Aysedasi's Le Mans

Back in 2000, when I originally wrote my story with just a few photographs, there was no such thing as a 'Postscript' but as I'm writing this now, 23 years later, I thought I'd add a short one.  

It was a good trip, very short by my modern standards, Thursday evening to Sunday evening, but good nevertheless.  It seems, looking back, that I probably spent less time with the Tourists than I had ever done on any of my previous fourteen trips, particularly as a result of spending the whole of the night of the race (and several hours in the morning) on my own.  The highlights, inevitably, were the three stints I spent up on the roof of the 'Welcome' building which were terrific, especially during the night and my photos from there are probably as good (if not better) than any I've ever taken during the hours of darkness at Le Mans.  

It was a shame to have to rush back for the ferry after the race so we didn't get our usual evening in France on the Sunday, but it was a case of needs must.  

The 'story' itself is thin on detail simply because I didn't write it up in the in-depth way that I had done every year before and I was relying on just a few notes I'd kept of timings for various things during the trip.  If it hadn't been for those I would have completely forgotten about how the group had tended to 'fragment' while we were in France, with the theme of Chris doing what he wanted to do, despite agreements made with everyone else!  The 'Fyé episode' was the prime example and I do recall how annoyed Peter, Martyn and I were after wasting so much time waiting for the others there and being late for dinner as a result.  Still, we have to remember that this was a time before we all had mobile phones (not that we tended to use them much even when we did have them).  These days a quick call or a text will tell you if another part of the group has decided to do something different to what had previously been agreed.  

In fact, as I seem to recall, it was the lack of any phone calls home (as well as arriving briefly with Peter) that got me into hot water when I got home.  I had actually taken my very first mobile phone with me, only to realise (in my naivety) on the way over to France that it wasn't going to work at all.  For some reason that didn't go down very well....

It's astonishing to think that the events I've just written about happened over 23 years ago.  Not that they were fresh in my mind still - not at all - but there are certain points within the photographs that I do remember very well.  

As a side note, I should mention that this was Peter's last Le Mans.  When we parted company at the end of the trip I fully expected him to join us the following year, however with the advent of the 'team bus' Tourists era, Peter decided to call it a day, which was a great shame.  

So that's it for Le Mans 2000...

Ayse - 04.11.23