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Before long
we were into the cars and on the way back to Le Cheval Blanc with the much
awaited opportunity for a wash and brush up before dinner. Actually, as it
transpired, we had more than enough time as the restaurant was very busy and
unfortunately we didn’t get in to begin our meal until long after 9 pm. But the
meal was very good, in fact probably the best meal I’d had at Le Cheval Blanc in
all the 14 years or so that I’d been going there. I started as always with my
favourite moules farcies, followed by confit de canard and yet another of my
favourite crème brulée to round it all off!
Having had
such a late start to a leisurely meal, time had really raced on and it was
virtually midnight before any serious thought was given by a small handful of us
to returning to the circuit. Ian agreed as always to come back and, as tends to
happen each year, the Le Mans first-timers, in this case Will and Duncan wanted
to come back to experience the race at night. But then, so did Allon and I of
course. There were no other drivers volunteering their services at this point
so it became a case of shoe-horning the 5 of us into Ian’s 4-seater BWM…. Thus
it was that I made the journey sitting on the rear console on a trip to Mulsanne
Corner. Jeremy and Brian also came with us, but of course the DB9 was not in a
position to cater for additional passengers!
Having made
that rather long trek from the car park to Mulsanne Corner, we watched from
there for a while, although it was still very busy there, spectator-wise, and I
didn’t bother getting my camera out for the simple reason that it was too
difficult to get into any kind of decent shooting position, what with the crowds
and the fencing.
We left
Mulsanne and headed back to the garage rouge. Again I travelled on the most
uncomfortable seat, there being no other volunteers! Allon was by now on the
horns of a dilemma – to stay or not to stay? As always, even now at 51 years of
age and substantially less fit than I was on my first visit 22 years ago, I
never had a moment’s hesitation about staying up all night as usual, but Allon
appeared tired – we had all had a long day. I could see he was thinking very
hard about it as we walked out of the bottom of garage rouge and on to the main
entrance. Having entered the circuit, Ian made his compulsive bee-line along
the concrete area in front of the stands to get in front of the pits.
We stood and
watched the race from there for 20 minutes or so, by which time it must have
been long past 1.30 and Ian decided to make a move back to Le Grand Lucé with
Will, Duncan and Allon, who had finally made up his mind to go back to the hotel
for some sleep after all….. (or so I thought!). So I said my goodbyes to all
four of them and headed off to the tribunes. But before going back to the
grandstand I decided go to one of the food stalls behind the grandstands to get
some water to keep me going – I’ve discovered this is pretty essential during
the night for me these days. Little did I know the effect that this small
detour would have!
My camera
records that my first night shots of the 2008 Le Mans were taken at 2.20 pm,
probably my latest night-time photography start ever, I suspect! I didn’t have
the photographic advantage that access to T34 brings so I couldn’t attempt
panning shots because of the debris fencing, so I decided to concentrate my
efforts this year – as I had in previous, years – on cars arriving for and
leaving after their pit stops. At least this was a bit different to the shots I
had taken over the previous 4-5 years.
As you can see, I did attempt
a few panning shots, notwithstanding the drawbacks of the fencing.
There were still a lot of
people around, despite the time. The race between the #7 Peugeot and the
incredibly fast and reliable #2 Audi was captivating. Even now, at the
halfway point in the race, people were beginning to call this the greatest
race at Le Mans for years....
Having taken far too many shots already of the
same half a dozen cars making pit stops, my thoughts turned to a last few photos
of cars on the straight....
As I think I've said before in recent years, I now
keep photos I would have dumped back in my early days.... then they were out of
focus and blurred - now they're just plain 'arty'.......
And time for a couple more 'arty' shots to finish
off the pictures on this page.....
After a while I thought it was
time to move on and I headed down the outside of the circuit as I was keen to go
back to watch at Tertre Rouge, bearing in mind how enjoyable a time I had spent
there during the night last year. It was as I was nearing the spectator area
there that the rain finally arrived. I recall that this was close to 4.10 am
and rain was soon coming down hard enough to make me get out my ‘Jack-in-a-Pack’
and, much more to the point, prevented me from taking many photographs, which
was disappointing bearing in mind the good shots I’d been able to take from here
last year.
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