kane had taken part in 9 Le Mans between them netting 8 failures to finish and one class win (for Hughes in 2005)

 

I had lost sight of Ian not long after we arrived at the collection area.  I’d seen him hovering around the entrance, which was heavily protected by the hired security, but suddenly I saw him inside the collection area, eagerly snapping the drivers at close range!  When we met up again afterwards, Ian sheepishly explained that he had just ‘walked in’, apparently having been mistaken for a team owner!  So there you have it, the Tourists answer to Hugh Chamberlain!

The boss of the Luc Alphand Aventures team, Luc himself, was sharing the #72 car with Jérôme Policand and Guillaume Moreau      OK, I'm taking a stab at this one - Marc Goossens, Stuart Hall and Johnny Mowlem from the #14 Creation Aim?     Steve Zacchia, Xavier Pompidou and Andrea Belicchi - #33 Lola     Olivier Panis, Simon Pagenaud and Marcus Fässler - #6 Courage Oreca     On and yes, they were there too..... (in fact they dined a few tables away from our party - with John Hindhaugh of Radio Le Mans, apparently!)     Jan Lammers in conversation with team-mate Greg Pickett     And who is this? Is it Hugh Chamberlain? or Martin Short? No, it's our very own Chief Tourist who managed to get himself into the drivers collecting area!

Plenty of pomp and circumstance.......     Vanina Ickx made her Le Mans debut in 2001     Gunnar Jeannette (#26 Radical) was only 18 when he made his debut at Le Mans in 2000     Also running in the #26 Radical was Marc Rostan - his 7th Le Mans start     The third driver of the #26 Radical was Brit Ben Devlin, taking part at Le Mans for the first time     Guy Smith was a Le Mans winner with Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen in the Bentley in 2003     Luhr and Rockenfeller take one last look over their shoulders before setting off....

Veteran John Nielsen, both driving and managing the #31 Essex Porsche     When is a driver not a driver? When he's Martin Short at Le Mans 2008.......     After two failures to finish in his first two Le Mans, Mika Salo was hoping for better luck in his third....     Eric van de Poele was driving the #83 Risi Competizione Ferrari with Krohn and Jonsson     Russian Alexei Vasiliev was taking his 5th Le Mans start in the Snoras Spyker #85     Martin Short had decided to concentrate on the team manager's duties this year, leaving the driving of the #18 Pescarolo to Ickx, Joao Barbosa and Stephane Gregoire     Could John Nielson pull off a class win, 18 years after his Jaguar victory?

 

We continued to watch as the drivers moved off on the parade but it did seem painfully slow and when I took my last shot it was already 7 pm and there were a lot of drivers still sitting in the cars in the collection area waiting to set off.  By this time the 15 Tourists were spread all around the town, although I had sight most of the time of Nick – and Ian, of course. 

Looking down from the top of the old town, the Corvette drivers are still circulating....     I'm pretty sure this is Olivier Beretta, driving the #64 Corvette with Gavin and Max Papis

We were due to be at the restaurant around 7.45 I believe and we therefore needed to make tracks there, so Nick, Allon and I eventually succeeded in dragging Ian away from his ‘team’ and headed up into the old town where we met up with Alan, Jeff and some of the others at the inevitable bar!  In fact, I was very grateful at this point as approaching the centre of the town from this direction avoided the walk up the steep steps we had to make last year, which nearly finished me off! 

Alan is clearly in good spirits, looking forward to a good dinner.....

A pastis later and we were back walking through the familiar streets to the restaurant where we were met shortly by Martyn and Jeremy’s groups, who had watched the parade from the same place as last year. 

We enjoyed an excellent meal that evening and I had a far nicer time than at this point last year when I wasn’t feeling too bright.  The foie gras was good as was the beef and the crème brulée rounded it all off nicely.  In fact, I didn’t realise until later that we must have eaten a couple of restaurants up from Radio Le Mans’ John Hindhaugh as particular reference to taking dinner with the Hawaiian Tropic girls was mentioned in the commentary the next day, and we certainly saw them arriving for dinner! 

The Tourists doing what the Tourists do best.......     Not all of us, but L-R: Clive, Martyn, Will, Alan, Ian and Allon     The locals were very surprised to find an Englishman eating dinner in the centre of old Le Mans town wearing a Toulouse rugby team shirt.....     Martyn, Will and Alan. This was Will's first Le Mans     The rest of the Tourists are about to leave the table - Peter and Duncan (sitting on left), Jeff, Nick, John, Jeremy and Mark. (Brian is behind Mark).

Time to leave after another excellent meal     Will, Jeff, Brian and Nick prepare to go and find the cars.....     I was worried that it was a bad sign to find an old car bearing the 'four rings' in the square....

 

The meal was over and at around 10.45 it was time to head back to the cars and to make our way to Le Grand Lucé and Le Cheval Blanc for the first time in 2008.  All was quiet when we arrived and the ritualistic sharing out of rooms began……  The process ended up with Allon and I sharing the bunk bed (although I’m not sure that Allon was ultimately all that comfortable at the prospect of me in the top bunk!) with Martyn in the main double.  And so it was to sleep with the 24 Heures du Mans to come tomorrow.