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And then we were off - the 80th running of the
Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans had started and the clock was now ticking down once
more. It was incredible to think that this was the 27th time I had
experienced this moment, which of course meant that I had now watched more than
a third of all of the Le Mans starts. I would never have believed it had
you predicted the future when I paid my first visit to La Sarthe back in 1986.
I took a few photographs but in the main I just
settled back and watched and listened to the race beginning to unfold, courtesy
of Radio Le Mans. Tony very kindly furnished us all with a late lunch -
you guessed it, the Le Mans staple - jambon and emmental baguettes.
Lovely! These were washed down very nicely by a round of cool beers bought
by Robert.
As last year, we stayed in the grandstand for
quite a long time. We had a perfect view of the comings and goings at the
pit exit end of the pitlane, including just before 6 pm when the #2 Audi was
pushed back into the garage, albeit fairly briefly. We were also watching
when the first retirement of the race, the #29 Gulf Lola arrived in the dead car
park opposite, having gone out after an accident - surprising few people.
We stayed in the stand until around 7 pm when we
took our leave and gradually wandered down around the outside of the track
towards Dunlop, where we paused for a while before heading down to our favourite
spot on the inside of Tertre Rouge.
It was while we were on this journey that two of
the major events of the race occurred. Firstly, Davidson's massive shunt
at the end of the Mulsanne, moments after the sister car had briefly taken the
lead of the race. The safety cars came out for a considerable period of
time and then, to our enormous annoyance, Nakajima in the remaining Toyota ended
the race of the fascinating Deltawing on the first racing lap after the safety
car was withdrawn. That Toyota eventually went out with alternator
failure, thereby ending what had been a surprisingly entertaining and
competitive Toyota v. Audi
battle.
It would be fair to say that we all felt rather
cheated. Having had the unexpected prospect of a very real battle between
Audi and Toyota, it seemed to have been stolen from us in the space of what felt
like the blink of an eye. It was now just a case of which Audi would win
the race.....
The safety car induced 'lull' gave us pause for
thought and realising that it was already 8.30we headed to the nearby eaterie
for food. Although I indulged in another sandwich Americaine like the
others, I passed on the merguez and had jambon instead. At least it
wouldn't get cold while I ate the vast portion of frites!
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