Aysedasi's Le Mans

Le Mans 2006

The Tourists' Story

Friday - At the Circuit

Those who have already read my 2005 story will be aware of the traumas we went through when we arrived at the circuit. It has to be said that we were pretty late getting there last year and rather stupidly I'd given no thought at all to car parking. But having accepted that, those of us who had been going to Le Mans for some years well remembered that just a few years ago it wasn't necessary at all to buy a garage ticket before we arrived on Saturday. I guess it shows either that the ACO and the Police have really tightened up on parking and traffic control in recent years or that there are simply a lot more people going to Le Mans now than perhaps any time since the Group C heydays? It has certainly seemed to me that the crowds have been increasing over the last few years.

Well anyway, this year I was determined to make sure it didn't happen again and as soon as I knew we were going to be taking two cars over I got on and obtained two garage rouge parking passes. Much better safe than sorry! Having handed over the passes to the two drivers before we left the Place St-Pierre, we were able to make our familiar way down the road alongside the garage rouge without interference from the gendarmes and into the garage rouge, which of course was pretty quiet and largely empty at midday on Friday....

By this time it was already roasting hot and having driven from Dinan that morning without a stop for a drink we were keen to slap on some suntan cream and get on into the circuit for a beer. I'd already made telephone contact with my friend Paul Truswell, the Radio Le Mans commentator, and we were planning to meet up before we left the circuit later in the afternoon. After the Tourists had bought their tickets it was off on a beeline for the Dunlop Bridge and the nearest hostelry we could find for a wonderful cold beer and a croque monsieur!

With both hunger and thirst dealt with for the time being, I was itching to get down to the pits walkabout having missed it last year. As always, as I expected to spend a bit longer there than most of the others, we agreed a rendezvous time back in the garage rouge at 5.30, so I knew exactly how much time I had.

But in order to get down to the pits for the walkabout, we had to walk through the new "Village" - if its still called that. I suppose in a sense it was impossible not to be impressed by it all - very clean, open, sanitary even (yes - excellent new loos!), but somehow it was another bit of the essential character of Le Mans stripped away to be replaced by what is little more than a modern, standardised F1-style shopping mall. Frankly, I'd rather have the old Village back. And that thought came long before I realised just what else had gone to make way for the new one - no, surely not - not my Welcome Building!!!! I couldn't believe it, there was I was looking around thinking "There's something else different here...." , but I couldn't quite put my finger on it - and then it hit me - the Welcome Building wasn't there any more. The best vantage point on the entire circuit for the amateur photographer was gone. So much for progress....

So there we have it - yet another change to Le Mans. This was my 21st year and the changes now seemed to be coming thick and fast and it really isn't to my liking......

So we pressed on to the pitlane and passed into the milling throng getting as good a look as possible at the cars. This year I abandoned my previous attempts at getting a shot in each garage - as always, certain garages like Pescarolo and Aston Martin were very difficult to get to so I just amused myself with taking a few shots, both still and video. The results of my labours are to be seen on the rest of this page.....

Paul Truswell and I had been missing each others phone calls for about an hour but we finally happened upon each other in the pitlane. For the many thousands of Brits at Le Mans each year the experience simply wouldn't be the same without Radio Le Mans and Paul is, without doubt (to me), RLM's most knowledgable and listenable (if there is such a word) commentator. The only thing that could make the experience better would be for the old partnership between Paul and Ian Titchmarsh to be reformed, but I guess that's just not going to happen...... Ironically, Paul would be dining that evening at our old haunt out at Moncé-en-Belin, while the Tourists headed into town.

I had my eye on the clock and it was soon time for me to say my farewells and dash off out of the circuit as I had to get to the ACO's Rotunde building (about 20 minutes walk away) to pick up a Tertre Rouge grandstand ticket that I'd bought on a whim a few weeks before the race. I had to do that and get back to the car by 5.30 - so it was a case of getting my skates on for a walk I wasn't exactly relishing in the heat........