Aysedasi's Le Mans

Le Mans 2007

The Tourists' Story

Friday - Back in France Again

In a way it was a shame it wasn't a cold night, as it was very, very hot in our cabin! We realised shortly after entering the cabin that it was pretty warm in there, but there seem to be no way to make the air conditioning any more effective. The result was that after an hour or so we were all lying bathed in sweat as if in a sauna! I'm not so sure about the others, Ian in particular, but I did manage to sleep even though I had to get up at about six o'clock to have a cold shower to cool down! If I remember rightly, I think Ian went to complain (or intended to) before we left the ferry that morning. Despite the unpleasant heat in the cabin we were all up and about good and early before the tannoy announcement that we would shortly be arriving in St. Malo. Most of the tourists met in the restaurant for a cup of coffee before we headed back to cars to disembark.

As we left the ferry, I sent a text message to Jayne at home and looking back at that message I see that I sent it at 7:38, English time, so it was nearly 8:40 French time when we set off on our way. That had been one long crossing! Having initially seen some sunshine through the windows of the ferry's restaurant, we were greeted by quite heavy rain by the time we disembarked. It really was a dismal start to the day. However the three cars grouped together in convoy and set off for Dinan for breakfast. We had decided to follow the 2006 game plan even down to the car park we used in Dinan. The only difference was that whereas last year was bright and sunny, this year it was very wet. By this time the other Tourists had become used to me indicating my firm belief that the weather definitely would improve and Jeremy and I were routinely bantering about how it was "brightening up!".

We walked from the car park over to the same bar as we breakfasted in last year. Although it was impossible to eat outside this year we managed to find tables inside and had a very enjoyable continental breakfast, albeit one that was missing confiture, as the bar had run out! By the time we finished our breakfast, the rain had eased substantially which meant that we didn't get soaked walking back to the cars. Once back to them, I distributed the garage rouge parking tickets ready for arrival at the circuit later.

So it was time to head off for Le Mans even though I sensed a degree of reluctance from some members of the group to get to Le Mans too quickly. I was keen to get there of course, as there was a pits walkabout to think about, plus the possibility of meeting up again with my Radio Le Mans pal, Paul Truswell. But it was obvious - and it wouldn't be the only time during the weekend - that my addiction with all things Le Mans wasn't entirely shared by everyone else! Nevertheless, the three cars hit the road again and we made some good progress (much of which I slept through in typical fashion), before stopping for a beer at a bar aptly named “Le Cheval Blanc" . Even though I was keen to get the circuit, I have to say it was a very refreshing beer and it didn't exactly take a great deal of time to consume it!

It didn't take long to reach the outskirts of Le Mans and we soon started seeing those familiar red, green, blue and white signs to the various garages (car parks). We arrived at the circuit at 1:30 and were soon purchasing our entrance tickets which, for the first time, were electronically scanned before we were admitted to the circuit. No doubt they would be similarly scanned when we left - so was this finally the end of the contremarque?

As far as tickets were concerned this year, I had obtained my tickets from Brian Sheehan at http://www.1sttickets.co.uk/ although they were in part funded by Alan Peters at Club Valan (www.motorsport-tours.com), who has been providing my website with a little sponsorship for quite a few years now. I can heartily recommend both 1st Tickets and Club Valan to all my readers!

As we walked into the circuit, it was obvious how much rain had fallen, as there were large puddles here and there and the normally very dusty orange sand at Le Mans was very damp. I knew it had rained a lot as the second practice session on Thursday evening had been virtually washed out - so the grid order would be determined by the Wednesday sessions - but at least it wasn't raining - for the moment. We made our way down into the new Village (for my money, it no longer really deserves that name, the new sanitised shopping area that was built last year has none of the atmosphere of the old Village and is yet another change that the Le Mans fan now has to put up with), and paused a moment to make sure that everyone was there. They weren't. Somehow in the space of just 5 or 10 minutes we had lost Brian. There was a degree of concern as Brian hadn't been to Le Mans before, however we felt certain that if he was in any doubt as to what he should do, he would make his way back to the cars. The only potential problem was that we hadn't told Brian what time we were meeting back at the cars before we lost him!

I knew I was likely to have relatively little time in the pits and this proved to be the case when we set 3:30 as the time to meet back at the cars. I guess by now it must have been something like 2:15. Some of that time was needlessly wasted as we tried to make our way into the pit lane only to find ourselves landlocked in the rather stupid new entrance walkway to the pits grandstand. But there was good news - as we walked into the pits, a gentleman with a large cool box spotted the lanyards around our necks with First Tickets on them and immediately proffered us a beer! Thank you Brian, they were very welcome!

Unfortunately, I found it impossible to make contact with Paul Truswell, so I pressed on visiting the various pits. There were a lot of people in the pit lane at this time and I didn't make any attempt to try and take a picture in every pit as I once used to. But I got a few good shots - I think. The pit lane is actually a smaller place than you'd think, and most of the time I was there I was aware of where the other Tourists were. There was still concern about Brian's whereabouts, and attempts had been made to contact him on a mobile, however it seemed that he either had it switched off or not with him at all!

So we decided to press on out of the pit lane and head on back to the cars.

The walk back to the village seemed much longer than it used to because of the way that the area behind the paddock has been altered by the ACO. One advantage of that journey was that it took us past the area in which the Legends cars were paddocked. Those lovely cars were taking part in the race the following morning and I couldn't resist taking out a few minutes of our time to whizz round that paddock and have a look at them. Ian and the others pressed on while I got the camera ready.... I had taken precisely one photograph when the rain started......

It was obvious this was going to be more than just a shower and I quickly got out my pack a mac - just in the nick of time as the rain absolutely poured down.

I put my camera away as it was obvious that there was no chance now taking of photographs. But I had started walking back towards the cars in the car park, a really stupid move as I was now in the open - I should have stayed in the Legends paddock under cover. By the time I found a modicum of shelter, the backs of my trousers were soaked. Then, as quickly as it had arrived, the rain stopped. I couldn't see any point in hanging around, so I walked back out of the Village, over the Dunlop Bridge, out of the circuit and back to the cars where, lo and behold, I found Brian waiting. Contrary to some of our expectations, Brian hadn't been worried at all. He'd had a good walk around but had somehow not managed to bump into any of us!

So there we were, minding our own business, chatting about Le Mans no doubt, and waiting for the others to return. They were late by now, but we just assumed that they'd been held up sheltering from the rain. And then the rain came back again, but the previous rain had been little more than a light shower compared to this! It absolutely bucketed down, to such an extent that Brian and I had to take shelter crouching down at one side of the car. The rain was so hard that I was worried about it getting into my camera bag, as it was certainly running down the back of my neck! It rained like this for a good 10 to 15 minutes and by the time it finally eased off, I was well and truly drenched. My T-shirt was soaked, my trousers sodden, and my trademark white and blue hat would almost certainly have to be retired for the remainder of the weekend.... It was sometime later that I wondered why on earth I hadn't borrowed a spare car key just in case from Martyn!

To tell the truth I was a bit concerned because I knew the plan was to drive straight on into Le Mans town to get a good spot from which to watch the driver’s parade. Right now I really felt like going back to Le Grand Lucé to dry off and change. But there was to be none of that! By the time the others arrived there seemed to be some (surprising) urgency to getting into town to watch the parade before going off to eat. So I grabbed another shirt and another pair of trousers from my bag in the boot and changed there and then in the back of Martyn's car. It's surprising how a change of clothes - even a partial one - can make you feel more human again!