So, five months or so after my last story update, it's time to start another one to keep me amused while we're locked down again. We move on to the 'Terrible Twosome' at Le Mans in 1998....
After an excellent 12th Le Mans in
1997, I had assumed that over the course of the next 8 or 9 months the usual preparations would be made for Le
Mans 1998. All
of the seven Tourists who went to Le Mans in 1997 had
expressed a wish to return, and with the promise of one or two new recruits,
the prospects for a good team event seemed fairly rosy.
On the work front, I was as busy as ever,
particularly after the redundancy of the Deputy Justices’ Clerk at the end of
March 1998. We had been told by the
Magistrates’ Courts Committee towards the end of September 1997 that the senior legal management structure in the county was to undergo major
change, resulting in the redundancy of the Justices’ Clerk, his Deputy, and
myself, as Assistant Deputy. A new post
of Head of Legal Services was to be created to replace all three posts operating under a county
Justices’ Clerk. It was a time of both change and considerable
stress, not knowing exactly what would happen over the next year or so, however it was accepted across the board that as the remaining 'sitting tenant' after the DJC and DJC accepted early retirement that I was a 'shoe-in' for the post. But, enough of that, for the time being.
As usual, my Le Mans countdown started in earnest in
January/February 1998, and I waited for the “standard” call from Ian to
confirm that the trip was into the planning stage. That call came during February but it didn't bring the news I had expected. I hadn't anticipated Ian telling me he had a problem, particularly as all of the signs were that this
year’s race could be one of the best ever.
But Ian did have a problem, and one which
appeared to be insurmountable. Ian is a partner in a large firm of solicitors in Southampton, the senior partner of which (a
former president of The Law Society), was about to retire. Not surprisingly, as a figure of some local
importance, a big retirement event was being organised for him and without
taking this story-line on too much further towards the obvious, you can
probably already guess the date on which they planned to hold the event, yes, Saturday, 6th June, the
Saturday of the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours!
By the time he spoke to me Ian had already
weighed up all of the alternatives. He
could forget the retirement do completely and go to the race. He could go over to France on
Friday night and come back some time on Saturday, returning, perhaps, on
Sunday. Thirdly, he could go to the
retirement and forget about Le Mans
for a year. Personally I had no
doubt at all about what I would do in those circumstances - I would be at Le Mans. But I also realised that it was a different
decision for Ian, bearing in mind the nature of his work and the prominence of the person concerned. Even more importantly, Ian's wife Carole had
already made it clear to him that this was an event which he could not
ignore in favour of Le Mans. Of course, Ian had already done everything he
could to get the date changed, however other dates suggested were inconvenient
for a number of people and he was the only person for whom the 6th June
was a problem. Of course it didn't help
that they all knew why 6th
June was a problem for Ian, so there was no opportunity to make up some other
excuse for not being able to go!
So there it was.
Ian would not be going to Le
Mans this year.
I was very disappointed for him as I knew he
would be pretty upset at not being able to go. I also
knew that he would feel regret at letting the rest of us down, but at this
stage, I wasn't entirely down-hearted.
As far as Ian was concerned, he was the only one with the problem, and
he was still assuming that Martin, Alan and the others would be willing
to go. It was just a question of finding
another car and driver to join Martin.
I normally only speak to Ian on the telephone
once or twice a year, the first in about February and then again, perhaps, in
April or May, to confirm the final arrangements. So it was unusual to get another call at
the office from Ian, only a few days after the first. There was good news and there was bad
news. The good news was that our other 'standard' driver Martyn was still willing to honour his commitment to go to Le Mans this year. But that was the only good news. Although Martyn was
willing to go he would prefer not to. His firm back in Wales had apparently split
asunder (nothing unusual about that, solicitors’ firms do it all the time),
however it meant that he had a great deal of work on, with no other advocates,
and if he did go to Le Mans, he would have to pay for a locum solicitor to
come in and do his work while he was away. That alone effectively spelled the end of
any “team” effort at Le Mans
this year, but even if it hadn’t, Ian had already spoken to most of the others,
and they seemed pretty indifferent to the idea, anyway. Alan wasn't keen on going to Le Mans without Ian (as far as I am aware, all of his past Le Mans
trips had been with Ian), Jim didn’t appear to be fussed either way, and
Jeff, who made his Le Mans debut with us last year and who had seemed keen to go again this year, was also content to miss a year.
Of course I had no choice but to tell Ian that I wouldn't dream of holding Martyn to his agreement to drive, bearing
in mind that on the face of it, there would only be Martin, Peter and
myself. Reluctantly therefore, I
indicated to Ian that Le Mans
was a no-hoper in 1998. I knew
that Ian felt very guilty about the situation, and I could sense that he was
wracking his brain for a solution - but there wasn’t one, at least as far as Gordon’s Tourists were concerned.
So this caused me to think long and hard
about what I should do. I had been in the very same situation back in 1992 when Ian
decided not to bother making the trip.
On that occasion Peter and I made
the trip anyway, courtesy of Chequers
(later to become Motor Racing
International). Was it a case of
biting a thoroughly unpalatable bullet and staying at home, or could I go to Le Mans again with M.R.I.? It seemed to me (at first, at least), that Peter probably held the key. I knew that Jayne
wouldn't be terribly keen on the idea of my going alone to Le Mans, and I did
go so far as to say if it came to that, I probably wouldn’t go. So, what would Peter decide? I immediately broached the idea with Peter of a
trip on the coach again and my first impression was that he wasn't too keen on
the idea. You have to remember a number
of things at this stage. Without being
unfair to Peter, he is a little older than me and although highly motivated
by Le Mans, this was linked to an extent to the lure of four days of good eating and drinking with some excellent company. A whistle-stop Le Mans trip on a crowded coach, living off
sausages and frites wasn't quite such an appetising prospect!
Peter’s decision was complicated further by the
fact that he and Hilda were still house-hunting. They had sold their house in Ashley Heath and
were currently living in a rented house in Milford-on-Sea. They had hoped to move back to Milford, but were finding
it difficult to find a suitable property at a reasonable price. This had led them to look at properties as
far away as Cornwall and they had literally been on the verge of purchasing a house there when it
fell through. Life was therefore not
very easy for Peter and Hilda at this time, especially as Hilda was also
suffering some poor health. I left the idea with Peter but I really wasn’t
terribly optimistic that he would say yes, and I began to revisit my earlier
thoughts about going it alone. The idea
of missing Le Mans
in any year, let alone a year when the race promised so much was a pretty dismal thought, so much
so that I tentatively made up my mind to go anyway, even if Peter decided not
to.
As it happened, thankfully that decision never
fell to be made as somewhat to my surprise, Peter confirmed a few days later
that he did want to go after all.
Having seemed to be lacking in motivation when I had first raised the
idea with him, he had now changed his tune completely (for which I suspect
thanks were due to Hilda, in no small part), and was now extremely up-beat about
the idea. So that was that, although there
would be no full Gordon’s Tourists
trip this year, Peter and I would again make the trip to Le Mans by
ourselves. As you can imagine, I was
absolutely delighted that the 'Terrible
Twosome' were on their way to France again!
